After a full day of behavioral observations, we couldn’t perceive an animal on the road in front of us.  Despite the animal being past our typical turn off of the dirt road to get back to our camp, we decided to check out the animal and take the long way back to our tents.  The animal itself was unspectacular - unspectacular only because of how common it is – it was a Springbok that had stood strangely on the side of the road.  However, this long way around also provided us a glimpse of a bat-eared fox, a purple roller, and to our surprise a pair of giraffes.  Had we taken the quick road home we would have missed all of this. 

As with this drive, we have also had to divert to taking the long road with the field research on sociable weaver behavior.  While we intended to observe cooperative nest construction of sociable weavers in a field aviary, we soon slowly discovered that the sociable weavers we put in the aviary were content with eating the termites and seed we had provided them, and performed none of the behavior we were interested in measuring.  Therefore we have switched to a typical observational study where we have placed color bands on free-living sociable weavers, and are in the process of cataloguing the same behaviors as we intended to in the aviary experiment.  In the days of observation so far, we have observed the behaviors we are interested in and have witnessed some remarkable instances of non-target behavior.  For instance, two days ago we saw a Gabar Goshawk attempt to catch a sociable weaver on the wing as a large foraging flock was coming back to the nest. 

As with the drive home, we’ve had to divert course on our animal behavior research out here.  We’re hoping that our new research course proves as fruitful as our detour did a few African evenings ago.  

I thought it would be a good idea to give an overview of myself and my research before blogging from the field.  I'm a graduate student in the department of biology at the University of Miami and study social behavior and evolution (check out my research page!).  To investigate these subjects I perform research on sociable weavers (Philetairus socius).  These little guys are small passerines that are endemic to Southwestern Africa and are one of the only (maybe the only) bird species that builds and maintains a communal nest that a colony will inhabit for multiple years.  Therefore, these birds provide a nice comparison to other species (see eusocial hymenoptera) that build and maintain a communal nest via cooperative behavior.  

This field season I'll be going back to Namibia to assess whether punishment drives the cooperative nest construction that is necessary for the maintenance of the nest.  Why would cooperation have to be maintained?  Well, selfish individuals that devote energy towards reproduction would be favored over individuals that devote time and energy towards maintaining this cooperative nest.  In this case we'd expect the selfish behavior to outcompete the cooperative behavior, thus requiring evolutionary mechanisms that maintain cooperative nest construction.  

Along with Laura Vander Meiden (check out her blog: http://beingthoreau.wordpress.com/) I'll be observing cooperative nest construction in the field.  I'm going to be experimentally depressing cooperative nest construction behavior in some birds and seeing how other colony-mates respond to the new selfish behavior of these individuals.  If these individuals are attacked or harassed more than what we observed before the forced selfishness, then this would be suggestive that individuals use punishment to induce cooperation.  In other words, the specter of punishment renders cooperation a more favorable strategy.  

I'll be blogging regularly from the BRinK research site in Namibia and will be updating everyone on interesting developments and will be snapping photos / videos and sharing them.  One of the best and worst parts of field research is trouble-shooting the inevitable equipment or logistical issues.  I'll share these as they often help others with their work, and often individuals in the comments think up even more ingenious solutions.  

We take off for the field in a few days, wish us godspeed with the work.  

This is what the start of a field aviary looks like.  After multiple PVC cuts,  we tried building this and realized exactly what we need in the field to complete this.  If you are going some place that doesn't have convenience stores located nearby, make sure you practice everything at least once before you get there.