Our research asks a central question: How do animals use noisy, dynamic sensory input to produce adaptive and near-optimal behaviour? We approach this from multiple angles, combining behavioural experiments, fieldwork, and computational tools to study how animals perceive, process, and act on uncertain information in real-world settings.

Key Research Themes

1. Visually Guided Navigation and Spatial Cognition
We investigate how animals use vision to orient, navigate, and make movement decisions—especially in complex, cluttered, and changing environments. This includes understanding the underlying mechanisms of spatial cognition and landmark use.

2. Object Recognition and Decision-Making Under Uncertainty
This theme explores how animals detect and recognise objects, and how they make decisions when object identity is uncertain. We investigate how recognition systems function under natural sensory constraints and the strategies animals use to guide effective behaviour.

3. Sensory Ecology in a changing world
We explore how natural and human-made sensory pollution and environmental change affect animal perception and behaviour. Current projects are investigating how increasing turbidity influences fish behaviour and how urban development alters the navigational cues available to birds. This work aims to understand how changing environments impact the way animals interact with their surroundings, and what mechanisms they have to cope with changing conditions.

4. Tools for Studying Animals in the Wild
We are using cutting-edge technology to develop new tools that enable biologists to collect novel types of data on animal behaviour. These advances allow us to move beyond the lab and study animals in the environments to which they are naturally adapted. Current projects include the use of photogrammetry for 3D terrain mapping and spatial recognition, object tracking, and reinforcement learning to better understand how animals perceive and interact with their surroundings.