Current Research

Stuart’s current work focuses on the impact of environmental quality and change on the ecology, life history and behaviour of dippers. This is a long-term study of an individually marked population in Yorkshire Dales National Park which he established in 2013, building on previous studies in the same site dating back to the 1950s. The dipper is specialist bird of rivers and streams and a well-established indicator of water quality. Stuart’s other research includes work on the conservation ecology of common sandpipers; the population ecology and conservation of sun bears and other mammals in Malaysia; and a number of projects relating to the diversity and conservation of moths in North West England.

Previous research

Much of Stuart’s previous work focused on two major projects:

• The social behaviour and population ecology of long-tailed tits. This includes research on vocal communication, dispersal and population genetics. His work on kin recognition in this species was published in Nature in 2005 and has been cited over 200 times.
• Reproductive senescence in meerkats. This work focused on the relationship between sociality and senescence patterns in this species.

Current Teaching

Stuart teaches on a number of first, second and third year modules for the LEC BSc degree schemes in biology, ecology and zoology, including:

• field courses in Doñana, Spain, and in Kenya
• a first year module on Zoology
• a second year module on Vertebrate Biology
• a third year module on Animal Behaviour

PhD Supervision Interests

I am willing to consider proposals for projects on any topic related to avian or mammalian ecology.