Dr. James F. Hare
Robert Senkiw (M.Sc.)
Rob's research focused on a form of contagious vocal and visual signaling in black‑tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) called "jump-yipping". An individual prairie dog produces a jump yip by propelling its body off the ground while throwing its head back and uttering a distinctive call. Neighboring prairie dogs typically respond to this by producing a jump yip of their own so that jump yipping spreads through a dog town like a wave through a football stadium. While jump yips are often regarded as "all-clear signals", Rob's thesis revealed that participants use jump yipping to monitor the vigilance of neighbouring colony members, and adjust their foraging‑vigilance trade-off according to response in the preceding jump yip bout.
John McVagh (M.Sc. co-supervised with Dr. T. Ivanco, Psychology)
John tested whether skilled reach training of Long-Evans and Fischer‑344 rats prompts changes in dendritic branching within the animal's motor cortex reflecting such reach training. John's work thus directly examined the physiological basis of motor learning in animals, testing whether changes in behaviour with training are the result of changes in neural morphology or changes in the efficacy of existing neuronal pathways.
 Instructions for Prospective Students Please contact Dr. Hare via e-mail harejf@cc.umanitoba.ca outlining your educational and research background as well as interests, and ultimate career aspirations. Promising applicants will be asked to follow up their original expression of interest with copies of their academic transcripts and a curriculum vita.
Past Students
Jennifer Sloan (M.Sc.) Jennifer completed her M.Sc. in the spring of 2005 with the submission of her thesis entitled: The perception of response urgency by juvenile and adult Richardson’s ground squirrels (Spermophilus richardsonii); the relative importance of multiple alarm callers and temporal call bout properties. This research demonstrated a developmental change in the parameters call recipients attend to in assessing threat conveyed by alarm signals: while juvenile squirrels attend to variation in the rate of syllable repetition within calls, adults focus on the number of callers participating in an alarm chorus. Jennifer is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Applied Behaviour Analysis in the Department of Psychology at the University of Manitoba.
David Wilson (M.Sc.) David completed his M.Sc. in the spring of 2005 and is currently conducting Ph.D. research under the supervision of Dr. Chris Evans at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Dave's Master's thesis, Ultrasonic alarm signals of Richardson's ground squirrels (Spermophilus richardsonii), provides in depth data demonstrating that Richardson's ground squirrels produce and attend to ultrasonic alarm vocalizations. This work constitutes the first definitive evidence of ultrasound being used in animal alarm communication. Joel Jameson (B.Sc. Hons.; co-supervised with Dr. Brock Fenton, University of Western Ontario) Joel’s research addressed whether the echolocation calls emitted by female little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) emerging from maternity roosts contained group-specific signatures. Joel found significant differences in several acoustic parameters among groups, and found that those differences became more pronounced as the distance between groups increased. Thus Joel’s results are consistent with the presence of group recognition signatures in little brown bat echolocation calls. Joel is currently enrolled in a Master’s program in Biology under the supervision of Dr. Craig Willis at the University of Winnipeg.
   Anthony Roche (M.Sc.) Anthony's research examines the fitness implications of personality variation in Richardson's ground squirrels. Adopting the shy-boldness continuum of Sloan-Wilson, Tony will assess personality types of juvenile male and female ground squirrels, quantify the fitness ramifications of such variation on individuals, and test whether there is sex-differential expression of alternative personalities. David Swan (M.Sc.) Dave’s Master’s research examines aspects of brood recognition in hosts of the slave‑making ant Protomognathus americanus, and in particular, whether chemical discriminator substances borne on the larval cuticle are transferred among the larvae of slave-makers and their hosts. Dave’s work represents an important extension of earlier work on brood recognition as it incorporates tests that address the impact of the subject worker’s colony on the expression of brood retrieval preferences.
|
David Swan (B.Sc.)
Dave's Honour's research examined whether adult and juvenile Richardson's ground squirrels show differential response to alarm vocalizations produced by adult and juvenile alarm signalers. Further, by manipulating the order of syllables produced in field playbacks of recorded alarm calls, Dave's work tested for evidence of syntax in the syllable order of Richardson's ground squirrel repeated calls. While syllable order had no significant effect on receiver responses, Dave found that the primary syllable within repeated calls serves a general alerting function, preparing receivers for information that follows.
Amy Thompson (B.Sc. Hons.)
Amy’s thesis research will examine whether Richardson’s ground squirrels integrate information from multiple alarm signalers to track the movement of terrestrial predators within their colony. As such, her work will further our knowledge of ground squirrel alarm communication, explore the limits of cooperation within ground squirrel colonies, and address the cognitive abilities of signal recipients.
