biological sciences HONOURs 2014 - The University of Sydney

50 CARNIVORE ECOLOGY,
EVOLUTION AND
BEHAVIOUR
Research Interests
Carnivores can have large effects on the structure and function
of food webs and ecological communities. Yet, the mechanisms
through which carnivores have these effects are often poorly
understood. My research uses an integrative approach to
understand how the physiology of carnivores influences their
behavioural choices and, ultimately, determines their role in
food webs. I am especially interested in how nutrition can
be used as a unifying framework to scale from molecules to
food webs. Recent work in my group has shown that lipid is
an important nutrient for carnivores, that lipid content varies
widely among prey, and that regulation of dietary lipid by
carnivores could be an important factor regulating food chain
length in arthropod communities.
More about my research interests can be found at my website:
sites.google.com/site/shawnmwilder
Honours projects
1. Why don’t spiders eat caterpillars more often? Caterpillars
are ecologically abundant prey. Yet, they account for less than
5 % of the prey fed upon by spiders in the field. This project
will test several hypotheses for why spiders seem to rarely feed
on caterpillars in nature. There is also the potential to examine
Dr Shawn Wilder
Room 323, Heydon-
Laurence Building A08
T: (02) 9036 6262
E: shawn.wilder@sydney.
edu.au
how spider avoidance of caterpillars affects levels of herbivory on plants either in a natural
setting or for agricultural crops.
2. What are the nutritional requirements of carnivores for growth and reproduction?
Much less is known about the nutritional requirements of carnivores relative to herbivores and
omnivores. Projects are available to examine the nutritional requirements of a range of different
carnivores and how these carnivores meet these requirements in nature. Studies can also be
done to compare the nutritional requirements of carnivores and herbivores.
3. How do marsupial carnivores regulate their diet? Several marsupial carnivores are
maintained in captivity for education and captive breeding programs. Projects are available to
examine the nutrient regulation of captive marsupial carnivores to test if they balance their diet
among macronutrients and to compare their dietary preferences with standard diets in captivity.
Projects can be done on several marsupial carnivores including dunnarts, quolls, or Tasmanian
devils, in collaboration with the Medical School, Secret Creek Sanctuary, or the Taronga Zoo.