As an undergraduate at the University of California at Berkeley, and then a visiting researcher at the Max-Planck Institute for Ornithology, I studied the development of coordinated duets among lekking male lance-tailed manakins (Chiroxiphia lanceolata) in Panama in collaboration with Dr. Emily DuVal. As a graduate student in the department of Neurobiology and Behavior (NBB) at Cornell University, I first studied the evolution of vocal learning in lekking bearded bellbirds (Procnias averano) in Venezuela before focusing my primary dissertation work on the functional significance of microgeographic dialects in lekking little hermit hummingbirds (Phaethornis longuemareus) in Trinidad. Currently, as a postdoctoral researcher at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, I am part of the Webster lab and study the influence of social information on the use of vocal and visual displays in the temporary lek-like aggregations of red-backed fairy-wrens (Malurus melanocephalus) that form during the pre-breeding season in Australia.
The best teachers of animal behavior are often the animals themselves. Here, a mob of meerkats teaches me how to go on a "war dance" to protect the boundaries of their territory.
MEERKAT MENTORS
CONTACT
Department of Neurobiology and Behavior
Cornell University
215 Tower Road,
Ithaca, NY 14853
Email: vak9@cornell.edu
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Guest lecturing about hummingbirds at a local Trinidadian school
Exploring the Kuruman River Reserve in northern South Africa
Piloting a microphone array to test whether lekking hummingbirds coordinate their vocalizations by dialect, 2009
I am a musician and avid naturalist who has long been deeply fascinated by the seemingly endless variety inherent in the songs of birds. This fascination is where I got my start in science, and continues to shape my work.
Despite the diversity in the form and function of birdsong, in-depth studies of the evolution of avian vocal behavior tend to be restricted to a subset of species (oscine passerines, or “typical” songbirds) that share similar life histories (temperate, socially monogamous, and territorial).
My goal, as a natural historian, organismal biologist, and behavioral ecologist, is to study how social learning, especially learned song, functions in mediating an animal's fitness in “non-traditional” taxa with less well-studied life histories, most notably in polygynous birds. It is my hope that through broadening the scope of studies of sexual selection I can help to identify unifying themes in the evolution of signal diversity.
I conduct these studies using a combination of observational and experimental field studies, molecular genetics, and by developing cutting-edge sound analysis and radio telemetry tools. The unifying theme across all of my work, however, is an emphasis on understanding natural history. Natural history is the raw material with which we build our theories of how life operates, and it therefore plays a vital role in my research.
My recent work has focused on the evolution of vocal plasticity, social learning, and cultural evolution among species with lek and lek-like mating systems, where intense sexual selection is thought to have led to stunning elaboration of male sexual signals (including song) and mating tactics.