MRes - Collective Decision Making in Vertebrates:
Through a collaboration between SHOAL group (Dr. Andrew King), Dr. Ines Fuertbauer (both of Swansea University), and New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), my primary research incorporates movement ecology and collective animal behaviour, methods and theory.
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Abstract:
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Understanding collective movement decision making at all biological scales is a fundamental aim of scientists from many disciplines. Novel, high-resolution tracking offers an unprecedented opportunity to collect large and highly quantified data sets from free ranging animals, informing fields such as conservation, human behaviour as well as physical sciences and swarm robotics. Using high-resolution GPS signals (1hz) and compass headings, I aim to investigate the importance of body orientation in deciding when and where a herd of free-ranging goats move. Previous studies of collective motion have recognised inter-individual degree of alignment as imortant for collective mechanics, although generally not in the pre-departure period, or in free ranging animal groups. Body orientation will be added to statistical models with other measures from GPS coordinates (e.g. linear distance; speed) to identify if orientation during stationary periods has a significant impact on aspects of decision making, such as leadership and consensus (i.e. shared or unshared). I hope my work will contribute to a unifying framework of collective behaviour, and benefit many fields of research.
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Supervisors:
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Dr. Lisa O'Bryan;
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MRes - Collective Decision Making in Vertebrates:
PhD - The Functions of Flocking:
My PhD is funded by the late Prof. Percy Butler at Royal Holloway, University of London. Dr. Steve Portugal (Royal Holloway) is my primary supervisor, Dr. Dora Biro (Oxford University) and Dr. Emily Shepard (Swansea University) are secondary supervisors.
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Abstract: Why the flock? Investigating the functions of coordinated group flight.
For many birds, coordinated group flight is a successful evolutionary strategy. Behavioural ecologists have proposed that three major selective pressures govern the evolution of group flight, for each of which, different flocking patterns (or, types) may have evolved in response. Firstly, when risk of predation is high, tightly coordinated collective swarming patterns may maximise predator confusion effects. Second, when food resources are patchily distributed in space, a cluster travelling flight type may maximise information acquisition to individuals. Finally, in response to energetic constraints, some species have evolved V-formation flight types, which minimise energy consumption. It is thought that these 3D structures may emerge from relatively simple interactions with just a few close neighbours (also known as interaction “rules”). Through the use of bio-logging technology, we now know much about how responses to neighbours and/or the aerodynamic environment can interact to achieve these mechanisms in groups of birds in flight. However, the majority of this work is conducted in one ecological context, implicitly assuming that the interaction “rules” of individuals are fixed. So we still have little or no understanding of how a change in ecological context could elicit an adaptive response by individuals (i.e. the “rules” may have plasticity). Using a flock of homing pigeons with attached GPS (flock position) and accelerometers (energy expenditure; flap frequency), we aim to modify the risk (released near to woodland – predator territories), information (release from familiar/unfamiliar locations), group composition (bold and shy individuals), and energetic (release individuals with faster or slower group members) context. These experimental manipulations will allow us to understand how mechanisms (at the individual level) and 3D flock structure (at the group level) change according to social and environmental context, how these changes may fit the function.
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RESEARCH
