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Research Interests
The evolution of animal communication systems is the primary focus of research in my lab. We are especially interested in how signals encode specific types of information and how that information remains honest despite selection on some individuals to exaggerate or cheat. Because vocal signals are relatively easy to monitor, quantify, manipulate, and produce, we have focused on the role of song in mediating aggressive interactions and mate choice in territorial male songbirds. Techniques such as interactive song playback, multi-microphone array recording, and sound synthesis are being used to study the function and meaning of complex singing behavior in wren and sparrow species with repertoires of song types. We are also studying the role of song learning strategies in different species that result in different levels of song-type sharing among males and the ability to use song-type matching as a threat signal. For more information on the Bioacoustics Research Program at the Lab of Ornithology and further details of our songbird studies, please visit http://birds.cornell.edu/BRP/. I remain interested in the evolution of cooperative breeding in birds, particularly in the factors that promote low-skew or joint-nesting breeding systems. Field studies are continuing on the groove-billed ani in Costa Rica, along with comparative studies of high-skew systems such as the magpie-jay. Further development and testing of new skew models are providing additional insights into the evolution of complex cooperative societies.
Recent Publications
Hall, M.L., A.E. Illes and S.L. Vehrencamp (2006). Overlapping signals in banded wrens: long-term effects of prior experience on males and females. Behavioral Ecology 17: 260-269.
Mennill, D.J., J.M. Burt, K.M. Fristrup & S.L. Vehrencamp (2006). Accuracy of an acoustic location system for monitoring the position of duetting songbirds in tropical forest. J. Acoustic Soc. America 119: 2832-2839.
Illes, A.E., M.L. Hall and S.L. Vehrencamp (2006). Trill performance influences male receiver response in the banded wren. Proc. Royal Soc. Lond B 273: 1907-1912.
Yorzinski, J.L., S.L. Vehrencamp, A.B. Clark & K.J. McGowan (2006). The inflected alarm caw of the American Crow: differences in acoustic structure among individuals and sexes. Condor 108: 518-529.
Mennill, D.J. and S.L. Vehrencamp (2005). Sex differences in the singing and duetting behavior of neotropical Rufous-and-White Wrens, Thryothorus rufalbus. Auk 122: 175-186.
Burt, J. M. and S. L. Vehrencamp (2005). Dawn chorus as an interactive communication network. In: Animal Communication Networks (ed. by P.K. McGregor). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 320-343.
Trillo, P.A. and S.L. Vehrencamp (2005). Song types and their structural features are associated with specific contexts in the banded wren. Animal Behaviour 70: 921-935.
Vehrencamp, S. L. and J. S. Quinn (2004). Avian joint laying systems. In: Cooperative breeding in birds: recent research and new theory (ed. by W.D. Koenig and J. Dickinson). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 177-196.
deRivera, C.E., P.R.Y. Backwell, J.H. Christy, and S.L. Vehrencamp (2003). Density affects female and male mate searching in the fiddler crab, Uca beebei. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 53: 72-83.
Vehrencamp, S.L., A. Ritter, M. Keever and J. W. Bradbury (2003). Responses to playback of local versus distant contact calls in the Orange-fronted Conure, Aratinga canicularis. Ethology 109: 37-54.
Germano, E. and S. L. Vehrencamp (2003). Hammerheads: Why woodpeckers drum on your house. Living Bird 22: 24-29.
Wilson, P. L. and S.L. Vehrencamp (2001). A test of the deceptive mimicry hypothesis in song-sharing song sparrows. Anim. Behav. 62:1197-1205.
Molles, L.E. and S.L. Vehrencamp (2001). Songbird cheaters pay a retaliation cost: evidence for auditory conventional signals. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond., Series B 268: 2013-2019.
Vehrencamp, S.L. (2001). Is song-type matching a conventional signal of aggressive intentions? Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond., Series B 268: 1637-1642.
deRivera, C.E. and S.L. Vehrencamp (2001). Male versus female mate searching in fiddler crabs: a comparative analysis. Behav. Ecol. 12: 182-191.
Molles, L.E., S.L. Vehrencamp (2001). Neighbour recognition by resident males in the banded wren, a tropical songbird with high song-type sharing. An. Beh. 61:119-127.
Wilson, P.L., M.C. Towner and S.L. Vehrencamp (2000) Survival and song-type sharing in a sedentary population of the song sparrow. Condor 102: 355-363.
Vehrencamp, S.L. (2000). Evolutionary routes to joint nesting in birds. Behav. Ecol. 11:334-344.
Bradbury, J. W. and S. L. Vehrencamp (2000). Economic models of animal communication. Anim. Behav. 59: 259-268.
Courses Taught
Introduction to Behavior; Animal Communication; Methods in Animal Behavior