| Alexandra Török Tel: +44 (0)
1223 334 430 Position held: BBSRC-funded PhD Student (supervisor: Martin Stevens) |
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I am interested in the ecology of predator-prey interactions looking
at how prey use different mechanisms to avoid predation. I will mainly
be looking at this through an avian-lepidopteran system with particular
emphasis on experiments that take into account avian visual systems My PhD research focuses on startle displays, which are a type of secondary defence to prevent an attack by a predator from continuing once it has been initiated. They involve the sudden presentation of often conspicuous colours and/or shapes that contrast with the initial camouflaged state. These displays are thought to either scare the predator away or distract it long enough for the prey to escape. They are sometimes associated with eyespots, which are conspicuous circular shapes and concentric rings, and are often effective in deterring predation. Eyespots have traditionally been perceived to represent the eyes of another animal but experimental evidence has yet to support this idea. However, work on eyespots has rarely involved startle displays, where most eyespots are used. The aim of my project is to test what makes an effective startle displays and to understand how they work from the predator’s visual and cognitive perspective. I will be using robotic ‘moths’ as a prey model in the field to test what makes an effective startle display, which colours/patterns are the best and why they actually work. I will also be raising moths in the laboratory to observe actual startle displays, as little detail is known about them. My behavioural experiments will mainly involve testing what types of stimuli moths react. I hope to find out what fitness advantages these different displays can confer to the individual and how this might have an effect at a community level. Prior to Cambridge: I completed my BSc in Zoology at Queen Mary, University of London and in my third year worked together with Operation Wallacea, a non-profit organisation that sets up biodiversity projects across the world, in Indonesia to collect data for my dissertation work. I looked at the population dynamics of Malay civets, Viverra tangalunga, through a capture-mark-recapture scheme and home range sizes through the radio tracking of individuals. I then went straight onto and completed an MSc in Animal Behaviour at the University of Exeter. For my summer project I looked at the daily activity budget and singing behaviour of white-handed gibbons, Hylobates lar, at the nearby Paignton Zoo. |
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| Alex Török |
| Research |
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge
CB2 3EJ, U. K.