Farine Group - Social evolutionary ecology

The Farine Group aims to understand how individuals navigate their physical and social landscapes and how, in turn, individual decisions impact physiology and fitness. Notably, we have developed novel theory to predict how optimal decisions at the individual level drive conflict among group members, discovered how groups resolve conflicting preferences among members, uncovered complex multilevel societies in birds, and tested how individual differences in these patterns and processes shape survival and reproduction.

We specialize in combining advanced analytical and data-collection techniques to scale up from moment-by-moment decisions and interactions among individuals to emergent population-level outcomes. Our techniques include deep-learning tools for individual identification and behavioural classification, the development of novel Bluetooth Low Energy trackers for studying movement ecology, and advances in biologging through the combination of group-level GPS tracking with physiological data loggers. We then apply state-of-the-art analytical approaches to capture movement and social decisions across scales, from step-by-step movements to dispersal and migratory displacements. In many of our studies, we also develop our own analytical approaches, allowing us to effectively test predictions from theory.

As well as testing theory, we increasingly deliver knowledge that addresses applied problems. These include understanding the causes of rapid declines in small passerines, studying how animals adapt to urban environments, and building knowledge of how the increased deployment of renewable energy infrastructure affects biodiversity. While our work is predominantly focused on common species, we aim to generate knowledge that directly informs programmes for threatened species and improves our understanding of the capacity and limits of animals to respond to extreme environmental change.

One of our strengths is that we apply these novel approaches and test theory using long-term studies. This long-term perspective allows us to better link fine-scale decisions by individuals to long-term consequences. While we use a range of both wild and captive study systems to address our questions, we actively maintain several long-term empirical systems. These include the vulturine guineafowl project in Kenya (established in 2016), the superb fairywren project at the Australian National Botanical Gardens (established in 1987), the white-winged chough project in Canberra (established in 1985), and monitoring of mixed-species flocks at Mulligans Flat Nature Reserve (established in 2009). We also collaborate on the dolphin-fisher project, which has studied cooperation between dolphins and artisanal fishers in Brazil (in Laguna and Tramandaí, since the 1980s), and has established a new monitoring programme for these interactions in India (since 2024).