Welcome, we study social mammals! Our inclusive lab integrates evolutionary ecology, animal behavior, and physiology to understand how natural selection and current conditions shape decision-making in mammals. We combine long-term observations with field experiments, genetic and endocrine analyses, and quantitative tools (i.e., social networks, phylogenetics) to test evolutionary theory.
LAB NEWs and STUDENT SUCCESSES - Go Blugolds!
|
Congratulations to Tia Ravara for securing funded for our ground squirrel project from U.S. Department of Education via the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
|
|
Smith joins Cody Ross, Paul Hooper, and Monique Borgerhoff Mulder in leading a HUGE collaborative, transdisciplinary effort to reveal patterns of, "Reproductive inequality in humans and other mammals."
|
|
|
Maddie Mueller continues collaborative research @UWEC with funding from our Vicki Lord Larson and James Larson Collaborative Research on Behavioral Endocrinology
|
|
Alyssa Corder, Tia Ravara, and Ginseng Vang all won Diversity Mentoring Grants to increase representation and inclusion on team squirrel - Go Blugolds!
|
|
First co-authored paper with UWEC undergraduate - Maddie Mueller - on, "Mechanisms of equality and inequality in mammalian societies" at Phil Trans B!
|
|
Excited to collaborate with Joseph Bump and Dani Freund of the Voyageurs Wolf Project on behavioral endocrinology of beaver and wolf predator-prey interactions.
|
|
First team squirrel dissertation - "Fear, Fleeing, and Survival: Human impacts on ground squirrels in an urban-adjacent park." Congratulations to Dr. Chelsea Ortiz-Jimenez who is co-mentored by Andy Sih at the University of California Davis.
|
|
First first-authored paper by Erin Person on ground squirrel microbial diversity - joined by Eileen Lacey & former undergrads - Kianna von Maydell & Jada Baldoza!
|
|
Dr. Sonja Wild started to co-lead the squirrel project in Summer 2023 after winning a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation to study the effects of human presence on social network properties and learning strategies.
|