George W Uetz

Biography

I study animal behavior and ecology, with the goal of understanding how the environment influences the evolution of behavior. I am interested in questions about both the proximate mechanisms and selective forces involved in communication and social behaviors: How do animals recognize their own species? What sensory cues are used to discriminate conspecifics from similar species? How do animals detect signals from mates, prey or predators and distinguish them from environmental noise? What role does habitat play in animal communication? Why do some animals live in groups while others remain solitary? Are animals in groups an easier target for predators, or is there safety in numbers? How do animals in groups communicate with each other? What role does relatedness and genetic structure of populations play in the evolution of group-living?

Research Interest

ECBR, SBBE, Behavioral ecology, arachnology: multi-modal communication and sexual selection in wolf spiders; social behavior in colonial web-building spiders