Behavioural ecology, social networks and parasite-host interactions

人们对个人行为对社会网络的影响以及疾病在人群中的传播知之甚少。群居物种不是随机混杂在一起的，而是有一个社会网络(他们与谁联系、联系的强度、他们拥有的伙伴的数量等)。这可能与健康和生存有关。我的研究重点是落基山脉大角羊和其他脊椎动物的行为生态学。我建议的研究目标是：1)了解和研究个体行为，特别是配偶选择；2)探索行为和生态上的性别差异如何影响更大的社会网络，以及寄生虫和疾病暴露和传播方面的性别差异；3)寄生虫如何影响生活史特征，以及行为如何影响寄生虫的负载和多样性。我研究了从个人决策到它们对整个人口的影响的各种过程。在一次繁殖尝试中，许多物种的雌性经常与不止一只雄性交配，即使它们不能增加后代的数量。普遍的假设是，雌性应该为她们的后代选择好的基因，避免杀婴，生出性感的儿子，或者获得她们配偶控制的资源。雌性可能会选择基因相容的配偶，以避免近亲交配，提高后代的存活率。来自相容伴侣的后代将能够更好地抵抗疾病和寄生虫。雄性在选择配偶时应该不那么挑剔，因为它们可以与多只雌性交配，从而产生更多的后代。雌性大角羊也不例外。尽管它们每年只有一个后代，但它们通常会在接受周期内与多只雄性交配。因此，雌性绵羊应该比雄性绵羊更挑剔。我们正在利用大角羊的数据，在博弈论模型中探索雄性和雌性伴侣的选择。一些绵羊离开自己的牧场到其他地方繁殖，在发情后返回。目前还不清楚它们为什么离开，去了哪里，但预计男性和女性有不同的动机和不同的迁移程度。男性可能比女性走得更远，接触到的配偶更多。例如，在大角绵羊中，雄性绵羊比雌性绵羊更具社会性，它们的群体更有凝聚力。因此，正在迁徙或在不同群体之间切换的雄性可能会使自己和雌性暴露在寄生虫和疾病面前。我的首要研究目标是调查男性和女性在多大程度上以及以什么方式对更大人口中的基因和疾病流动做出贡献。我们正在探索寄生虫强度和多样性方面的性别差异。在某些物种中，雄性是寄生虫的传播者和传播者。我们正在研究寄生虫在多大程度上改变了宿主的生活史，无论性别对寄生虫的易感性是否存在差异，以及这些因素与行为结合在一起如何影响宿主的适应性。

Little is known about the effects of individual behaviour on social networks, and disease flow within populations. Group-living species do not mingle randomly but have a social network (whom they associate with, the strength of associations, the number of associates they have, etc.) that can be associated with fitness and survival. My research focuses on the behavioural ecology of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, and other vertebrates. The objectives of my proposed research are: 1) understanding and researching individual behaviour, in particular mate choice 2) exploring how sexual differences in behaviour and ecology impact the larger social network and sex differences in exposure to and transmission of parasites and disease; 3) how parasites affect life history traits, and behavior affects parasite loads and diversity. I study various processes from individual decisions to their effects on entire populations. Females of many species often mate with more than one male during a breeding attempt, even though they cannot increase the number of their offspring. The prevailing hypotheses are that females should select good genes for their offspring, avoid infanticide, produce sexy sons, or get access to resources that their mates control. Females might choose mates with compatible genotypes to avoid inbreeding and increase survival in offspring. Offspring from compatible partners would be better able to resist disease and parasites. Males are expected to be less selective in their mate choice, since they can mate with multiple females, thus siring more offspring. Female bighorn sheep are no exception. Although they only have one offspring per year they typically mate with multiple males during their receptive cycle. Female sheep should thus be more choosy than males. We are exploring both male and female mate choice in a game theory model using bighorn sheep data. Some sheep leave their home range to breed elsewhere, returning after the rut. It is not clear why they leave and where they go, but it is expected that males and females have different motivations and different extents to their migrations. Males likely travel further and come into contact with more mates than females. In bighorn sheep, for example, males are more social and their groups more cohesive than female groups. As such, males that are migrating or switching between groups, could expose themselves and thus females to parasites and disease. My overarching research goal is to investigate to what extent, and in what ways males and females contribute to gene and disease flow within the larger population. We are exploring sex differences in parasite intensity and diversity. In some species males are the shedders and spreaders of parasites. We are researching to what degree parasites change the life history of their host, whether or not the sexes differ in their vulnerability to parasites and how these combined with behavior can affect host fitness.