Postdoctoral Fellow

Susie moved to the Fitz from New Zealand in May 2010 to take up a postdoctoral fellowship. Susie spends summer in the Kalahari Desert, where her research uses behavioural approaches to assess the vulnerability of arid-land birds to climate change. Her work focuses particularly on how foraging and chick provisioning strategies of Kalahari birds are affected by ambient temperature. She works in collaboration with Phil Hockey and Rowan Martin at the Fitz, and Ben Smit and Andrew McKechnie at the University of Pretoria.

Susie is also continuing her research on the sensory systems of probe-foraging birds, following up on questions generated during her PhD (see below). During winter, Susie works in collaboration with Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan and Sandra Jasinoski in the Zoology Department looking bill structure of ibises. Susie is indebted to Res Altwegg, Greg Duckworth, Doug Harebottle, Transvaal and Iziko Museums and members of Cape Town’s birding clubs for help sourcing specimens for this project. She hopes to extend this project to behaviour work in 2011.
Susie was based at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand for her doctoral research. Her supervisory team included Dr. Isabel Castro, Assoc. Prof. Murray Potter, Assoc. Prof. Maurice Alley and Assoc. Prof. Martin Wild (Auckland University). She studied the tactile senses used in foraging by probing birds, including kiwi (Apterygidae), ibises (Threskiornithidae) and shorebirds (Scolopacidae). Shorebirds in the family Scolopacidae possess a sensory system known as ‘remote touch,’ by which they can detect pressure and vibration cues from prey buried within the substrate. This sense is mediated by an organ made up of a honey-comb of sensory pits in the bill-tip, containing pressure sensitive mechanoreceptors. Susie used a combination of microCT scanning, traditional anatomy and histology, and foraging experiments with kiwi and ibises to show that the bill-tip organ and associated remote touch sense exist in these families, also. The Apterygidae, Threskiornithidae and Scolopacidae are widely separated phylogenetically. This suggests that remote touch has evolved multiple times among birds in response to the pressures of probe foraging.

Research interests

Sensory ecology: Susie is particularly interested in the non-visual senses used by animals –especially birds - in foraging and social interactions, the ecological pressures that lead to the favouring of non-visual senses, and the connections between sensory systems and behaviour.

Behavioural ecology and conservation in a changing world: Susie is also interested in the behavioural flexibility of animals in the face of ecological change (e.g. habitat modification, climate change): how environmental factors drive behavioural decisions and the consequences of these decisions for individual survival and population persistence.

Behaviour studies and animal welfare: Techniques used to gather behavioural data from free living animals may have impacts on both the welfare of the animals involved and the quality of the data collected. Together with Dr Isabel Castro of Massey University, Susie currently has a paper under review on the behavioural and physical impacts of carrying radio-transmitters in brown kiwi (Apteryx mantelli).

Research programmes

Life History Strategies, Ecological & Evolutionary Physiology

Current students

None

Recent peer-reviewed publications

2011

Cunningham S. J., Alley, M. R, & Castro I. 2011. Facial bristle feather histology and morphology in New Zealand birds: implications for function. Journal of Morphology 272:118-218. IF 1.773

Cunningham S. J. & Castro I. 2011. The secret life of wild brown kiwi: studying behaviour of a cryptic species by direct observation. New Zealand Journal of Ecology 35:209-219. IF 1.286

2010

Castro, I., Cunningham, S.J., Gsell, A.C., Jaffe, K., Cabrera, A., Liendo, C. 2010. Olfaction in birds: a closer look at the kiwi (Apterygidae). Journal of Avian Biology 41:213-218.

Cunningham, S.J., Alley, M.R., Castro, I., Potter, M.A., Cunningham, M., Pyne, M.J. 2010. Bill morphology of ibises suggests a remote-tactile sensory system for prey detection. The Auk 127(2):308-316.

Cunningham S.J., Castro I., Potter M.A. and Jensen T. 2010. Remote touch prey-detection by Madagascar crested ibises Lophotibis cristata urschi. Journal of Avian Biology 41:350-353.