Dr. Andrew Sih (Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California at Davis) will be delivering a talk entitled " Behavioral syndromes: Implications for sexual selection, ecological invasions and host-parasite dynamics".

Hosted by the Cooke and Godin Lab.

Friday September 19th
3:30 p.m.
Azrieli 101
Coffee and tea will be available from 3p.m.

Abstract:
The past decade has seen an explosion of interest in consistent differences among individuals
within species in behavioral type (BT); e.g., in boldness, aggressiveness or sociability. In
particular, numerous studies have quantified behavioral syndromes, behavioral correlations
across contexts; e.g., a positive correlation between boldness when predators are present and
aggressiveness with competitors. Here, I present results of recent work in my lab on three
frontiers in the study of these behavioral syndromes: 1) how individual differences in male
behavioral tendencies (his BT, and his social skill) interact with his social environment to
influence variation in mating success; 2) how BT-dependent ecological performance and
dispersal might play an important role in ecological invasions; and 3) how behavioral
syndromes affect parasite loads and in turn, how parasites might affect behavioral
syndromes.