Societies are dynamic
Animal societies are built from the everyday decisions of individuals—cooperate or compete, leave or stay, respond or ignore. We study social decision-making and the dynamics of social structure to understand how societies work and how they impact the ecology and evolution of the animals that live in them. We seek linkages across timescales from moment-to-moment decisions to the rise and fall of generation-spanning dynasties.
Our primary study system is the Mara Hyena Project, a long-term individual-based study of spotted hyenas in the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. Our work unites the traditional observation-based tools of behavioral ecology with cutting-edge biologging technologies and computer simulations to deliver a process-based understanding of causes and consequences of animal social structure.
Research
Stability and change in animal monarchies
In spotted hyenas and many primates, position in the dominance hierarchy follows predictable rules of social inheritance, much like a monarchy. In these systems, the remarkable consistency of dominance inheritance is punctuated by occasional coups, producing the rise and fall of family dynasties. We interrogate hierarchy dynamics to understand the structure and evolution of these peculiar social systems.
Social decision-making, communication, and movement
Hyenas, like humans and a handful of other animals, flexibly change their social groupings to get the most out of being social. We study how animals make movement and association decisions, how information flows among individuals through vocal calls, and how fundamental animal functions like foraging or courtship are reshaped in these distributed collectives. This work aims to reveal the everyday decisions that build up social structure and determine the costs and benefits of group living.
Urbanization and animal societies
Cities are remaking the ecological conditions animals live in far faster than typical evolutionary timescales. We track hyena societies across urban gradients to ask which features of social life flexibly match new conditions, which do not, and what it costs animals when their society no longer fits their world.
Social development and social competence
Social skill is a critical and underappreciated part of development. Because young hyenas inherit rank so predictably, we can identify atypical social trajectories by comparing their expected social position to what they actually achieve, across development. This predictability offers a rare window into the development of social skill and its impacts across the lifespan.