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

POSITIONS AVAILABLE for postdoctoral investigators, graduate students, and undergraduate students (starting in 2008).

Research and Professional Interests:

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. In press. Cooperative display and lekking behavior of the lance-tailed manakin (Chiroxiphia lanceolata). The Auk.

Laucht, S., E. H. DuVal, B. Kempenaers. In press. Maternal correlates of brood sex ratio variation in the lekking lance-tailed manakin. Journal of Avian Biology.

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 chracterization of novel microsatellite loci for parentage assessment in the lance-tailed manakin (Chiroxiphia lanceolata). Molecular Ecology Notes.(doi:10.1111/j.1471-8286.2007.01795.x).

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. The 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:

Stahala, Caroline

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