Natasha Gillies

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I'm a Postdoctoral Research Associate, investigating how wind conditions interact with individual behaviour to modulate the foraging decisions made by wandering albatross as they hunt for food at sea. I'll be using high resolution GPS data to quantify the behaviour of albatross while at sea, and look at how their decisions to switch between different behavioural states are linked to environmental conditions and personality.

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Before joining SEGUL, I completed my PhD at the University of Oxford, where I studied the parental behaviour of Manx shearwaters in the UK and black-browed albatross in the Falkland Islands. As monogamous seabirds caring for their offspring in an extreme and unpredictable environment, in both species parents must coordinate their behaviour with their partner if they are to successfully raise their offspring. Using a combination of remote biologging and colony observations, I investigated the mechanisms by which parents coordinate their behaviour during incubation and chick rearing. 

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