Since spring 2023, I have been assisting with behavioral research under the mentorship of graduate student Rebecca McKee in the McCleery Lab. I started as a volunteer in her field experiments, learning how to use Sherman traps to catch cotton rats and then conducting behavioral assays such as an emergence test and open-field test. Now, I am an official undergraduate assistant in the lab, attending weekly lab meetings and analyzing camera data from the field experiments that I helped conduct. Being a member of the lab varies in time commitment, but can range from 4 to 8 hours a week, depending on the amount of camera trap data I get through. This research project that I will coauthor on is about testing the validity of behavioral assays in the field on cotton rats; in other words, I am testing if these assays are accurately measuring behavioral repeatability. After testing the assays, I will use validified assays to identify if certain behavioral traits affect cotton rat survival and fitness.
I presented a poster about my research on November 13, 2024 at the UF Undergraduate Research Symposium as part of the Emerging Scholars Program.
I am a coauthor of the article that is to be published in the Journal of Animal Ecology in 2025.