Current research
Understanding how an individual’s behaviors link to population-level dynamics, especially in light of conservation concerns, has shaped my research interests. I am very interested in how reciprocal suites of animals’ behavior, such as space use and sociality, influence each other and have population-level repercussions. Using tools such as integrated step selection analyses, resource selection functions, and social network analyses, I am addressing how the movement, space use, and social behavior of individuals relate to and potentially predict demographic dynamics in the population. Specifically, I am studying how these behaviors relate to population dynamics among caribou and wolves. Additionally, I am working on projection models to forecast movement and habitat selection into the future to help inform conservation management schemes. This forecasting work is part a large collaborative group bringing to together forest, fire, animal, and other forecasts. Check out the Predictive Ecology group for more information.
Previous research
Because sociality is widespread among animals, researchers have long tried to study the relationship between individual and group level dynamics and how they relate to individuals’ traits and fitness. Social network analysis allows researchers to examine just these factors in a quantitative way. In many species, there are indications that social networks early in life can have lasting but varying effects on individual’s personality, fitness, and physiological traits during adulthood. These hints have prompted me to address how social networks develop during ontogeny and how juvenile networks influence adult traits. Looking at social networks dynamically over ontogeny provides a strong, quantitative mechanism to inquire whether there are critical periods in social development that could negatively affect adult traits if interrupted. How social networks develop can also shed light on how and why they evolved. I also explored how human disturbance affected these social network processes and personality. My research on spotted hyenas in the Masai Mara, Kenya focused on these questions.