Current Research Projects

We are interested in understanding how animals respond to environmental challenges in an ever-changing world. Our current research has three main areas of focus:

• The neurobiology of neophobia. Some individuals respond to new objects, foods, or environments with wariness (also called neophobia, or “fear of the new”), whereas others are willing to approach and explore. Because novel urban and suburban environments are replacing natural environments on a global scale, neophobia is a behavior with critical ecological and evolutionary relevance for wild populations, and this research seeks to understand not only neurobiological differences between neophobic and non-neophobic house sparrows, but also the situations that can cause sparrows to change their behavior.

• The effects of climate change on sibling competition. Birds lay at most one egg a day, and usually only start incubating after their clutches are almost complete. However, warming spring and summer temperatures can jump-start egg development, which in turn can cause bigger size differences between siblings that hatch early and those that hatch late. This research in European starlings seeks to understand how being a big or small bird in a nest affects sibling competition and nestling growth, physiology, and survival.

• Interactions between the immune system and the stress response. Some diseases, like avian malaria, are expected to benefit from climate change. Wild animals are also increasingly exposed to stressors like habitat degradation and novel predators, which can cause increased secretion of corticosterone, one of the main stress hormones in birds. This house sparrow research is focused on understanding how corticosterone can be helpful or harmful during infection, and the physiological differences between animals that are resistant and vulnerable to pathogens, partly to anticipate the future spread of disease.