Understanding the crowd - improving accuracy in collective motion theory. This project intends to develop more accurate methods for predicting the motions of large groups. The amazing coordinated movements seen in large groups of animals are governed by simple interactions between individuals, termed rules of motion. In 2011, techniques were developed to estimate individual rules of motion from video tracking data. The project plans to build on these breakthroughs by using advanced tracking, mod ....Understanding the crowd - improving accuracy in collective motion theory. This project intends to develop more accurate methods for predicting the motions of large groups. The amazing coordinated movements seen in large groups of animals are governed by simple interactions between individuals, termed rules of motion. In 2011, techniques were developed to estimate individual rules of motion from video tracking data. The project plans to build on these breakthroughs by using advanced tracking, modelling and analysis to systematically determine the influence that different movement parameters have on rules of motion and how rules of motion are affected by group size. It aims to develop a framework for analysis and modelling built on the visual perception of individuals.Read moreRead less
Leadership matters: the emergence of informed leaders and their influence on group movement. This project will discover the effect of leadership and social structure on collective motion in schools of damselfish, swarms of honey bees and human pedestrians using videoed experiments and computer simulations. These findings will be important in preventing crowd stampedes, understanding risky road crossing behaviour and designing 'swarms' of robots.
From individual interactions to global patterns: understanding the basis of collective behaviour. Some of the most incredible sights in nature happen when animals form into groups, such as shoals or flocks. This study examines the phenomenon of collective animal behaviour to understand how simple interactions between group members scale to produce these behavioural spectacles.
Tracking moving targets: dynamic foraging in ants and slime moulds. This project will investigate how two self-organised systems, ants and slime moulds, deal with dynamic problems. Understanding how both organisms adapt to changes in their foraging environment will increase our knowledge of how self-organised systems function in both biological contexts and in human designed systems.
Understanding animals through their movement. This project aims to develop a suite of analytical methods to understand animals' behaviour through their movement patterns. Animal movement patterns encode detailed information about their behavioural state. Collecting and analysing animal movement trajectories can provide us with completely new insights to behaviour. Recent developments in bio-logging technologies have provided an incredible amount of rich data on free-ranging animals. This project ....Understanding animals through their movement. This project aims to develop a suite of analytical methods to understand animals' behaviour through their movement patterns. Animal movement patterns encode detailed information about their behavioural state. Collecting and analysing animal movement trajectories can provide us with completely new insights to behaviour. Recent developments in bio-logging technologies have provided an incredible amount of rich data on free-ranging animals. This project will develop a suite of analytical techniques to interrogate this data through a combination of approaches, from fine scale experiments in the laboratory to tracking animal trajectories from the International Space Station. The findings will deliver major benefits to the broader community by transforming our ability to manage and conserve animal stocks.Read moreRead less
Sexual conflict and the evolution of nuptial gifts. This project aims to understand how sexual conflict drives the evolution of “manipulative” nuptial gifts in male arthropods and how females respond to ingesting these gifts. Nuptial food gifts comprise materials (other than sperm) that are offered by males to females to consume at mating, and are an integral feature of the mating systems of a wide variety of arthropods. The project will study the decorated cricket, a species where males produce ....Sexual conflict and the evolution of nuptial gifts. This project aims to understand how sexual conflict drives the evolution of “manipulative” nuptial gifts in male arthropods and how females respond to ingesting these gifts. Nuptial food gifts comprise materials (other than sperm) that are offered by males to females to consume at mating, and are an integral feature of the mating systems of a wide variety of arthropods. The project will study the decorated cricket, a species where males produce a nuptial food gift that contains a cocktail of chemicals known to influence female reproduction when eaten. The project is expected to strengthen Australia’s international standing in evolutionary research and help train the next generation of evolutionary biologists.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220100096
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$436,032.00
Summary
Understanding the relationship between the social environment and cognition. The predominant theory for the evolution of intelligence, the social intelligence hypothesis (SIH), posits that within-group social interactions drive cognitive evolution. But the SIH overlooks a major component of social life: interactions with outsiders of the same species. Using a unique combination of meta-analytical and experimental approaches, the DECRA project will test the predictions of an expanded SIH, incorpo ....Understanding the relationship between the social environment and cognition. The predominant theory for the evolution of intelligence, the social intelligence hypothesis (SIH), posits that within-group social interactions drive cognitive evolution. But the SIH overlooks a major component of social life: interactions with outsiders of the same species. Using a unique combination of meta-analytical and experimental approaches, the DECRA project will test the predictions of an expanded SIH, incorporating the “Napoleonic” cognitive challenges posed by outsiders. The expected outcome is to gain a new understanding of which factors govern cognitive evolution – one of the longest-running debates in evolutionary biology.Read moreRead less
Vocal mimicry in songbirds. Many of the world’s largest clade of birds - the songbirds - incorporate vocal mimicry in their songs, but while scientific interest in vocal mimicry dates from Aristotle, limited progress has been made. With our unique research program we aim to provide an empirically based, theoretically informed understanding of avian vocal mimicry. In an important advance, we will examine both sexes to test long-held male-centric assumptions about evolutionary origins and maintena ....Vocal mimicry in songbirds. Many of the world’s largest clade of birds - the songbirds - incorporate vocal mimicry in their songs, but while scientific interest in vocal mimicry dates from Aristotle, limited progress has been made. With our unique research program we aim to provide an empirically based, theoretically informed understanding of avian vocal mimicry. In an important advance, we will examine both sexes to test long-held male-centric assumptions about evolutionary origins and maintenance of this trait. Crucially, we focus on lineages found only in Australia and PNG, where songbirds originated, to develop a robust scientific understanding of vocal mimicry across the entire songbird clade, and so provide an important new perspective on why and how song began.Read moreRead less
Quantifying the threat posed by feral cats to Australian reptiles. This project aims to provide the first quantification of the impact of feral cats on Australian reptiles, the country’s most diverse vertebrate lineage. This project expects to provide crucial missing pieces of the puzzle by adopting an innovative behavioural approach to determine how cats hunt for lizards, and how lizards respond to cat predation risk. The expected outcomes are an improved understanding of the capacity of native ....Quantifying the threat posed by feral cats to Australian reptiles. This project aims to provide the first quantification of the impact of feral cats on Australian reptiles, the country’s most diverse vertebrate lineage. This project expects to provide crucial missing pieces of the puzzle by adopting an innovative behavioural approach to determine how cats hunt for lizards, and how lizards respond to cat predation risk. The expected outcomes are an improved understanding of the capacity of native lizards to recognise cats as predators and respond appropriately, and a determination of the magnitude of threat that cats pose to native lizards. Importantly, our study aims to trial management strategies to mitigate the impact of cat predation on native reptiles.Read moreRead less
Transgenerational Consequences of Different Environmental Experiences. The project aims to deliver an integrative overview of behavioural, evolutionary and environmental epigenetics. In particular, by studying why stress-related experiences of organisms (e.g. exposure to toxins) can be passed onto the future generations regardless of its seemingly fitness-reducing impacts. It also aims to test if the seemingly beneficial effect of non-stress related experiences (e.g. environmental enrichment) ca ....Transgenerational Consequences of Different Environmental Experiences. The project aims to deliver an integrative overview of behavioural, evolutionary and environmental epigenetics. In particular, by studying why stress-related experiences of organisms (e.g. exposure to toxins) can be passed onto the future generations regardless of its seemingly fitness-reducing impacts. It also aims to test if the seemingly beneficial effect of non-stress related experiences (e.g. environmental enrichment) can be inherited transgenerationally. This project involves both research synthesis (e.g. meta-analysis) and experiments on zebrafish employing cutting-edge statistical, computational and molecular methods along with behavioural assays. Also, the outcomes of the synthesis are expected to guide future work in the field. Read moreRead less