NSP Faculty in the News: Mark Hauber, Professor Animal Biology
Date
01/09/19
Double-barred Finch. Photo: G. Hofmann & F. Scheffer; Audubon
Related People
Mark E. Hauber
Harley Jones Van Cleave Professor of Host-Parasite Interactions
What's Up With the Weird Mouths of These Finch Chicks?
More Department News
- 5G WIRELESS - Chicago Tribune (May 1) – 5G, the fifth generation of wireless, promises lightning-fast download speeds and could lay the foundation for high-tech advancements like self-driving cars, but it’s also sparking health concerns.
- 3D printing is...allowing scientists to create models at a much finer scale, says ornithologist Mark Hauber at the University of Illinois in Urbana. Hauber studies a behavior known as brood parasitism, in which birds lay eggs in the nests of other species, leaving the unwitting foster parents to rear their chicks. Previously, researchers studied host birds’ reactions by placing plaster and wood models of parasitic eggs in their nests. But using 3D printing, Hauber’s team created far more realistic looking cowbird eggs, which allowed his team to examine whether variations of just a few millimeters in size influenced robins’ decisions to throw the parasitic eggs out of their nests.
- Hakai Magazine (Campbell River, Canada, April 17) – Mark Hauber, an animal behavior researcher at the U. of I., has discovered that year after year a female common murre will produce an egg with a shell pattern that has an individualized, recognizable pattern that is nearly identical to her previous eggs by manipulating just two pigments.
