Studying social structure and the evolution of sociality
The parakeets adapted rapidly to life in the flight pen. On the first day, just hours after releasing them into the flight pen, the birds were already behaving normally and exploring the pen. This is a short video of the group throwing a “pool party” and taking baths in one of their water dishes.… [Read full details]
This year’s crew was led by Hobson Lab postdoc Annemarie van der Marel who was joined by awesome field assistants Chelsea Carminito, Claire O’Connell, and Alexa P. Our goal was to collect new social interaction data from parakeet groups. The plan was to conduct several “social perturbations”, each time removing an individual from the group and seeing how the group responded.… [Read full details]
In trying to wrap my brain around the effects of #Pruittdata, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I collaborate, who I trust, and how I approach the process of doing science. The following is my thought process, trying to deal with the aftermath.… [Read full details]
Dr. Annemarie van der Marel joined the Hobson Lab this week as our first Postdoctoral Researcher! Annemarie did her PhD at the University of Manitoba with Dr. Jane Waterman, focusing on squirrel behavior.
Here in the Hobson Lab, she’ll be leading the relaunch of our Monk Parakeet projects, looking at sociality, decision-making, and cognition in this highly successful invasive parrot species. … [Read full details]
I was invited to give a talk at the UC Ornithology Club‘s meeting. The club meets every-other Wednesday from 6:30-7:30pm on campus. They seem like a great group and have lots of field trips planned.
It was really fun to give my birdy-est talk possible, featuring my previous and on-going work with 14 species of parrots as well as highlighting upcoming work in my lab with Monk Parakeets, Bobwhite Quail, and Little Blue Penguins.… [Read full details]
I am currently recruiting 3-4 field assistants to collect data and run social experiments with Monk Parakeets. The goal of this project is to determine how social groups respond to perturbations. We will allow parakeets to interact in a group in a large semi-natural flight pen and collect observations of social interactions in order to quantify social structures like dominance hierarchies and affiliation networks.… [Read full details]
The first new Cincinnati Zoo babies of the year are baby penguins!
Here’s the news from the zoo: http://cincinnatizoo.org/news-releases/little-blue-penguin-hatchlings-kick-off-cincinnati-zoos-year-of-the-penguin/
The zoo is reporting Reuben and Chip as the parents of these two new chicks. Interestingly, in our very preliminary analyses last semester in Penguin Data Club, Reuben was very social while Chip was not (based on RFID tags and swimming data).… [Read full details]
Sajay Prasher joined the lab this week as our first PhD student.
Sanjay did his Masters work Dr. Julie Morand-Ferron in the Department of Biology at the University of Ottowa. His previous work focused on cognition in chickadees (MSc titled “Examining the predictors of technical and consumer innovation in black-capped chickadees”).… [Read full details]
“Penguin Data Club” is a weekly meeting for undergrads at the University of Cincinnati. Working in collaboration with Dr. Katie Kalafut and the Cincinnati Zoo, we will dig into the social lives of Little Blue Penguins.
*** UPDATE: Penguin Data Club meetings in Spring 2020 have been scheduled for Fridays, 3:00-5:00, in Rieveschl 713.… [Read full details]