My research is concerned with habitat selection, movement and antipredator behaviour and how they affect the distribution of animals. My team studies these subjects in coral reef fishes, mongooses, chipmunks, squirrels, and other members of the squirrel family.
During the next two years, before I retire, we will complete a study of how reducing the number of fish in an area increases the movement of fishes from other locations into the area, and how these movements are affected by habitat quality and connections to larger areas. This study will help us to understand how marine reserves protect fish populations and how they can be used to improve adjacent fisheries. Using data collected during damselfish removal experiments, we will also examine how the abundance of damselfishes, a very aggressive and territorial fish, influence species that compete for their algal food. Additional studies will examine why juvenile damselfish are brightly coloured in contrast to the dull black colour of adults.
We will also complete a study concerning how the behaviour of mongooses influences predation on the nests of endangered sea turtles. We are interested in factors such as the amount of vegetation (cover for mongooses) and the amount of disturbance (decreases use of open areas) influence predation on nests laid in different habitats. This study will be followed up by a comparison of predation risk of turtle nests on different beaches in relation to amount of cover, human disturbance, density of mongooses, and other variables. These studies will allow conservationists to focus efforts on the locations where they are most needed and possibly to change predation risk by changes in habitat.
I will study how vigilance behaviour (the way that animals watch for predators) is adjusted to different habitats using both theoretical models and videorecordings obtained during a survey of vigilance behaviour in many western North American species from the squirrel family. We will also complete a study of vigilance in mongooses that complements the studies of their predatory behaviour and habitat selection.