June 2014: Robert Hinde, and an antipredator defence special

Professor Robert Hinde, the Emeritus Royal Society Research Professor of Zoology at the University of Cambridge is this month's Scientific Spark. Robert talks about the early days of ornithology research just after the war, and his memories of David Lack and Niko Tinbergen.
The rest of the episode is an anti-predator defence special! I talk to Jolyon Troscianko from project nightjar about his research on the camouflage of eggs and chicks of African birds. I also find out about an animal that dupes it’s predators by looking like an evolutionary ghost.

Download the MP3

A Mozambique nightjar from one of @projectnightjar nests in Zambia.

Quicklinks:
Project nightjar's twitter page
Project nightjar's webpage
Christopher Akcali and David Pfennig's paper on snake mimicry
Professor Robert Hinde