Vulturine guineafowl behaviour and demography

Linking behavioural and physiological responses to environmental change with population dynamics in an arid-adapted bird.

Vulturine guineafowl in Samburu National Reserve, Kenya (photo: Bernard Dupont, CC BY-SA)

Within the Vulturine Guineafowl Research Project at the Mpala Research Centre in Kenya, we study how this arid-adapted, social bird responds behaviourally and physiologically to changes in its environment, and how these responses relate to population dynamics.

The project combines long-term biologging data from GPS and accelerometer tags with direct observations to track changes in activity budgets and social group composition. We relate this to environmental data from temperature loggers, rainfall and NDVI. Additionally, we monitor hormonal changes using non-invasive faecal sample collection from target groups and record life-history events. Taken together, these rich data give insights into how wild animal populations respond behaviourally to environmental challenges, and how those responses scale from the individual to the social group and eventually the population.

The project was established by Damien Farine in 2016. In 2026, Charlotte Christensen joined as a co-PI and is now running the project.

People: Charlotte Christensen, Selin Ersoy

In collaboration with: Damien Farine • Grace H. Davis