PREVIOUS RESEARCH

The underside of the tail fluke of a humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae. The unique shape and patterns can be used to identify individual animals.

Behavior and Photo-Identification of Whales and Dolphins

Between November 2017 and April 2018, I worked as a research intern at the Pacific Whale Foundation in Maui, Hawaii. I conducted weekly field work, including land-based theodolite surveys of humpback whale behavior as part of a research project investigating how the whales responded to boat traffic and boat-based photographic-identification (photo-ID) surveys contributing to ongoing studies on the population dynamics of four local odontocete species. In between field work, I analyzed photo-ID data of humpback whale flukes and odontocete dorsal fins.

Between July 2017 and October 2017, I worked as a research intern at the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program in Sarasota, Florida. For approximately one week out of every month, I took part in photo-ID surveys monitoring local dolphin population dynamics and behavior. When not in the field, I analyzed dolphin dorsal fin photo-ID data and updated the fin photo database.

halbiv sand dive day 1 #2_for website.m4v

Sand-diving behavior of the slippery wrasse, Halichoeres bivittatus.

Sand-diving Behavior of Wrasses (Family Labridae)

As an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, I worked in Dr. Mark Westneat's lab studying the biomechanics, kinematics, and associated morphology of sand-diving behavior in wrasses (family Labridae). Sand-diving is a quick and forceful headfirst plunge into the substrate followed by the propagation of traveling waves from head to tail. The undulatory body movements completely conceal the individual beneath the surface, and many labrid fish use this behavior to avoid predators and rest under the sand at night. Following field and laboratory observations of sand-diving, I hypothesized and showed that the behavior is composed of two distinct phases of undulatory axial body movements, with clear variation in frequency, wavespeed, and amplitude between phases. I also compared labrid fish specimens and found trends in morphological features that could contribute to burrowing ability, and used an ancestral state reconstruction made by members of Dr. Westneat’s lab to show the evolutionary history of sand-diving behavior.

I presented this research in my senior thesis, and in September 2018, I published my findings with Dr. Westneat in the Journal of Fish Biology (online here). I also shared my findings at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology’s January 2016 meeting and at the University of Chicago 2015 Undergraduate Research Symposium.

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