Centre for the Integrative Study of Animal Behaviour School of Biological Sciences
Macquarie University University of Canterbury
Sydney Private Bag 4800
NSW 2109 Christchurch
Australia New Zealand
Phone: 61-2-98509232 64-3-3642987 extn 4050
Fax: 61-2-98509231 64-3-3642590
Address in Australia Address in New Zealand
My research interests include neuroethology, visual neurophysiology, vision-based decision making, cognition and communication. For a more detailed account of my research interests please go to my site at the University of Canterbury, where I now work, or click on any of the following links:
- Communication and cognition in kea.
- Neural basis of information processing: Neuroethology of vision.
- Mimicry and deceptive signals.
- Predator and prey assessment.
- “Personality” traits or behavioural syndromes.
Working with Professor Robert Jackson at the University of Canterbury I have studied mimicry in jumping spiders (Myrmarachne) and have used 3D animation techniques to investigate vision-based predatory behaviour in a mosquito-eating jumping spider (Evarcha culicivora).
As an Australian Research Council-funded postdoctoral fellow at at the Centre for the Integrative Study of Animal Behaviour (CISAB) at Macquarie University, I have worked on predator assessment and personality traits in agamid lizards. Also, the idea of receiver psychology has been invoked to understand lizard perception of the deceptive caudal luring signal of Death adders.
More recently, I have explored the effects of social structure on personality traits in stable groups of sebright chickens as well as how honest signalling and signal variation is used in this system.
I am currently an APD leading a project that seeks to understand the neural basis of motion detection in the secondary eyes of jumping spiders (for further information see: http://galliform.bhs.mq.edu.au/Spider_project/).
