I have broad interests mostly centred around behaviour. My current projects involve the co-evolution of behaviour between predators and prey and the social dynamics of secondary contact and speciation.

Eye colouration as a signal

Eyes are constrained in their physical appearance, and so provide reliable cues to find predators and prey. Most animals therefore try to hide or camouflage their eyes, but many species across the entire animal kingdom also display brightly coloured or conspicuous eye colouration. We have very little idea about the function of salient eyes, and so along with Darren Croft and Safi Darden we are investigating this in Trinidadian guppies. Guppies are capable of rapidly changing their iris colouration between black and silver (see photo in the banner of this page), which they do under multiple contexts. Our research is investigating whether this colour change is used in signalling to both conspecific and heterospecific fish.

The evolution of sociality and signalling in prey

Being eaten is often bad for fitness. It's no surprise then animals go to great lengths to avoid it happening. Of particular interest to me are the multitude of social and other behavioural strategies that prey use to avoid being eaten, and the subsequent counter-strategies used by predators. Along with Darren Croft and Safi Darden, we're investigating the behavioural strategies, particularly in relation to signalling, of how prey avoid getting eaten, and how this affects conspecific interactions in the Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulata) and its natural predators such as pike cichlids (Crenicichla frenata), acaras (Aequedens pulcher) and wolf fish (Hoplias malabaricus).

Observing fish behaviour in an isolated pool in Trinidad

Predatory juvenile wolf fish (Hoplias malabaricus): strong evidence that if there is a god, he probably dislikes guppies

---

Above: Parentage networks (d) in mixed populations of Italian (green) and French (brown) wall lizards are strongly assortative, and are driven by the male-driven courtship networks (c). From Heathcote et al (2016) J. Evol. Biol.


​

The social dynamics of secondary contact

Secondary contact, when populations come back together after genetically diverging in isolation, is a pivotal stage in the formation of new species. But why do some lineages continue to reproduce assortatively, reinforcing their genetic differences, whereas others interbreed and collapse back into a single homogeneous population? And of those that don't hybridise, how do they partition their use of similar resources to avoid detrimental levels of competition? Ultimately, this question is a behavioural one. During and since my DPhil at Oxford University, I have been looking at the behavioural mechanisms (mate choice and male competition) and environmental conditions that mediate mating patterns between two lineages of the European wall lizard (Podarcis muralis), with Tobias Uller (now at Lund University) and Geoff While (now at University of Tasmania).



​

---