Andrew King
|
|
Andrew is a NERC Research Fellow. His work uses a question-oriented approach to address a range of issues in behavioural and evolutionary ecology, especially concerning group-living animals. For more information see Andrew's personal research pages.
Biography
Andrew has a PhD in Behavioural Ecology and is a NERC Research Fellow at the RVC. He is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge (Evolutionary Ecology Group), and is a member of the Tsaobis Baboon Project (Zoological Society of London) and the Baboon Research Unit (University of Cape Town). He has also recently been appointed a Consulting Editor for Animal Behaviour.
Research
At the RVC Andrew is based in the Structure and Motion Laboratory, a Centre of Excellence at the forefront of developing technologies to study animal movement, where he uses a question-oriented approach to examine how costs and benefits shape individual behaviour, so that he can understand how these behaviours relate to the structure and functioning of groups and populations. He uses a variety of group-living fish, bird, and mammal systems to answer these important research questions.
Andrew's research is team-oriented, and he collaborates with a variety of individuals and institutions to find innovative ways to tackle his research questions, blending theoretical modelling and field observations and experiments. He has spent nearly three years in Southern Africa, studying the behaviour and ecology of baboons in the Namib Desert, and meerkat sociality in the Kalahari Desert. He still gets into the field to study wild populations, but is enjoying answering his questions in his new fish laboratory at the RVC.
Teaching
Andrew lectures on the 'Animal Behaviour and Welfare' and 'Comparitive Animal Locomotion' modules as part of the BSc Bioveterinary Science degree. Outside of RVC Andrew guest lectures for Imperial College, London. Andrew supervises two PhD students, Leah Williams (personality and leadership in a social bird) and Diamanto Mamuneas (collective performance in animal groups).
Selected Publications
For a full list of publications and download links, click here.
King, A. J., Cheng, L., Starke, S. D., Myatt, J. P. (2012) Is the true “wisdom of the crowd” to copy successful individuals? Biology Letters Online early.
King, A. J., Sueur, C., Huchard, E., Cowlishaw. G. (2011) A rule-of-thumb based on social affiliation explains collective movements in desert baboons. Animal Behaviour 82: 1337-1345.
King, A. J., Narraway, C., Hodgson, L., Weatherill, A., Sommer, V. & Sumner, S. (2011) Performance of human groups in social foraging: the role of communication in consensus decision-making. Biology Letters 7: 237-240.
King, A. J., Johnson, D. D. P. & Van Vugt, M. (2009) The origins and evolution of leadership. Current Biology 19: R911-R916.
King, A. J., Isaac, N. J. B. & Cowlishaw, G. (2009) Ecological, social, and reproductive factors shape producer-scrounger dynamics in baboons. Behavioral Ecology 20: 1039-1049.
King, A. J. & Cowlishaw, G. (2009c) All together now: behavioural synchrony in baboons. Animal Behaviour 78: 1381-1387.
King, A. J., Douglas, C. M. S., Isaac, N. J. B., Huchard, E. & Cowlishaw, G. (2008) Dominance and affiliation mediate despotism in a social primate. Current Biology 18: 1833-1838.
King, A. J. & Cowlishaw, G. (2007) When to use social information: the advantage of large group size in individual decision-making. Biology Letters 3: 137–13.
Outreach Activities
Andrew is enthusiastic about engaging others in science and has organised numerous public scientific meetings and international symposia. His work has also featured in The Economist, New Scientist, BBC Wildlife, and Discover Magazine, and he is regularly interviewed about his work by the media. You can learn more about these activities here.