Prof. Claire Spottiswoode FRS
- Honorary Professor of African Evolutionary Ecology
- Pola Pasvolsky Chair in Conservation Biology (University of Cape Town)
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About
Claire is an evolutionary ecologist and naturalist with a particular interest in the ecology, evolution and conservation of species interactions. She runs two long-term field projects on African birds, in close collaboration with communities in Zambia and Mozambique. First, a project in southern Zambia studying coevolution between brood-parasitic birds and the hosts that they exploit to raise their young (see AfricanCuckoos.com), as well as other aspects of bird breeding biology. Second, a project in northern Mozambique studying the mutually beneficial interactions between honeyguides and the human honey-hunters with whom they cooperate to gain access to bees’ nests (see AfricanHoneyguides.com).
Alongside her role in the Department of Zoology, Claire works at the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa. At UCT she is Pola Pasvolsky Chair in Conservation Biology and Co-Director of the Max Planck–UCT Centre for Behaviour and Coevolution, established in 2024 in collaboration with Prof. Dr Bart Kempenaers and his team at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence in Germany.
Claire is from Cape Town, South Africa, and did her undergraduate studies at UCT (1998–2001), followed by a PhD (2002–2005) in the Department of Zoology in Cambridge under the supervision of Professor Nick Davies. She continued work in Cambridge with the kind support of research fellowships from Sidney Sussex College, The Royal Society, and the BBSRC, and an ERC Consolidator Grant, before and alongside her current role at UCT. In Cambridge, she is currently Honorary Professor of African Evolutionary Ecology in the Department of Zoology, and Fellow Commoner at Magdalene College.
Research
Key publications
Dixit, T., Liu, M., Riederer, J.M., Walker, J.M., Blair, C.J., Lund, J., Moya, C. & Spottiswoode, C.N. 2026 Categorical identity signatures can reduce host error rates during brood parasitism. PLoS Biology 24(2): e3003667.
Jamie, G.A., Huisman, J., Kilner, R.M., Sorenson, M.D. & Spottiswoode, C.N. 2025 Coevolution and the diversification of nestling ornamentation in a species-rich avian radiation. Evolution 79: 891–904.
Spottiswoode, C.N.* & Wood, B.M.* 2023 Culturally-determined interspecies communication between humans and honeyguides. Science 382: 1155–1158. *equal contributions.
Lloyd-Jones, D.J., St Clair, J.J.H., Cram, D.L., Yassene, O., van der Wal, J.E.M. & Spottiswoode, C.N. 2022 When wax wanes: competitors for beeswax stabilize rather than jeopardize the honeyguide-human mutualism. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 289: 20221443.
Cram, D.L., van der Wal, J.E.M., Uomini, N.T., Cantor, M., Afan, A.I., Attwood, M.C., Amphaeris, J., Balasani, F., Blair, C.J., Bronstein, J.L., Buanachique, I.O., Cuthill, R.R.T., Das, J., Daura-Jorge, F.G., Deb, A., Dixit, T., Dlamini, G.S., Dounias, E., Gedi, I.I., Gruber, M., Hoffman, L.S., Holzlehner, T., Isack, H.A., Laltaika, A.E., Lloyd-Jones, D.J., Lund, J., Machado, A.M.S., Mahadevan, L., Moreno, I.B., Nwaogu, C.J., Pereira, V.L., Pierotti, R., Rucunua, S.A., dos Santos, W.F., Serpa, N., Smith, B.D., Sridhar, H., Tolkova, I., Tun, T., Valle-Pereira, J.V.S., Wood, B.M., Wrangham, R.W. & Spottiswoode, C.N. 2022 The ecology and evolution of human-wildlife cooperation. People and Nature DOI: 10.1002/pan3.10369
Spottiswoode, C.N., Tong, W., Jamie, G.A., Stryjewski, K.F., DaCosta, J., Kuras, E., Green, A., Hamama, S., Taylor, I.G., Moya, C. & Sorenson, M.D. 2022 Genetic architecture facilitates then constrains adaptation in a host-parasite coevolutionary arms race. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 119: e2121752119.
Spottiswoode, C.N.* & Busch, R.* 2019 Vive la difference! Self/non-self recognition and the evolution of signature polymorphism in arms races with parasites. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 374: 20180206.
Spottiswoode, C.N., Begg, K.S. & Begg, C.M. 2016 Reciprocal signaling in honeyguide-human mutualism. Science 353: 387-389.
Spottiswoode, C.N., Stryjewski, K.F., Quader, S., Colebrook-Robjent, J.F.R. & Sorenson, M.D. 2011 Ancient host-specificity within a single species of brood parasitic bird. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 108: 17738–17742.
Spottiswoode, C.N. & Stevens, M. 2010 Visual modeling shows that avian host parents use multiple visual cues in rejecting parasitic eggs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 107: 8672–8676.
Full list of publications: Claire Spottiswoode - Google Scholar
Claire and her team work on both parasitic and mutualistic interactions between species. Since 2006, she has been working on coevolutionary arms races between brood-parasitic birds (such as cuckoos, honeyguides and parasitic finches) and the host species they exploit to bear the costs of raising their young. Together with collaborators, she has focussed on two main questions: first, asking how coevolution can escalate into ongoing arms races involving defensive egg signatures in hosts and mimetic forgeries in parasites. Second, incorporating genetic approaches, asking how host-specificity can evolve within parasitic species that exploit multiple hosts. This research happens at a field site in southern Zambia, enabled by a brilliant team of field assistants from the Choma community. Please see AfricanCuckoos.com for more information about this and other ongoing field projects in Zambia.
Since 2013, Claire and her team have studied the remarkable mutualism between human honey-hunters and greater honeyguides (Indicator indicator) that lead them to wild bees’ nests. They work primarily in Mozambique’s beautiful Niassa Special Reserve, in close collaboration with the honey-hunting community of Mbamba Village and the Niassa Carnivore Project. Please see AfricanHoneyguides.com for more information about this project and other ongoing work on honeyguide–human interactions in other parts of Africa.
Claire has wide interests in ornithology and has also worked on avian sociality, nest camouflage, bird pollination, sexual selection, bird migration, and the conservation ecology of threatened species (particularly in the Horn of Africa and northern Mozambique). She is a life-long birdwatcher and has co-written three birding guidebooks to Ethiopia and southern Africa.
