Breadcrumb

Behavioural Biology

Natural selection produces organisms that are well-adapted to their environment. So we can use optimisation or game theory models in which their fitness for the environment is maximised to predict broad animal behaviours, for example typical growth and response of the immune system to infection.

ants

Interdisciplinary Research

We collaborate in this research with members of the Bristol Research Centre in Behavioural Biology, an umbrella organisation that draws from the Statistics Group, Biological Sciences, Veterinary Science and Computer Science.

 

 

Ongoing projects

  • "Optimal scheduling of activities over the annual cycle" by John McNamara, with Alasdair Houston, Zoltan Barta, Anders Hedenstrom, Thomas Weber, Martin Wikelski.
  • "The interaction of females' preferences for mates and male parental effort" by John McNamara and Sean Collins, with Alasdair Houston, Cody Cotar, Zoltan Barta.
Recent publications
  • Annual routines of non-migratory birds: optimal moult strategies (2006)
    Barta Z., Houston, A. I., McNamara, J. M., Welham, R. K., Hedenstrom, A., Weber, T. P. and Fero, O.
    Oikos, vol: 112, Pages: 580 - 593
  • Learning rules for optimal selection in a varying environment: mate choice revisited (2006)
    E. J. Collins J. M. McNamara and D. M. Ramsey
    Behavioral Ecology, vol: 17, Pages: 799 - 809