RESEARCH
Evolution of Feral PigeonsI am currently using pigeons as a model to understand gene flow and genetic drift in the Northeast Megacity (Boston, MA to Washington, DC). A portion of this work has been published in Evolutionary Applications. I'm also interested in diet changes and toxicity resistance in urban pigeons.
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FID in Feral PigeonsI am investigating Flight Initiation Distance (FID) in pigeons in the New York City metropolitan area with the help of former Columbia University undergraduate Richard Li. FID is a common measure of the willingness of an animal to take risks and should increase as predation risk decreases and decrease as escape costs increase.
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Phylogenetics of Elephant-ShrewsFor my Masters research, at San Francisco State University in conjunction with the California Academy of Science, I assembled the first molecular phylogeny of giant sengis (also known as elephant-shrews). Giant sengis are small-bodied mammals that range from central through eastern Africa. This work has been published in Molecular Phylogenetics & Evolution. Additionally, I worked on classifying and naming the replacement genus for the North African sengi, Petrosaltator.
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header photograph ©Vincent Tullo