NEWSOCT 2020 Signs of life! Some projects that have been in the works for a long time are seeing the light. Two new papers coming out. One is a collaboration with an Lisa Shwanz and Gracie Liu at UNSW - Maternal Temperature, Corticosterone, and Body Condition as Mediators of Maternal Effects in Jacky Dragons (Amphibolurus muricatus)" in Physiological and Biochemical Zoology is now online. The other one is from a summer scholarship project with Kate Heaphy - Song variation between sexes and among subspecies of New Zealand Fantail (Rhipidura fuliginosa) - provisionally accepted at Emu. Nice to see these come out! Finally - a lovely little video from Yen Yi Loo on her research. JAN - JULY - ALL of 2020 I'll be on sabbatical and visiting various spots in Australia and the US. Haha - just kidding. I mean I'll be hanging out in my house trying to pretend that I'm on sabbatical. Thanks Covid-19! SEPTEMBER 2019 A few, new papers out. One on dichromatism in urban birds with Maider Iglesias-Carrasco (former postdoc). Some cool work from a former summer student on laterality in pūkeko. Also a couple of notes on the natural history of rifleman and their heterospecifics - Predation from long-tailed cuckoo (with a cool VIDEO) and harassment from other species including grey warblers (in press). PLUS - the season is about to start, so we're busy prepping for the field. MARCH 2019 Huge welcome to Juliane Mussoi who joins the Cain lab this month. The Cain lab also helped out in the recent tītipounamu translocation into Zealandia. Lots going on this time of year! MARCH 2019 Exciting new paper out on the relationships between colour, predation risk and habitat in fairy-wrens. Bottom-line - colour itself is not as costly as we thought, but maybe just being a female is. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/701632 Press release - https://www.amnat.org/an/newpapers/MarCain.html ALL OF 2018 Wow, the year has flown by! Lots of excitement. Two international conferences, two new PhD students and a bunch of new articles, not to mention a MARSDEN !! Looking forward to some quiet time over the holidays ! SEPT 2017 Spring has sprung and fieldwork has begun. I've just returned from 4 weeks in the Aussie bush working on female song and ornamentation in fairy-wrens. Starting up some new projects on pukekos, fantails, and grey-faced petrels. JUNE 2017 Oh where, where does the time go? First year at University of Auckland is done and dusted. Last few months have been pretty busy, teaching, catching pukeko and a big invitation to submit a research grant with the Marsden fund. Wish me luck. JAN 2017 Not one but two new papers out or accepted this week. Both on colour in birds, but from very different angles. First a big phylogenetic look at the relationship between habitat and colour in fairy-wrens in BMC Evolutionary Biology. Next a look at interspecific aggression and colour in crimson finches (accepted). NOV 2016 New paper in J Evo Bio is out! Males that can produce more testosterone are more likely to win in competitive breeding contexts. Starting field work on Pukeko with new summer student R. Rodgers. OCT 2016 Semester II is wrapping up. A new paper on testosterone production and competition has been accepted for Journal of Evolutionary Biology. Plus, our proposed symposium on female ornamentation for the International Ornithological Conference has been accepted. Stay tuned for more! AUGUST 2016 Brand new paper out today. Female fitness and aggression are related to reproductive success, but habitat quality can change the direction and the rules. JULY 2016 Classes start today, and I just had a manuscript accepted! This one will be on the importance of habitat in mediating female competition. Stay tuned. JUNE 2016 The BIG MOVE has happened and I'm now based at Uni Auckland. JAN 2016 BIG NEWS! I've accepted a lecturer position at the University of Auckland in the Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour group. Middle Earth, here we come! DEC 2015 Home for the holidays and only one more field site to go. New Gouldian finch article is available. Big news on the horizon. NOV 2015 Last field site before I get to sleep in my own bed for a little while. Woohooooo. Also, provisional paper acceptance in General and Comparative Endocrinology for some Gouldian finch research. Double Woohoo! OCT 2015 So much fieldwork! Also, an article out at Australian Geographic about some of my fairy wren research, here's the paper it is based on. Plus, a new fairy-wren paper was just published. Huzzah! SEPT 2015 Starting phase II of my fairy-wren tour of Australia, see the blog for more details and photos. Also, new paper out on female song! Check it out here. AUGUST 2015 Early online release of first crimson finch paper with Cat Young. Click here to check it out MAY-JULY 2015 Busy few months. Three papers provisionally accepted! Finches (x2) and fairy-wrens. Animal Behaviour, Journal of Avian Biology, and Ethology, here we come. Huzzah! APRIL 2015 Two papers submitted this month: female and male responses to fairy-wren song across breeding stage, and male Gouldian finch testosterone production. MARCH 2015 Two papers submitted this week, one on female fairy-wren song, one on male crimson finches color and fighting. FEBRUARY 2015 Time flies! Just wrapping up a big hormone experiment with Gouldian finches. 500+ blood samples. |
OPPORTUNITIESFor potential postdocs: The Cain lab is looking for postdocs that are interested in questions about the mechanisms underlying individual variation in trait expression. There are a number of fellowship options so, if you are interested in teaming up – contact me about your ideas and we can talk about putting together a proposal (Rutherford postdoc fellowship, etc..). For prospective graduate students: Auckland's EEB program is a wonderful place for students interested in doing integrative animal research. If you are interested, read some of the lab’s recent publications, and send me an email about why you’re interested in my lab and what research you’ve done in the past. Also, please have a look at UoA's application procedures. A word to the wise, grad school is not for everyone, think critically about your decision. This is not an easy path, but it is extremely rewarding. For undergraduates: If you are interested in research in the lab, send an email to Dr. Cain, telling me why you’re interested and how you'd like to be involved (volunteer, research assistant, honours student?). |