Dr Justin A. Welbergen Visiting Fellow Phone: + 61 2 6125 4947 Fax: +61 2 6125 5573 justin.welbergen@anu.edu.au http://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/zoostaff/bbe/Welbergen/Justin1.htm

Main Research Interests

• Behavioural ecology
• Animal and evolutionary ecology
• Conservation biology
• Climate change biology

Background
I undertook undergraduate studies in biology and psychology at the University of Amsterdam, which included a year's exchange at the University of Melbourne. Next I completed a Masters project on the breeding ecology of Australian reed warblers, Acrocephalus australis , supervised by Professor Jan Komdeur (University of Groningen, Netherlands). This research involved many long hours slogging across Victorian swamps, which - remarkably - kindled my interests in Australian fauna. After my MSc I moved to the UK to do a PhD at the University of Cambridge (Kings College), supervised by Professor Nick Davies. My thesis was on the 'the social organisation of the grey-headed flying-fox, Pteropus poliocephalus', and the research entailed three long field seasons in flying-fox colonies in northern NSW. After graduating I remained in Cambridge as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with Professor Davies, focusing on the role of learning in coevolution. In particular, we studied how local knowledge affects behavioural strategies in brood parasite-host systems. In Cambridge I also took on senior teaching posts at three Colleges (Kings College, Darwin College, and Murray-Edwards College) and my ongoing Research Fellowship at Darwin College.

At present, I am a Visiting Fellow at ANU, working in the lab of Associate Professor Rob Magrath, which provides me with a wonderful environment for furthering my interests in the ecology of Australian biota.

Research Interests
My research interests have primarily been in behavioural ecology - the study of behavioural adaptations in relation to ecological and social conditions. However, my academic background covers a range of biological subjects, including evolution, ecology, conservation, and climate change biology. I have mainly worked on mammals and birds but I am not bound by any particular taxonomic group.

My current research still focuses on flying-fox social organisation and cuckoo-host coevolution; however, I am also involved in a variety of other projects, including family dynamics of noisy miners, Manorina melanocephala and the population ecology of the critically endangered Raso Lark, Alauda razae.

In the last five years I have developed a strong interest in the effects of extreme climatic events on biodiversity, and how these effects will manifest themselves in the context of anthropogenic climate change. I am expanding my work in this area because it is where my diverse interests coalesce, and I hope that my research will promote a new field of enquiry, 'extremes biology' (i.e. the study of organisms under extreme conditions).

PhD, Masters & Honours projects
I have supervised MSc and Honours students from the University of Groningen (Netherlands), Utrecht (Netherlands), Ulm (Germany) and Queensland, and have just finished supervising Dr Stefan M. Klose on his PhD "the reproductive modulation of stress sensitivity on New and Old World tropical chiroptera in times of climate change" (co-supervisors: Professor Elizabeth Kalko and Associate Professor Anne Goldizen).

I am happy to talk about possible projects on any related topics (broadly defined), and encourage prospective students to come up with their own ideas for research.

Selected publications - Click here for a full list and PDFs
Davies N.B.\Welbergen J.A. 2009 Social transmission of a host defense against cuckoo parasitism. Science 324, 1318-1320 (the authors contributed equally to this work)

Welbergen, J. A. & Davies N. B. 2009 Strategic variation in mobbing as a front line of defense against brood parasitism. Current Biology , 19: 235-240

Welbergen, J.A., Klose, S.M., Markus, N., & Eby, P. 2008 Climate change and the effects of temperature extremes on Australian flying-foxes. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B , 275, 419-425

Davies, N.B. & Welbergen, J.A. 2008 Cuckoo-hawk mimicry? An experimental test. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B , 275:1817-1822

Welbergen, J. A. & Quader, S. 2006. Mother guarding: how offspring may influence the extra-pair behaviour of their parents. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B , 273: 2363-2368