Siberian jays

The Siberian jay project is a long-term project lead by PD Dr. Michael Griesser and Dr. Miya Warrington. It has been operating for over 35 years in managed and pristine natural Boreal forests in Swedish Lapland. The project built upon the work of Folke Lindgren (1918-2018), who began studying Siberian jays in 1952, laying the foundation for our understanding of the species. Research focused initially on the breeding biology, the social life, and conservation. It subsequently developed to investigate the evolution of sociality and acoustic communication, using an integrative approach and incorporating the effects of ecological factors on individual and population-level behavioural responses. 

An overview of our past work can be found here. 

Siberian jays are a family-living corvid species and fledged juveniles either stay with their parents or disperse into other family groups to become a non-breeder. These non-breeders assist with territorial and antipredator defence, but do not care for young. Thus, Siberian jays are not cooperative breeders, groups vary in social features and have a high degree of social flexibility in their social relationships. In autumn, each individual caches large amounts of food that is hidden in lichens and under tree bark to survive the 7 month long winters a the study site.

As climatic warming alters snow cover characteristics in polar regions and increases the frequency of winter thaw events, Siberian jays are likely negatively affected, as thaw events reduce the quality of cached food. Our current projects investigate the drivers of variation in social interactions among Siberian jays and their behavioral adaptations to the adverse effects of climate change and forestry.