My research aims to understand the selection pressures that lead to the evolution of complex signaling, cooperation, and sociality.
My dissertation work focused on the communication system of the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), a social carnivore that lives in fission-fusion societies called clans. This complex social system is a potential driver of their complicated vocal repertoire. Excitingly, little is known about their extensive vocalizations and I am working to change that by investigating the function of these signals. Armed with knowledge about the function of vocal signals, we can determine the selection pressures that currently and previously shaped those signals.
I am also focused on understanding how communication facilitates cooperation in spotted hyenas. Spotted hyenas are strikingly vocal during altercations with lions and neighboring hyena clans. During these interactions, hyenas gather together in large groups to mob their enemies. My colleague, Tracy Montgomery, and I are trying to understand why hyenas perform this highly risky cooperative behavior.
My dissertation work focused on the communication system of the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), a social carnivore that lives in fission-fusion societies called clans. This complex social system is a potential driver of their complicated vocal repertoire. Excitingly, little is known about their extensive vocalizations and I am working to change that by investigating the function of these signals. Armed with knowledge about the function of vocal signals, we can determine the selection pressures that currently and previously shaped those signals.
I am also focused on understanding how communication facilitates cooperation in spotted hyenas. Spotted hyenas are strikingly vocal during altercations with lions and neighboring hyena clans. During these interactions, hyenas gather together in large groups to mob their enemies. My colleague, Tracy Montgomery, and I are trying to understand why hyenas perform this highly risky cooperative behavior.
As an undergraduate, I pursued a number of research opportunities, including research on movement in long-necked turtles in Australia, innate responses of broad-winged hawks to coral snake coloration in Costa Rica, plant growth responses to climate change across the world, and native bee responses to hedge growth in agricultural areas in California. My most significant research experiences were on sexual signaling and information theory.
Sexual signalingI worked in Gail Patricelli's lab at UC Davis, studying the previously undescribed “double whistle” of the lekking male greater sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). This work resulted in a scientific publication, Krakauer et al. 2009.
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Information TheoryDuring my participation in the Beam Reach program, I utilized information theory to study the vocal repertoire of the Southern Resident Killer Whale (Orcinus orca). This work resulted in my first scientific presentation at the Acoustics '08 conference in Paris.
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