Professor Paul McDonald
Professor in Animal Behaviour - School of Environmental and Rural Science
Phone: +61 2 6773 3317
Email: paul.mcdonald@une.edu.au
Biography
Dr Paul McDonald is a Professor in Animal Behaviour in the School of Environmental and Rural Science. Paul’s research focuses on understanding behaviour and the impacts that this has on both fitness benefits, but also management and conservation decisions. Further details on current projects can be found on lab webpages below, and research students are encouraged to enquire about relevant projects. Broadly, Paul’s research includes studying vocal communication in birds, using bioacoustics to passively monitor biodiversity, and studying the factors that shape sociality in complex societies. These research projects have been supported through a range of research partners, such as Local Land Services and the Department of Planning and Environment, as well as funding bodies including the Australian Research Council.
Qualifications
BSc(Hons I)(Adv)(UoW), PhD(ANU), PGCertHEd (Macq)
Teaching Areas
I am the unit coordinator of Animal Behaviour (ZOOL326/526) and the Botswanana Zoology Overseas Study Tour (OSSE300/500). I also contribute to lectures and practicals as part of the team teaching Biology I (BIOL110) and Principles of Zoology (ZOOL100).
Research Interests
- Cooperation and conflict in complex social groups
- Ecological consequences of sociality, including reduced biodiversity and vegetative health
- Animal behaviour, particularly animal communication
- Passive acoustic monitoring of biodiversity
Animal Behaviour and Ecology Lab (More information on my research)
Publications
Below is a selected list of representative publications, for a full list of publications please see Animal Behaviour and Ecology Lab
Selected Peer Reviewed Publications
Barati A, Andrew RL, McDonald PG. (2021). Nestling sex does not influence provisioning effort of parents or helpers in a cooperative bird with a male‑biased helper contingent. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 75: 94-89. Website
McDonald PG, Doohan S, Eveleigh K (2021) Using referential alarm signals to remotely quantify ‘landscapes of fear’ in fragmented woodland. Bioacoustics , DOI: 10.1080/09524622.2021.2013319. Website
Roe P, Eichinski P, Fuller RA, McDonald PG, Schwarzkopf L, Towsey M, Truskinger A, Tucker D, Watson DM (2021) The Australian Acoustic Observatory. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 12: 1802-1808. Website
Farrow LF, Barati A, McDonald PG (2020) Cooperative bird discriminates between individuals based purely on their aerial alarm calls. Behavioral Ecology 31: 440-447. Website
Hu H, Sansalone G, Wroe S, McDonald PG, O’Connor JK, Li Z, Xu X, Zhou Z (2019) Evolution of the vomer and its implications for cranial kinesis in Paraves. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116: 19571-19578. Website
McDonald PG, Rollins LA, Godfrey S. (2016). The relative importance of spatial proximity, kin selection and potential “greenbeard” signals on provisioning behavior among helpers in a cooperative bird. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 70: 133–43. Website
McEvoy JF, Hall GP, McDonald PG. (2016). Evaluation of unmanned aerial vehicle shape, flight path and camera type for waterfowl surveys: disturbance effects and species recognition. PeerJ 4: e1831. Website
Wright J, McDonald PG. (2016). Bell miners: Kin-selected helping decisions. Cooperative breeding in vertebrates: Studies of ecology, evolution, and behavior. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, p272–93. Website
McDonald PG. (2012). Cooperative bird differentiates between the calls of different individuals, even when vocalizations were from completely unfamiliar individuals. Biology Letters 8: 365–8. Website
McDonald PG, Griffith SC. (2011). To pluck or not to pluck: the hidden ethical and scientific costs of relying on feathers as a primary source of DNA. Journal of Avian Biology 42: 197–203. Website
McDonald PG, Wright J. (2011). Bell miner provisioning calls are more similar among relatives and are used by helpers at the nest to bias their effort towards kin. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 278(1723): 3403–11. Website
McDonald PG, Wilson DR, Evans CS. (2009). Nestling begging increases predation risk, regardless of spectral characteristics or avian mobbing. Behavioral Ecology 20: 821–9. Website
McDonald PG, Olsen PD, Cockburn A. (2004). Weather dictates reproductive success and survival in the Australian brown falcon Falco berigora. Journal of Animal Ecology 73: 683–92. Website
McDonald PG, Fonseca CR, Overton J, Westoby M. (2003). Leaf‐size divergence along rainfall and soil‐nutrient gradients: is the method of size reduction common among clades? Functional Ecology 17: 50–7. Website
