Assistant Professor;
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 2005
Graduate faculty status

Contact by e-mail for availability of postdoctoral, graduate, and undergraduate research positions.

My primary area of interest is behavioral ecology. My research program explores the evolution of social behavior in animals, particularly birds, with an emphasis on cooperation, sexual selection, and reproductive strategies. I combine field studies of behavior, demography, and morphology with genetic analyses of the relationships between individuals to test hypotheses about the forces that create and maintain social complexity.

My current projects investigate (1) the adaptive basis of female mate choice in the absence of direct benefits (i.e. territory quality or paternal care); (2) the effects of complex mating strategies on temporal and spatial genetic variation at the population level; (3) the mechanisms of mate choice from both male and female perspectives; and (4) the balance between male competition and female mate choice in determining the opportunity for sexual selection to occur.

My present research uses lance-tailed manakins (Chiroxiphia lanceolata) as a model system, but research in my lab is not limited by taxon. I am currently accepting applications from prospective graduate students.

Selected Publications:

DuVal, E. H. 2012. Variation in annual and lifetime reproductive success of lance-tailed manakins: experience as an alpha offsets senescence in siring success. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B Biological Sciences 279:1551-1559. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2011.1840

Krakauer, A. H., M. S. Webster, E. H. DuVal, A. G. Jones, and S. M. Shuster. 2011. The opportunity for sexual selection: not mismeasured, just misunderstood. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 24:2064-2072.

Krakauer, A. H., and E. H. DuVal. 2011. Kin selection and cooperative courtship in birds. Pages 230-247 in C. A. Salmon and T. K. Shackelford (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Family Psychology. Oxford University Press, New York.

DuVal, E. H., and W. Goymann. 2011. Hormonal correlates of social status and courtship display in a cooperatively lekking passerine. Hormones and Behavior 59:44-50.

DuVal, E. H., and B. Kempenaers. 2008. Sexual selection in a lekking bird: the relative opportunity for selection by female choice and male competition. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B Biological Sciences 275:1995-2003.

Laucht, S., E. H. DuVal, and B. Kempenaers. 2008. Maternal correlates of brood sex ratio variation in the lekking lance-tailed manakin. Journal of Avian Biology 39:198-205.

DuVal, E. H. 2007. Cooperative display and lekking behavior of the lance-tailed manakin (Chiroxiphia lanceolata). Auk 124:1168-1185.

DuVal, E. H. 2007. Adaptive advantages of cooperative courtship for subordinate male lance-tailed manakins. American Naturalist 169:423-432.

DuVal, E. H. 2007. Social organization and variation in cooperative alliances among male lance-tailed manakins. Animal Behaviour 73:391-401.

DuVal, E. H., K. L. Carter, and B. Kempenaers. 2007. Isolation and characterization of novel microsatellite loci for parentage assessment in the lance-tailed manakin (Chiroxiphia lanceolata). Molecular Ecology Notes.

DuVal, E. H., H. W. Greene, and K. L. Manno. 2006. Laughing falcon (Herpetotheres cachinnans) predation on coral snakes (Micrurus nigrocinctus). Biotropica 38:566-568.

DuVal, E. H. 2005. Age-based plumage changes in the lance-tailed manakin: a two-year delay in plumage maturation. Condor 107:915-920.

Johnson, K., E. DuVal, M. Kielt, and C. Hughes. 2000. Male mating strategies and the mating system of great-tailed grackles. Behavioral Ecology 11:132-141.

Graduate Students:

Jones, Megan A
Stahala, Caroline
Vanderbilt, Carla

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