ABS is pleased to announce the awardees of the 2004 Animal Behavior Society Student Research Grants. The award winners were selected from a highly competitive pool of 100 proposals which addressed a very broad range of topics within the field. This year we were able to provide either partial or full support for 25 projects. The successful applicants, their academic affiliations, and the titles of their research proposals are provided below. Congratulations!
I would like to thank the members of the SRG Committee for their efforts in reviewing proposals: Gwen Bachman, Dan Cristol, Anne Eggert, Robert Gibson, Lynette Hart, Melissa Hughes, Douglas Mock, Jan Murie, Steve Nowicki, Gail Patricelli, Jennifer Templeton and Karen Wiebe. Thanks also to Shan Duncan and Steve Ramey of the ABS Central Office for their facilitation of the proposal submission and review process, and to all of the ABS members who have donated funds to this program.
Dr. Trish Schwagmeyer
Senior Member-at-Large
Chair, 2003-2004 Student Research Grant Committee
Rindy Anderson, University of Miami. The cardiac response as a measure of song perception in male song sparrows (Melospiza melodia).
Karen Marie Cavey, University of Illinois. Parental care and parentage in American robins (Turdus migratorius): the influence of female behavior.
Barbara Ann Clucas, University of California at Davis. Interspecifically acquired substances: snake scent application in ground squirrels.
Tagide DeCarvalho, University of Maryland. The function of nuptial feeding in the Hawaiian cricket, Laupala cerasina, and its role in mating effort, paternal investment and direct benefits to females.
Elizabeth P. Derryberry, Duke University. The impact of culture and selection on vocal performance: implications for song evolution.
Renée Ann Duckworth, Duke University. Proximate cause of a fitness cost to competitive behavior in western bluebirds.
Steffen Foerster, Columbia University. Effects of competition on behavior and stress physiology of Sykes' guenons.
Julie Christine Garvin, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. Extra-pair mate choice and immune response in common yellowthroats.
Britt Heidinger, Indiana University. The influence of age on the glucocorticoid stress response in the common tern Sterna hirundo.
David Kabelik, Arizona State University. Possible neural mechanisms for steroidal control of aggressive behavior.
John H. Malone, University of Texas at Arlington. Genetic basis for female preference and behavioral isolation in Drosophila.
Jennifer L. Maupin, Princeton University. Fitness consequences of polyandry in orb-web spiders.
Colleen M. McLinn, University of Minnesota. The economic basis of animal information use and communication.
Emily Stuart Minor, Duke University. The effects of urbanization on forest songbirds: scaling behavior up to the landscape.
John Morgan Ratcliffe, University of Toronto. The sensory ecology and evolution of sulfur preference in nectar-feeding bats: from social transmission to plant-pollinator mutualism?
Matthew W. Reudink, Villanova University. Do Extra-pair Fertilizations Confound Measures of Reproductive Success in a Chickadee Hybrid Zone?
Dustin R. Rubenstein, Cornell University. Sexual Conflict and Extrapair Paternity in the Plural Cooperatively Breeding Superb Starling, Lamprotornis Superbus.
Megan Seifert, Washington State University. Reproductive Physiology of Monteiro's Hornbill, a Bird With Unique Parental Strategies.
Christa D. Skow, University of Massachusetts. Jumping spiders and aposematic prey: testing the ecological consequences of a context shift effect during learned avoidance.
Chad Christopher Smith, University of Kentucky. Testing for sexual conflict over mating in Gambusia affinis.
Jason M. South, University of Maryland. Behavioral Responses of Bornean Treeshrews to Selective Logging on Borneo.
Laura Henderson Spinney, Princeton University. Endocrine mechanisms mediating alternative mating strategies in the White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis).
Helen Temple, Cambridge University. Benefits of helping in the white-breasted thrasher, Ramphocinclus brachyurus.
Jennifer Man-Ling Wang, University of California at Berkeley. Does Microbial Infection Limit the Viability of Wild Bird Eggs?
Matthew A. Wund, University of Michigan. Learning and the Development of Plastic Bat Echolocation.