Charlotte and Jake passed their MRes Vivas

Charlotte Crane and Jake Hill just passed their MRes Vivas with minor corrections.

Charlotte's thesis is entitled:

Unlikely Friendships:

An exploratory review into the defining criteria of associative behaviour between vertebrate species

Jake Hill's thesis is entitled:

Soundscapes of Sumatra:

An analysis of the susceptibility of vocal fauna to edge effects

within a historically disturbed lowland forest in Sumatra, Indonesia

Charlotte investigated how associations between species are differently studied and defined according to the taxonomic groups that are studied.

Red colobus monkey grooming blue monkey by @AHKorstjens

In particular, bird studies tend to talk about mixed species flocks, whilst primate studies talk about poly-specific associations. The study methods also differ, with bird studies seldom focusing on analysing whether associations are more common than expected by chance, whilst that is a big part of the definition of an association in primatology.

The animals also show variation in the behaviours they show.

Now, Charlotte is writing up her dissertation into a scientific paper.

Jake showed that siamang and gibbon call frequency was greater in areas with larger more connected trees. Vocal diversity (across all taxa) was highest at dawn and dusk and was negatively influenced by daytime temperature.

Spectogram of a siamang call, screen shot from Adobe Audtion.

Jake analysed the large bioacoustics dataset that Helen Slater and Invisible Flock, and the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program team collected between August and October 2019. They set out 10 Open Field Recorders, developed by Invisible Flock with GPS build in to ensure times were matched, at different distances from the forest. These 10 sites were part of a set of 20 sites, where Helen collected micro-climate data, forest structure data, and camera trap images for those 3 months.

Jake used Arbimon software, developed by Rainforest Connection to find siamang and gibbon morning calls in the endless number of sound files, and to create soundscapes across the site.

Jake is also writing up for publications.

A big thank you to the external examiner Alex Georgiev and internal examiners Kathy Hodder and Anita Diaz.