Avery Maune, PhD student

I am broadly interested in animal behavior, cognition, and social evolution. I completed my MSc in Evolutionary & Behavioral Ecology at the University of Exeter, where I investigated how within group heterogeneity can lead to differences in the strength and nature of ingroup discrimination in a primitive termite.
For my PhD, I plan to investigate how lizards living in urban environments differ in their social behavior and cognition. I am particularly interested in how social interactions change under different environmental conditions, as well as how social information use from both con-and-heterospecifics can aid in adapting to novel environments. To investigate these questions, I will conduct field experiments in Croatia with several lacertid lizard species that differ in their ability to inhabit urban environments.