At the end of November, Victoria Franks passed her viva with examiners Joah Madden (Exeter) and Bill Sutherland (Cambridge). We’re very proud of our first “fledgling”! Here Vix describes her main findings:
Older and wiser? What we now know about age & learning in hihi
One big problem young animals face is finding food, particularly when they have little experience to help them. Even human teenagers can struggle when there’s no one else around to do the shopping, and for wild animals, making the best foraging decisions is even more crucial for their survival. Victoria Franks is investigating how juvenile birds overcome this challenge during her PhD. Read about her latest results here on age differences in learning strategies by adult and juvenile hihi.