Siberian Jays

The Siberian jay project is a long-term project in collaboration with PD Dr. Michael Griesser (that has been operating in managed and pristine natural Boreal forests in sub-Arctic Sweden for over 25 years. The study site is located in Swedish Lapland. Research has been focused on factors influencing the evolution of sociality and acoustic communication, using an integrative approach and incorporating the effects of ecological factors on individual and population-level behavioural responses. An overview of our past work can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaH6wjAYAiE

Siberian jays are family-living corvids and fledged juveniles either stay with their parents or disperse into other family groups to become a non-breeder. Non-breeders assist with territorial and antipredator defence, but do not care for young. While Siberian jays are not cooperatively breeders, groups vary in social features demonstrating social flexibility. As climatic warming is changing snow cover features in the polar regions, Siberian jays are likely negatively impacted as they cache food to survive the winter. Our current projects investigate the drivers of variation in social interactions of Siberian jays, and their behavioural adaptations to the negative impacts of climate change.