News
2024: More funding for the predator gut microbiome project
I am very excited to announce that I have been awarded the Academy of Finland Research Fellowship and the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship to expand my project on the predator gut microbiome. This means many more bird experiments and poop collection in the following years! A PhD student Chris Irving started in the project in March 2024 and a postdoc Apolline Maitre will join us in the beginning of 2025 - welcome both!
November 2023: A new paper from the Amata moth project is out
Our new paper investigating warning signals of Amata nigriceps moths is now out in Behavioural Ecology! We conducted predation trials with noisy miners and artificial moth models, and found that birds used abdominal stripes of the moths as a primary warning signal. We suggest that this could relax selection on consistent wing patterns and explain the observed variation in A. nigriceps wing colouration. Read more about the study here.
August 2023: Fieldwork in Australia finished
I finished my field experiment with Australian magpies! We investigated how predators respond to different components of prey deimatic behaviour, which included a robotic prey and a lot of behavioural trials. Although there were many very frustrating moments, I am going to miss fieldwork in the mountains and the magpies (especially my favourite, always reliable number 009 posing on the photos). More on the results hopefully soon!
February 2023: Postdoctoral funding for predator gut microbiome research!
I have been awarded two-year funding from the Finnish Cultural Foundation to conduct postdoctoral research at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. I will be working in the research group of Dr. Suvi Ruuskanen to investigate the role of gut microbiomes in predator behaviour and predator-prey interactions. I am very excited to return to Finland and learn all about microbiomes!