Kaia J Tombak, PhD

Food competition is an important but multi-faceted and complicated selection force to study. I have investigated it in colobus monkeys (using observations on food patch depletion), zebras (using DNA metabarcoding techniques on dung to describe diets), and now great apes (taking a nutritional ecology approach to understand foraging priorities). Photo credit: me.

The risk of disease transmission between group members is thought to promote group disaggregation in most cases. Much of my PhD focused on host-parasite dynamics in plains and Grevy’s zebras to try to understand this selection force, using parasitology, immunology, and genetics. Photo credit: Andy Johnson.

Bachelors in search of mates and predators in search of prey can both promote aggregation into groups as individuals seek safety in numbers and females try to buffer themselves against harassment. In a study (in review) my coauthors and I analyze the effects of these factors as well as the disaggregating effects of food competition and disease to understand why two different social systems have evolved in equids. Photo credit: me.