Research projects
Culturally mediated niche expansion
Our main project at the moment focuses on cultural traditions in wild black rats (Rattus rattus) and their role in rats' expansion into novel ecological niches.
Currently, despite growing recognition of the important role that cultural inheritance can play in animals’ lives, its actual ecological and evolutionary consequences are poorly understood. Examples for effects of cultural traditions on fitness, or on ecological processes such as niche expansion or species invasions, are rare and tend to be limited to suggestive observational accounts. We study one of the only known cases of culturally mediated niche expansion: the pine cone opening tradition of black rats in Israel. Seminal work conducted in the early 1990s by Prof. Yossi Terkel and his students, has shown that rat pups learn from their mothers how to open the cones of allepo pines (Pinus halepensis) and reach their nutritious seeds, by using an elaborate and efficient 'spiral stripping' tecnique. This foraging tradition seems to have aided rats in expanding their niche to planted pine forests in Israel – an anthropogenically modified habitat in which pine seeds are an important resource, and other food sources are often scarce. We study this tradition in the field and in the lab, to uncover the transmission pathways and ecological implications of cultural knowledge in current rat populations, and examine its role in generating population level niche shifts, cumulative improvement, and evolutionary change.
Currently, despite growing recognition of the important role that cultural inheritance can play in animals’ lives, its actual ecological and evolutionary consequences are poorly understood. Examples for effects of cultural traditions on fitness, or on ecological processes such as niche expansion or species invasions, are rare and tend to be limited to suggestive observational accounts. We study one of the only known cases of culturally mediated niche expansion: the pine cone opening tradition of black rats in Israel. Seminal work conducted in the early 1990s by Prof. Yossi Terkel and his students, has shown that rat pups learn from their mothers how to open the cones of allepo pines (Pinus halepensis) and reach their nutritious seeds, by using an elaborate and efficient 'spiral stripping' tecnique. This foraging tradition seems to have aided rats in expanding their niche to planted pine forests in Israel – an anthropogenically modified habitat in which pine seeds are an important resource, and other food sources are often scarce. We study this tradition in the field and in the lab, to uncover the transmission pathways and ecological implications of cultural knowledge in current rat populations, and examine its role in generating population level niche shifts, cumulative improvement, and evolutionary change.
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Examples for signs of pine cone opening activity: stripped cones, and active feeding tables
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How learning shapes social interactions
We are interested in how learning shapes social interactions and cooperative strategies. We study this topic by focusing on a unique natural model system: the mutualism between cleaner fish and their ‘client’ reef fish in which cleaners feed on the clients’ ectoparasites.
More details will follow soon!
More details will follow soon!