Dr Steve Portugal, The University of Oxford

A fun week visiting Shaun Killen and his lab group at Glasgow University, and thoroughly enjoyed giving a Seminar there. Dan and Jack joined me to chat physiology and behaviour with Shaun and his group.

This week I am working at Slimbridge, studying duck vision. Trying to ascertain why some species drown in gill nets and others seemingly are aware of them. This forms a major part of Jenny Cantlay’s PhD (with Alex Bond and Rory Crawford).

As part of our Special Issue on Brood Parasitism in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, PhD student Stephanie has her first PhD paper – congratulations! Our paper provides evidence for convergent evolution of reduced eggshell gas exchange in avian brood parasites. You can read the aper here: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.2018.0194

Our Special Issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B is out today! All about Brood Parasitism, including fish, birds and insects. Thank you to my Co-Editors Claire Spottiswoode, Rose Thorogood and Ros Gloag for making the process so enjoyable, and to all our contributors. You can read the Issue here: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/374/1769 

Looking for a postdoc? I’m looking for someone to work with me on studying the structure of eggshells, using a mix of physiological, biomechanical and engineering-based techniques. This post is for two years, funded by the Leverhulme Trust. The full job advert has now been posted online here – https://jobs.royalholloway.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx?ref=0119-029. Feel free to get in touch. You can also read more about the project on the Leverhulme website here – https://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/research-project-grants/spots-stars-or-stripes-evolution-eggshell-surface-topography

Excited by “Our Planet” coming to Netflix in April and narrated by Sir David Attenborough. Spent an exciting 4 weeks in Cambodia helping film wild Siamese Fighting Fish for the Series. Definitely the best footage of them ever! (Photos: V Angkatavanich).

We (Elli Leadbeater and myself) have a PhD opportunity – details below, and via this link. Feel free to get in touch if interested! All about the social dynamics of flocking in birds.

Portugal and Leadbeater PhD Advert

A fascinating few weeks in Borneo. Seem to be getting into invertebrates more in the last year or so. This was a very docile scorpion, but someone appears to have cut the sting off. It seemed OK and appeared well fed. After a few days rest in Jakarta, I’m off to Melbourne to work with long-time collaborator Craig White. So far, sabbatical gets 10/10 A+.

Congratulations to PhD student Steph McClelland, whose had her first PhD paper accepted! Our study finds that a reduced eggshell conductance is seemingly a commonality amongst avian brood parasites. Previously we’d just identified it in common cuckoos. More details to follow soon.

We (Elli Leadbeater and myself) have a PhD opportunity – details below, and via this link. Feel free to get in touch if interested! All about the social dynamics of flocking in birds.

Portugal and Leadbeater PhD Advert