Study Population
My current work focuses on several wild populations of spiny tailed iguanas (Ctenosaura similis) living in Palo Verde National Park in the Guanacaste Region of Costa Rica.
I am collecting ecological, behavioral, and phenotypic data from several groups to test ecological and evolutionary hypotheses. All animals are individually marked and blood is collected for analyzing DNA for relatedness. By linking genetic information with the ecological and social environment an individual experiences, I am able to test a wide set of questions in a natural setting.
Research Interests
Understanding why animals form social groups is a primarily goal in the field of behavioral ecology, in order to explain shared causes of the great variety of animal social groups. These social formations, their mechanisms, and benefits, are widely studied in bird, mammal, and insect taxa, while lizards and snakes (squamata) are often overlooked.
Stable group formation is one variation of sociality whose benefits for members may remain cryptic to human observers. Recent pioneering research on live-bearing (viviparous) lizards and snakes has revealed long-term pair bonding, monogamy, nuclear family structures, parental care, preferential kin association, cooperative burrow building, and other within-population organization once reserved for ‘social’ taxa.
However, to date no work has examined long-lived, egg-laying (oviparous) lizard species that lack live birth as an ecological driver to sociality. Why do egg-laying animals with no parental care form stable groups – what social behaviors act in maintaining their structure and what are the consequences of this organization? Such groups possess inherent opportunities for anti-predation, foraging, mating, and social learning mechanisms, as well as the potential for preferential group membership among kin. My research will help fill a gap in our knowledge of the variety and significances of social systems in general and specifically in egg-laying lizards. Further, social network analysis is an innovative approach in understanding sociality and is underutilized in studying animals.
Current Projects
· genetic relatedness of within and between populations
· behavioral syndrome in Ctenosaura similis
· populations social structure changes from breeding to non-breeding seasons
· the extent to which social connections predict behavioral syndrome
· the extent to which social connections predict females obtaining the best males for copulations
· the extent to which social connections predict the transmission of social learning information
My current work focuses on several wild populations of spiny tailed iguanas (Ctenosaura similis) living in Palo Verde National Park in the Guanacaste Region of Costa Rica.
I am collecting ecological, behavioral, and phenotypic data from several groups to test ecological and evolutionary hypotheses. All animals are individually marked and blood is collected for analyzing DNA for relatedness. By linking genetic information with the ecological and social environment an individual experiences, I am able to test a wide set of questions in a natural setting.
Research Interests
Understanding why animals form social groups is a primarily goal in the field of behavioral ecology, in order to explain shared causes of the great variety of animal social groups. These social formations, their mechanisms, and benefits, are widely studied in bird, mammal, and insect taxa, while lizards and snakes (squamata) are often overlooked.
Stable group formation is one variation of sociality whose benefits for members may remain cryptic to human observers. Recent pioneering research on live-bearing (viviparous) lizards and snakes has revealed long-term pair bonding, monogamy, nuclear family structures, parental care, preferential kin association, cooperative burrow building, and other within-population organization once reserved for ‘social’ taxa.
However, to date no work has examined long-lived, egg-laying (oviparous) lizard species that lack live birth as an ecological driver to sociality. Why do egg-laying animals with no parental care form stable groups – what social behaviors act in maintaining their structure and what are the consequences of this organization? Such groups possess inherent opportunities for anti-predation, foraging, mating, and social learning mechanisms, as well as the potential for preferential group membership among kin. My research will help fill a gap in our knowledge of the variety and significances of social systems in general and specifically in egg-laying lizards. Further, social network analysis is an innovative approach in understanding sociality and is underutilized in studying animals.
Current Projects
· genetic relatedness of within and between populations
· behavioral syndrome in Ctenosaura similis
· populations social structure changes from breeding to non-breeding seasons
· the extent to which social connections predict behavioral syndrome
· the extent to which social connections predict females obtaining the best males for copulations
· the extent to which social connections predict the transmission of social learning information
