DPhil. Student

Current Members | Former Members | Photos


Samantha Patrick

Samantha Patrick

Details

Name: Samantha Patrick
Position: DPhil. Student
Email: samantha.patrick@zoo.ox.ac.uk

Autobiography

I graduated this year from Edinburgh University with a BSc in Ecology. Within this I studied at UCLA and Cornell University in the US and carried out field work througout Scotland, Pembrokeshire and Mexico. My undergraduate thesis was on the distribution of passerines across an urban-rural gradient and I have also worked on parental care and feeding habits in tree swallows.

Research Activities

Consistent behavioural differences exist among individual great tits (Parus major). These personality traits correlate across situations and have a strong genetic component. Fast birds can be characterised as bold, rapid to explore novel environments and as demonstrating little behavioural plasticity. Conversely, slow birds are shy and cautious, but more flexible in their behaviour. Previous work suggests that behavioural differences have consequences for individual fitnesss.

My work aims to explore the role of sexual selection and parental care with respect to individual personality differences. Great tits are behaviourally monogamous, but previous work shows that extra pair fertilisations (EPF) and variable parental effort contribute importantly to individual fitness.? By looking at personality differences, I hope that some of the unaccounted for variation in parental care and EPFs may be explained.

Selected Recent Papers

Samantha currently has no recent papers.