RESEARCH FOCUS

My main interests are reproductive, behavioural and ecological physiology, working at the whole animal level, using several different systems (e.g. dogs, cows, meerkats, voles, mice, mole-rats, pangolins, deer, squirrels, badgers, elephants, cheetahs). Work is interdisciplinary, encompassing aspects of energetics and thermoregulation, behavioural ecology, movement ecology, conservation physiology and chronobiology. The main areas of research may be sub‑grouped into:

• Energy expenditure, metabolism and resting metabolic rate.
• Behavioural Ecology, cooperative breeding and the evolution of breeding systems.
• The physiology and evolutionary ecology of organisms, with particular emphasis on thermoregulatory adaptations to the environment.
• Interactions between energetics, life history strategies and disease.
• Use of physiological techniques for implementing practical conservation.

Quantitative measurements of comparative physiology, ecophysiology and behaviour which include laboratory and field determinations of metabolism, thermoregulation, disease, movement and behavioural profiling. We pursue ideas of conservation physiology in which quantitative data are used to inform management strategies in natural and agricultural environments. Examples include studies on energetics and movement in cheetahs, pangolins, and sloths as well as behaviour and disease in badgers with risks of tuberculosis infection to cattle.

RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES

Open to PhD applications from those with at least a 2.1 degree in the biological sciences interested in physiological, conservation and behavioural ecology. 

Make a PhD Enquiry

Dr Michael Scantlebury

School of Biological Sciences 

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