Research Assistant

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Ross Crates

Ross Crates

Details

Name: Ross Crates
Position: Research Assistant
Email: ross.crates@zoo.ox.ac.uk

Autobiography

I graduated from the University of East Anglia in July 2010 with a BSc in Ecology, where I spent many an hour birding and ringing in the fine lands of Norfolk. During my degree, I was lucky enough to spend a year studying abroad at the University of Wollongong in Australia. While there, I collected data for my undergraduate project, looking at the urban ecology of Fairy-wrens.

I started as a trainee ringer at the age of 16 at Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory and in 2007 obtained my licence to ring independently. I joined the EGI in September 2010 as a research assistant in the social networks group, where I now have the pleasure of ringing blue and great tits for a living in the University's woods at Wytham and Bagley.

Research Activities

My research interests are as yet unrefined, including but not limited to: social evolution, moult and migration, host-pathogen interactions, behavioural ecology and conservation genetics. In the social networks group, I will be focusing on dispersal in blue and great tits with Brecht Verhelst and Colin Garroway. I also plan to examine the factors affecting the extent of post-juvenile moult in these species.

Selected Recent Papers

Watch this space...