Davina Hill

Name: Davina Hill
Department/School: Animal Plant & Environmental Sciences
Country of Origin: U.K.
Supervisor(s): Prof Neville Pillay
Funding Source: NRF
Research Field: Behavioural Ecology
Research Topic: Female striped mice (Rhabdomys pumilio) employ two alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs): 1) communal breeding, where females raise litters in a shared nest and relatives contribute to the care of each others’ young; 2) solitary breeding, where pregnant females leave the natal nest and raise a litter alone.  Using fieldwork in Goegap Nature Reserve, analysis of reproductive hormones, laboratory manipulations and analysis of a long-term individual-based dataset, I aim to identify the social, hormonal and morphological traits underlying female ARTs and to compare life history characteristics of individuals employing the two tactics.  This work is carried out in collaboration with Dr. Carsten Schradin at the University of Zürich.
Start Date: 2010
End Date: