Migratory birds breeding in Europe often have chronic malaria infections which are assumed to have been picked up on their wintering grounds in Africa. But we know little about their effects in Africa where it’s assumed acute infections might occur. Dr Marjorie Sorensen studied willow warblers during her PhD and found, surprisingly, no obvious ill-effects of malaria parasites on the birds wintering in Zambia. Read more in the original paper by Marjorie Sorensen, Muhammad Asghar, Staffan Bensch, Graham Fairhurst, Susanne Jenni-Eiermann and Claire Spottiswoode, available open access in Journal of Avian Biology.
Jess Lund awarded an R. C. Lewontin Grant from the Society for the Study of Evolution
The Society for the Study of Evolution has awarded Jess Lund an R. C. Lewontin Graduate Research Excellence Grant, which will enable her to expand her investigations into the fascinating lives of honeyguides. This grant is awarded to students early in their PhD programmes to assist them in enhancing the scope of their research. Thank you to the SSE for their generous support of our work!