Wong Honours Projects

Wildlife behavioural responses to a changing world

Background:  Humans have brought about unprecedented changes to environments worldwide. For many animals, behavioural adjustments represent the first response to altered conditions.  Such behavioural modifications can potentially improve an organism’s prospects of surviving and reproducing in a rapidly changing world. However, not all behavioural responses are beneficial. Human-altered conditions, for instance, can undermine the reliability of sexual signals used by animals to assess potential suitors. Environmental changes can also impair sensory systems or interfere with physiological processes needed to mount an appropriate behavioural response. An understanding of behaviour could therefore be important in helping to explain why some species are able to survive, or even flourish, under human altered conditions, while others flounder.

Project Aims:  To understand the pivotal role that behaviour plays in determining the fate of species under human-induced environmental change.  Honours projects in the Behavioural Ecology Research Group are developed in close collaboration with students and have covered topics as diverse as the effects of chemical pollutants on sexual selection in fish and the role of behaviour in mediating the success of invasive lizards. If you have an interest in this area, please contact Bob Wong to discuss opportunities. The Research Group is also open to supervising projects on animal behaviour more generally (Please see bobwonglab.org for details of our research interests and expertise).

Techniques:  Laboratory and/or field based studies and techniques in behavioural and evolutionary ecology. Specific details of techniques will depend on the project.

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