Nicholas Barry Davies FRS[3] (born 1952)[1] is a British field naturalist and zoologist, and Emeritus Professor of Behavioural ecology at the University of Cambridge, where he is also an Emeritus Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge.[4]
Nick Davies | |
|---|---|
 Nick Davies in 2019 | |
| Born | Nicholas Barry Davies May 23, 1952[1] |
| Citizenship | British |
| Education | Merchant Taylors' Boys' School, Crosby |
| Alma mater |
|
| Spouse |
Jan Parr (m. 1979) |
| Children | 2[1] |
| Awards |
|
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Zoology Behavioral ecology |
| Thesis | The feeding behaviour of some insectivorous birds (1976) |
| Euan Dunn[2] | |
| Website | www |
Education
editDavies was privately educated at the Merchant Taylors' Boys' School, Crosby and the University of Cambridge where he was a student at Pembroke College, Cambridge.[1] He was awarded a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1973, which was automatically converted into a Master of Arts (MA) degree in 1977.[1] He completed his PhD at the University of Oxford in 1976 supervised by Euan Dunn.[2][1]
Career and research
editDavies books with John Krebs helped to define the field of behavioural ecology, the study of how behaviour evolves in response to selection pressures from ecology and the social environment.[5][6][7]
Davies study of dunnocks, linked detailed behavioural observations of individuals to their reproductive success, using DNA profiles to measure paternity and maternity, and revealed how sexual conflicts gave rise to variable mating systems including: monogamy, polygyny in animals, polyandry in animals and polygynandry.[citation needed]
Davies studies of cuckoos and their hosts have revealed an evolutionary arms race of brood parasite adaptations and host counter-adaptations.[citation needed]
Other studies include: territory economics in pied wagtails; contest behaviour and mate searching in butterflies and toads; parent-offspring conflict and the transition to independence in young birds.[citation needed]
Awards and honours
edit- Scientific Medal of the Zoological Society of London, 1987[citation needed]
- Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1994[3]
- University of Cambridge Teaching Prize, 1995[citation needed]
- William Bate Hardy Prize of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 1995[8]
- Medal of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour, 1996[citation needed]
- President of the International Society for Behavioural Ecology, 2000-2002[citation needed]
- British Trust for Ornithology / British Birds "Best Book of the Year Award" in 2000 (for Cuckoos, Cowbirds and Other Cheats) and in 2015 (for Cuckoo - Cheating by Nature).[citation needed]
- Frink Medal of the Zoological Society of London, 2001[citation needed]
- Elliott Coues Medal of the American Ornithologists' Union, 2005[9]
- Hamilton Prize Lecture of the International Society for Behavioural Ecology, 2010[citation needed]
- Croonian Medal and Lecture of the Royal Society, 2015[citation needed]
- Godman Salvin Medal of the British Ornithologists' Union, 2022[10]
Publications
editMedia coverage
editIn 2009, his research was featured as a BBC Natural World program "Cuckoo", produced by Mike Birkhead and narrated by David Attenborough.[citation needed]
In 2011 he presented a BBC Radio 4 documentary entitled 'The Cuckoo'.[16]
In 2016 he was interviewed by Jim Al-Khalili for The Life Scientific.[17]
In 2017 he was the guest of Michael Berkeley on the BBC Radio 3 show Private Passions.[18]
In 2017 he appeared in an episode of the BBC Radio 4 Natural Histories series entitled "Cuckoo".[19]
Personal life
edit
Davies married Jan Parr in 1976 and has two children.[1]
His entry in Who's Who lists his hobbies as cricket and birdwatching.[1]
References
edit- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Anon (2025). "Davies, Prof. Nicholas Barry unlocked". Who's Who (177th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 2720. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U13079. ISBN 9781399411837. OCLC 1427336388. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- 1 2 Davies, Nicholas Barry (1976). The feeding behaviour of some insectivorous birds. ox.ac.uk (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford. OCLC 44836319. ProQuest 1760091420.
- 1 2 "Nicholas Davies". royalsociety.org. London: The Royal Society. 2024.
- ↑ "Professor Nick Davies FRS". zoo.cam.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 26 December 2014.
- ↑ Manfred Milinski (23 May 2012). "Behavioural ecology: Design for living". Nature. 485 (7399): 444. doi:10.1038/485444A. ISSN 1476-4687. Wikidata Q74438286.
- ↑ Book Review: An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology, Animal Behaviour, Volume 85, Issue 3, March, Pages 686–687.
- 1 2 Krebs, J.R; Davies, N.B.; West, Stuart (2014). An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology (4th ed.). Wiley Blackwell. ISBN 9781444398472. OCLC 898271534.
- ↑ "Nicholas B. Davies". American Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
- ↑ "AOU | Elliott Coues Award | Nicholas B. Davies". aou.org. Archived from the original on 17 September 2010.
- ↑ Kilner, Rebecca (13 April 2022). "Godman-Salvin Prize: Nicholas B. Davies". Ibis. 164 (3): 858–859. doi:10.1111/ibi.13057. ISSN 0019-1019. S2CID 248172655.
- ↑ Krebs, J.R; Davies, N.B., eds. (1997). Behavioural Ecology - An Evolutionary Approach (4th ed.). Blackwell Science. [ISBN missing]
- ↑ Davies, N.B. (1992). Dunnock Behaviour and Social Evolution. Oxford University Press. [ISBN missing]
- ↑ Davies, N.B. (2000). Cuckoos, Cowbirds and Other Cheats. T. & A.D. Poyser. p. 310.
- ↑ Manfred Milinski (23 May 2012). "Behavioural ecology: Design for living". Nature. 485 (7399): 444. doi:10.1038/485444A. ISSN 1476-4687. Wikidata Q74438286.
- ↑ Dalrymple, Theodore (September 2015). "Review of Cuckoo: cheating by nature by Nick Davies". New English Review.[dead link]
- ↑ "The Cuckoo". Retrieved 11 March 2014.
- ↑ al-Khalili, Jim (2016) The Life Scientific: Nick Davies, BBC Radio 4 (Broadcast June 21, 2016)
- ↑ Private Passions BBC Radio 3 (broadcast August 6th, 2017)
- ↑ "Natural Histories". bbc.co.uk. BBC Radio 4. 8 August 2017. [dead link]