Dr Steve Portugal, The University of Oxford

Sam Jones has started his PhD at RHUL. Sam’s PhD research broadly investigates the physiological and behavioural underpinnings of avian species turnover in tropical mountains. This primarily focuses on the relationship between interspecific aggression and physiology, and its subsequent behavioural consequences. Approaches focus on behavioural and physiological techniques, studying species turnover of Nightingale-Thrushes (Catharus sp.) in Central America that have parapatric distributions and abut at ‘contact zones’ at the edges of their elevational ranges. Sam is a NERC funded student as part of the London Doctoral Training Partnership. Sam is co-supervised by Dr Rob Freeman (ZSL).

I have a fully funded PhD available, with full details available here.

Funding is available for one project, but two project areas are suggested and can be applied to. These areas are:

1. Collective flocking in birds (looking at behaviour, physiology and energetics). Co-supervised by Dr Dora Biro (Oxford) and Dr Emily Shepard (Swansea).
2. Physiology, development and behaviour of brood parasites (primarily cuckoos). Co-supervised by Dr Claire Spottiswoode (Cambridge) and Dr Christine Riehl (Princeton).

Any informal enquiries, feel free to drop me an email. FindaPhD adverts can be found on the following links:

Cuckoos

Collective physiology

Fantastic new programme on BBC1, Life in the Air, Sunday’s 5pm. Was fun helping out the team with some of the science behind the animals.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b076ywc6 

I have a guest blog on the BBC website about eggs – link below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/natureuk/entries/1f81dc3f-7366-455f-9fd4-1849bbb50596 

Paper accepted in Trends in Ecology and Evolution (TREE), based on a great idea of lead author Dr Dora Biro (Oxford), about Collective Behaviour. More to follow.

I have a fully funded PhD available, with full details available here.

Funding is available for one project, but two project areas are suggested and can be applied to. These areas are:

1. Collective flocking in birds (looking at behaviour, physiology and energetics). Co-supervised by Dr Dora Biro (Oxford) and Dr Emily Shepard (Swansea).
2. Physiology, development and behaviour of brood parasites (primarily cuckoos). Co-supervised by Dr Claire Spottiswoode (Cambridge) and Dr Christine Riehl (Princeton).

Any informal enquiries, feel free to drop me an email. FindaPhD adverts can be found on the following links:

Cuckoos

Collective physiology

Chris Packham avisited Royal Holloway this weekend to chat and film all things egg. Great fun, and good for eggs to get some screen time

We’ve had a paper accepted in Physiological and Biochemical Zoology (PBZ), focusing on trends in metabolism between birds and mammals. More to follow.

Having thought for a while about how scientific study focuses on those species which are struggling, I decided to write a short Opinion Piece for The Conversation – the article can be read here:

https://theconversation.com/how-a-bias-towards-the-weird-and-wonderful-skews-our-perception-of-animal-biology-53701