New paper on blood parasitism in wintering migrants in Zambia

Feb 15, 2016

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 SorensenMuhammad AsgharStaffan BenschGraham FairhurstSusanne Jenni-Eiermann and Claire Spottiswoodeavailable open access in Journal of Avian Biology.

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Tanmay Dixit awarded PhD and starting Junior Research Fellowship

Tanmay’s PhD, entitled “Signatures and forgeries: optimality in a coevolutionary arms race” was awarded with no corrections. Huge thanks to collaborators and colleagues who were instrumental to this work, and to examiners James Herbert-Read and Graeme Ruxton. Tanmay will remain on the team and continue conducting fieldwork in Choma as part of the Junior Research fellowship that he is starting at Jesus College, Cambridge.

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