Current Member - Rob Heathcote
DPhil. Student
Rob Heathcote
Details
Name: Robert Heathcote
Position: DPhil. Student
Email: robert.heathcote@zoo.ox.ac.uk
Autobiography
I did my B.Sc. (Hons) in zoology at the University of Edinburgh (2008), where much of my research was spent wallowing in various bodies of water studying the behavioural ecology of fish, particularly their cognition and shoaling behaviour. Occasional stints onto dry land (safe from the hazards of electrofishing) included fieldwork in Queensland, Australia, assessing the functional significance of vocal mimicry in spotted bowerbirds. I then came to Oxford to study the M.Sc. in Biology (Integrative Biosciences). Here I completed two projects that first included a foray into a frost-bitten Bavaria studying the tool-oriented cognition in New Caledonian crows, and secondly a study that linked avian malarial infection with eggshell pigmentation in blue tits. After this mostly cognitive background, I have now gone a full circle and returned to a childhood passion for reptiles for my DPhil, supervised by Dr Tobias Uller and Professor Ben Sheldon.
Research Activities
When a population invades a new environment, the novel conditions frequently induce initial change through plasticity of various traits. A fundamental question in evolutionary biology is how this phenotypic plasticity may interact with genetic change to facilitate (or, indeed, impede) adaptive evolution. I hope to address this question using the European wall lizard Podarcis muralis; a species of lacertid I first became acquainted with via an orange-crate stowaway from Sainsbury's! Lacertids are an extraordinarily speciose group that are renowned for their colonising ability and the consequent rapid evolution that often follows. Within this theme, British wall lizards are of particular interest due to their recent introduction (mostly post-1970s) from France and Italy. I hope to combine data from both captive and wild lizard populations, along with genetic work, to understand how the dynamics of sexual selection are affected by the plasticity that accompanies colonisation in this species.
Selected Recent Papers
Von Bayern, A. M. P*., Heathcote, R. J. P*., Rutz, C., Kacelnik, A. (2009) The role of experience in problem solving and innovative tool use in crows. Current Biology 19: 1965-1968 (* Joint first authors)
Brydges, N.M., Heathcote, R.J.P., Braithwaite, V.A. (2008) Habitat stability and predation pressure affect learning and memory in populations of three spined sticklebacks. Animal Behaviour 75: 935-942
Brydges, N.M., Colegrave, N., Heathcote, R.J.P., Braithwaite, V.A. (2008) Habitat stability and predation pressure affect temperament behaviours in populations of three spined sticklebacks. Journal of Animal Ecology 77: 229-235
