Lab Members
Lab Head
Miya Warrington
Miya Warrington is a Research Fellow with the Department of Biological and Medical Sciences at Oxford Brookes University (UK), and is also an adjunct professor with the Natural Resources Institute at the University of Manitoba (Canada). She was previously a postdoctoral researcher with the Department of Biological Sciences at University of Manitoba (Canada), an assistant professor at St.George's University (Grenada, West Indies). She completed her PhD at Macquarie University (Australia). Her work explores animal sociality, acoustic communication and adaptation to human activities and climate change.
Her work leverages long-term study populations: 1) Siberian jays in Swedish Lapland (co-PI with PD Dr. Michael Griesser, University of Konstanz, Germany), and 2) South ground squirrels in South Africa, (collaboration with Prof. Jane Waterman at University of Manitoba, Canada) and using open-access databases for large-geographic scale, or cross-species phylogenetic analyses.
Co-Principal Investigator
Michael Griesser
Michael Griesser is Heisenberg Fellow at the Department of Biology at the University of Konstanz (Germany), and is associated with the Center for the Advanced Study of Collective Behavior at the University of Konstanz, and the Department of Collective Behaviour, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour. He was previously an SNF Research Professor at the University of Bern and the University of Zurich (Switzerland) where he worked at the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies. He was before that Assistant Professor at the Swedish Agricultural University, Uppsala (Sweden). His work explores animal sociality, animal linguistics and climate adaptation in boreal environments. A main part of his work leverages his long-term study populations of Siberian jays in Swedish Lapland. He is the PI of the Siberian jay project since 2004 and Director since 2012.
Collaborators
Jane Waterman
Jane Waterman is a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Manitoba (Canada). Jane has studied many species of ground squirrels including Columbian ground squirrels, Richardson's ground squirrels, Barbary ground squirrels and South African ground squirrels. She studies polar bears (Churchill, Manitoba). Her work focuses on the selective factors that influence sociality and mating systems.
For more information: Waterman Lab
Nigel Bennett
Nigel Bennett is the PI of the mole-rat project and has collaborated with the South African ground squirrel project for 20+ years, acting especially as a an expert in laboratory techniques (physiology, genetic and other molecular techniques). He is an expert on the sociobiology, reproductive physiology, endocrinology and physiology in African mammals, focusing in particular on mole-rats (for 39+ years).
Daniel W. Hart
Daniel Hart’s research focuses on evolutionary biology and application, namely using knowledge of the evolutionary biology (namely, ecology, behavioural ecology, physiology, immunology and endocrinology) of mammals to improve treatments of human medical conditions and predict future consequences of climate change. His primary research model is the African mole-rat family, as they are fascinating non-model mammals helpful in understanding the evolution of social living, ageing, oxygen limitation, reproduction, pain receptors and cancer biology.
Postgraduate and Project Students
Marie Guggenberger (PhD student, University of Konstanz)
Izzy Clarke (Masters student, Oxford Brookes University)
Peter Thorley (Undergraduate Project student, Oxford Brookes University)
Past Students
Charlotte Stewart, M.Res. -- Keeping Up With the Capes: Following Behaviours in A Socially Living African Ground Squirrel
Ramon Williams, M.Sc. --
Ramon Williams has completed his Master of Natural Resource Management at the University of Manitoba under the supervision of Miya Warrington and Nicola Koper. Ramon's thesis focused on the Distribution, Diversity, and Abundance of Grenadian Terrestrial Birds, Including Endemic and Restricted-range Species. Together with Miya and Nicola, Ramon published the report from his master's research: Avian use of anthropogenic and natural habitats in a Small Island Developing State.