Food selection in mammalian herbivores is a careful balancing act where individuals must consume enough plant material to meet their metabolic needs while while simultaneously avoiding the over-ingestion of plant defensive toxins. In addition to these physiological challenges, herbivores also face several ecological pressures while foraging such as competition for limited food resources, predation, and habitat disturbance. In this project we are investigating how these stressors influence the foraging choices of herbivores through a mark-and-recapture survey of small mammals at local preserves near Union College. 

Plants and herbivores have been in an evolutionary arms race for millions of years. Most plants produce toxic compounds to deter herbivores from feeding on them and in turn herbivores evolve the ability to physiologically tolerate specific plant toxins that are abundant in their diet. We have this arms race to thank for the evolution of many important plant-derived defensive toxins that we use medicinally today such as morphine and aspirin. In this project we are investigating the mechanisms that allow mammalian herbivores to tolerate different classes of plant toxins by leveraging physiological and molecular biology approaches.