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Vehrencamp, Sandra L.
Cornell Emeritus Professor
Cornell Faculty Member
Positions
- Prof Emerita, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology (CLO)
- Prof Emerita, Neurobiology and Behavior (BIO NB), College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS)
I consider myself a behavioral ecologist, with a special focus on birds. My primary appointment is at the Lab of Ornithology, but my campus department is Neurobiology and Behavior. At the Lab of Ornithology, I am a member of the Bioacoustics Research Program. As a group we are studying acoustic communication in a variety of animals from whales to elephants to birds. We also have an engineering team that develops cutting edge recording tools, and a software team that develops custom sound analysis software. These techniques have enabled us to study problems, organisms, and habitats the would otherwise be extremely difficult. For example, I use microphone array recordings to record several interacting male songbirds simultaneously and also compute their locations. We also use interactive sound playback to test responses to alternative vocal strategies.
Research Areas
- bioacoustics
- communication
- evolution
- natural resources
- ornithology
- pest management
- wildlife management
- Affiliations
- Research
- Publications
- Teaching
- Service
- Background
- Other
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Affiliations
other Cornell affiliations
Research
research overview
- I am broadly interested in the evolution of behavior, social organization and communication systems in higher vertebrates, especially birds. Specifically, my research has focused on the ecological factors that determine the spatial distribution patterns of animals (group size and territoriality), and on the social, cooperative, agonistic, energetic and communication phenomena that result from this spatial distribution. Studies dealing with the ecological determinants of group size include a long-term field project on the adaptive significance of communal nesting in groove-billed anis and a study of the settlement patterns of foraging gazelles on patches of grass. The energetic costs of behaviors have been measured in studies of the lek-breeding sage grouse, nocturnal-incubating male roadrunners and anis, and male conflict behavior in crickets. The role of communication in maintaining social groups and territoriality has been examined in experimental field studies of observational learning in the cooperative tropical magpie jay, in interactive playback studies of song sharing and matching in territorial male song sparrows, banded wrens, and mockingbirds, and in studies of the honesty of signaling by nestling birds to their parents. Several of these studies have resulted in the development of optimization and game-theoretic models of social organization and communication systems. A common element in all studies has been the conflict between evolutionary forces favoring cooperation and forces favoring selfish behavior.
area(s) of concentration/expertise
keywords
- Animal communication
- Behavioral ecology
- avian energetics
- cooperative breeding in birds
- design of bird song
- evolution of learning strategies
- honest signaling
- skew theory
geographic focus
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country
submitted impact statement
Publications
individual publications
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academic article
- Infrequent extra-pair paternity in banded wrens Thryothorus pleurostictus, synchronously-breeding tropical passerines. Condor. 113:637-645. 2011
- Parental care, cost of reproduction, and reproductive skew: A general costly young model. Journal of Theoretical Biology. 284:24-31. 2011
- Group provisioning limits sharing conflict among nestlings in joint-nesting Taiwan yuhinas. Biology Letters. 6:318-321. 2010
- Climatic patterns predict the elaboration of song displays in mockingbirds. Current Biology. 19:1151-1155. 2009
- External characteristics of homes prone to woodpecker damage. Human-Wildlife Conflicts. 3:136-144. 2009
- Singing in the face of death: male banded wrens sing more to playback in their last breeding season. Journal of Avian Biology. 40:217-224. 2009
- Song consistency is related to experience, social status, and reproductive success in the tropical mockingbird. Animal Behaviour. 77:701-706. 2009
- Syllable type consistency is related to age, social status, and reproductive success in the tropical mockingbird. Animal Behaviour. 77:701-706. 2009
- The deterrent effect of bird song in territory defence. Behavioral Ecology. 20:200-206. 2009
- The effect of predator type and danger level on the mob calls of the American crow (Corvus brachyrhychos). Condor. 111:159-168. 2009
- Trill consistency is an age-related assessment signal in banded wrens. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B. 276:2315-2321. 2009
- Animal duets are multifunctional signals: Evidence from microphone array recordings and multi-speaker playback. Current Biology. 18:1314-1319. 2008
- How reliable are the methods for repertoire size estimation?. Ethology. 114:1227-1238. 2008
- Is bird song a reliable signal of aggressive intent? . Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 62:1207-1211. 2008
- Isolation and characterization of SNP variation at 90 anonymous loci in the banded wren (Thryothorus pleurostictus). Conservation Genetics. 9:1657-1660. 2008
- Preliminary report: antipredator behaviors of mandrill. Primate Report. 75:11-18. 2008
- Assessment of management techniques to reduce woodpecker damage to homes. Journal of Wildlife Management. 71:2061-2066. 2007
- Eleven microsatellite loci isolated from the Banded Wren (Thryothorus pleurostictus). Molecular Ecology Notes. 7:69-71. 2007
- Relative threat and recognition ability in the responses of tropical mockingbirds to song playback. Animal Behaviour. 73:661-669. 2007
- Reproductive skew and the evolution of group dissolution tactics: a synthesis of concession and restraint models. Animal Behaviour. 74:1643-1654. 2007
- Responses of male tropical mockingbird to variation in within-song and between song versatility. Auk. 124:185-196. 2007
- Song matching, overlapping, and switching in the banded wren: the sender’s perspective. Behavioral Ecology. 18:849-859. 2007
- Accuracy of an acoustic location system for monitoring the position of duetting songbirds in tropical forest. Journal of Acoustical Society of America. 119:2832-2839. 2006
- Overlapping signals in banded wrens: long-term effects of prior experience on males and females. Behavioral Ecology. 17:260-269. 2006
- Song types and their structural features are associated with specific contexts in the banded wren. Animal Behaviour. 70:921-935. 2006
- The inflected alarm caw of the American Crow: differences in acoustic structure among individuals and sexes. Condor. 108:518-529. 2006
- Trill performance influences male receiver response in the banded wren. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B. 273:1907-1912. 2006
- Vocal performance influences male receiver response in the banded wren. Proc Biol Sci.. 273:1907-1912. 2006
- Sex differences in the singing and duetting behavior of neotropical Rufous-and-White Wrens, Thryothorus rufalbus. The Auk. 122:175-186. 2005
- Hammerheads: Why woodpeckers drum on your house. Living Bird. 22:24-29. 2003
- Responses to playback of local versus distant contact calls in the Orange-fronted Conure, Aratinga canicularis. Ethology. 109:37-54. 2003
- A test of the deceptive mimicry hypothesis in song-sharing song sparrows. Animal Behaviour. 62:1197-1205. 2001
- Is song-type matching a conventional signal of aggressive intentions?. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B. 268:1637-1642. 2001
- Male versus female mate searching in fiddler crabs: a comparative analysis. Behavioral Ecology. 12:182-191. 2001
- Neighbour recognition by resident males in the banded wren, a tropical songbird with high song-type sharing. Animal Behaviour. 61:119-127. 2001
- Songbird cheaters pay a retaliation cost: evidence for auditory conventional signals. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B. 268:2013-2019. 2001
- Economic models of animal communication. Animal Behaviour. 59:259-268. 2000
- Evolutionary routes to joint nesting in birds. Behavioral Ecology. 11:334-344. 2000
- Los conflictos de la familia alrededor del nido. Rothschildia. 7:17-22. 2000
- Survival and song-type sharing in a sedentary population of the song sparrow. Condor. 102:355-363. 2000
- How white-throated magpie-jay helpers contribute during breeding. Auk. 116:131-140. 1999
- Repertoire size, repertoire overlap, and singing modes in the banded wren, Thryothorus pleurostictus. Auk. 116:677-689. 1999
- Ecological factors affecting group and territory size in the White-throated Magpie-jay. Auk. 115:327-339. 1998
- The relationship between bite rate and local forage abundance in wild Thomson’s gazelles. Ecology. 77:2237-2255. 1996
- Light patterns as cues for mate choice in the lekking White–throated Manakin Corapipo gutturalis. Auk. 112:133-145. 1995
- Responses of song sparrows to song-type matching via interactive playback. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 37:109-117. 1995
- Singit! A program for interactive playback on the Macintosh. Bioacoustics. 5:308-310. 1994
- The fine grain mapping of grassland protein densities. Grass and Forage Science. 49:1-8. 1994
- The fine grain mapping of plant quality. Grass and Forage Science. 49:1-8. 1993
- Male choice cues in sage grouse revisited: the role of male display and territory location. Behavioral Ecology. 2:165-180. 1991
- Mate choice cues in lekking sage grouse revis-ited: the roles of vocal display, female site fidelity, and copying. Behavioral Ecology. 2:165-180. 1991
- Seasonal pattern of reverse mounting in the groove–billed anis (Crotophaga sulcirostris). Condor. 93:159-163. 1990
- Dispersal in communally nesting groove–billed anis (Crotophaga sulcirostris). Condor. 91:52-64. 1989
- Dispersion of displaying male sage grouse. I. Patterns of temporal variation. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 24:1-14. 1989
- Dispersion of displaying male sage grouse. II. Role of female dispersion. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 24:15-24. 1989
- Effect of food preparation on feeding behavior of lion–tailed macaques. Zoo Biology. 8:57-66. 1989
- Egg development and an evaluation of some of the costs and benefits for paternal care in the Belostomatid, Abedus indentatus (Heteroptera: Belostomatidae). J. Kansas Entomol. Soc.. 62:548-562. 1989
- Energetic cost of display in male sage grouse. Animal Behaviour. 38:885-896. 1989
- Breeding roles and pairing patterns within communal groups of groove–billed anis. Animal Behaviour. 34:347-366. 1986
- Habitat saturation in groove–billed anis (Crotophaga sulcirostris). American Naturalist. 127:317-337. 1986
- Male incubation and communal nesting in anis. Nat. Geogr. 20:617-623. 1984
- A model for the evolution of despotic versus egalitarian societies. Animal Behaviour. 31:667-682. 1983
- Optimal degree of skew in cooperative societies. Am. Zool.. 23:327-335. 1983
- Body temperatures of incubating versus non–incubating roadrunners. Condor. 84:203-207. 1982
- Testicular regression in relation to incubation effort in a tropical cuckoo. Hormones and Behavior. 16:113-120. 1982
- Capture and radio–transmitter attachment techniques for roadrunners. N. Amer. Bird Bander. 6:128-132. 1981
- Hepatocystic in Hypsignathus monstrosus (Pteropinea) in Gabon. I. Hepatocystis malaria in a hammerhead bat population in Gabon, West Africa. Ann. Parasitol.. 56:21-22. 1981
- The adaptive significance of communal nesting in groove–billed anis (Crotophaga sulcirostris). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 4:1-33. 1978
- Observations on the foraging behavior and avian prey of the neotropical carnivorous bat, Vampyrum spectrum. J. Mammal.. 58:469-478. 1977
- Relative fecundity and parental effort in communally nesting anis, Crotophaga sulcirostris. Science. 197:403-405. 1977
- Social organization and foraging in emballonurid bats. III. Mating systems. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 2:1-17. 1977
- Social organization and foraging in emballonurid bats. IV. Parental investment patterns. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 2:19-29. 1977
- Social organization and foraging in emballonurid bats. I. Field studies. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 1:337-381. 1976
- Social organization and foraging in emballonurid bats. II. A model for the determination of group size. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 1:383-404. 1976
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article
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book
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booksection
- Forward 2009
- Animal Communication 2001
- Handicap, index, and conventional signal elements of bird song 2000
- Ecological energetics of terrestrial vertebrates. Vol. 1. 1995
- Die Evolution von despotischen oder egalitären Gesellschaftsformen 1990
- Groove–billed anis: joint nesting in a tropical cuckoo 1990
- Effects of breeding unit size on fitness components in groove–billed anis 1988
- Exploitation in cooperative societies: models of fitness biasing in cooperative breeders 1984
- Leks and the unanimity of female choice 1984
- Mating systems and ecology 1984
- Cooperative breeding strategies among birds 1983
- Crotophaga sulcirostris 1983
- To skew or not to skew?. Vol. 1. 1980
- The roles of individual, kin, and group selection in the evolution of sociality. Vol. 3. 1979
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chapter
- Animal Communication. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2009
- Animal communication: Honesty and deception. Encyclopedia of Neuroscience. 397-406. 2009
- Dawn chorus as an interactive communication network. Animal Communication Networks. 320-343. 2005
- Avian joint laying systems. Cooperative Breeding in Birds: Recent Research and New Theory. 177-196. 2004
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document part
- Cooperative breeding strategies in birds 1985
featured in archived article
Teaching
teaching overview
- Animal communication Research methods in animal behavior
Service
service to the profession
- International Society for Behavioral Ecology Member 1978 -
- American Ornithologists Union Faculty Fellow 1976 -
- American Ornithologists Union Member 1976 -
- American Ornithologists' Union
- International Society for Behavioral Ecology Conference-Related 2007 - 2008
reviewer or editor for
Background
education and training
- Ph.D. in Animal Behavior, Cornell University 1976
- B.A. in Zoology, University of California at Berkeley 1970
awards and honors
- Brewster Award, 2011
- Faculty Research Mentor Award, 2004
Other
college
- CALS
research keyword
- Animal communication
- Behavioral ecology
- avian energetics
- cooperative breeding in birds
- design of bird song
- evolution of learning strategies
- honest signaling
- skew theory