Matt Chaumont

PictureHiking Parpaner Rothorn - Lenzerheide, CH
Bio
I have a minor in psychology and a major in behavioural ecology (BA Science, Monash University), a BA Fine Arts (UWS), and an MA Time and Space from the Academy of Fine Arts (Kuvataideakatemia), Helsinki Finland. At UWS, I received the Golden Key award and membership to the national honors society and more recently received the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment summer scholarship, along with the HIE BSc (Hons) scholarship. I have also completed 1 year abroad at Uppsala University Sweden, where I completed a Masters level behavioral ecology double credit under Anna Qvarnström. This led to a research assistant role on the Swedish island Öland for Uppsala University, working in the Flycatcher Hybrid zone, where I assisted David Wheatcroft with his Flycatcher playback and cross-fostering experiments. I have also briefly assisted Anastasia Dalziell as a fieldwork assistant in the stunning upper Blue Mountains with her important work on the Superb Lyrebird.
My interests include the co-evolutionary approach to understanding behaviour, in general, and in particular with regards to how behaviours and traits alike evolve to optimise fitness outcomes as a response to selection pressures asserted by dynamic ecological and social conditions (pressures like parasites, predators, culture, the environment and climatic variability, etc). I am also interested in context-dependent decision-making along with optimality and trade-off theory. At the moment, I am focused on exploring some co-evolutionary relationships with a relatively recent model species – the Australian reed warbler (Acrocephalus australis) and the effects of what appears to be a historic parasite-host relationship. I am also evaluating the applicability of ‘the egg density technique’ and the relative contribution of climate variables in predicting the developmental stage of an egg in that same species.
Picture3D printed cuckoo, placed at an Australian reed warbler nest - Richmond, Australia.
Past research (Honours - first class)

Frontline adaptations in Australian reed warblers against a ghost of brood parasitism past
The Australian reed warbler has been shown under experimental conditions to display nest defense behaviors, such as the ability to discriminate between foreign eggs and their own (Welbergen, 2001). Traits such as these are often associated with species undergoing selection in a brood parasite-host relationship. Acrocephalus australis is not currently parasitised, which suggests that shown defensive behaviors are evolved responses to a historic antagonist, or, as we might put it, the ‘ghosts of parasitism past’.

Defensive counter‐adaptations resulting from a particular parasite-host relationship evolve to negotiate specific fitness impositions brought about by the behaviors of a specific antagonist. Adaptations and counter-adaptations co-evolve; as an offensive trait (in this case the behaviour of the historic brood parasite) is introduced into the system there is corresponding selection pressure on the host species (in this case the Australian reed warbler) favouring the evolution of a defensive counter-adaptation (adaptations and counter-adaptations can develop at multiple levels). This coevolutionary relationship allows us to experimentally exploit the discriminatory ability of the host at multiple levels in order to discover the identity of the yet unknown brood parasite. Thus, the hypothesis predicts that the host species will be able to identify the ghosts of parasitism past. To test this hypothesis, I have proposed an experiment that takes advantage of 3D scanning and printing techniques to produce reproducible egg and taxidermic models of candidate parasite species--endemic to the study site.

Using 3D prints of a variety of parasitic cuckoos' (and a control species) I hope to elicit a recognition response and subsequent host defense behaviours. I expect there to be specific defensive responses to specific evolutionarily-relevant protagonists. By answering this question, identifying the protagonist species, and understanding the Australian reed warbler’s ability to detect the ghost parasite. I also hope to expand the Australian reed warbler's usefulness as a model organism for experimentally testing coevolutionary questions, introduce it as a species for exploring the maintenance of lingering traits and, evaluate 3D modelling as practice in avian field biology. 

A morphological and reflectance spectrophotometry library of Australian brood parasites and their hosts
Behavioural research often relies on artificial stimuli as part of the experimentation process (Hauber et al, 2014). Brood parasite-host studies are often dependent on hard to come by taxidermy models/mounts of the variety of relevant species required to achieve the researcher goals. The literature indicates that brood parasites, hosts, predators and control specimens are of frequent use in these studies and recent experience has shown that taxidermy mounts of sufficient quality are getting more difficult to source. The difficulty arises because of ethically responsible laws forbidding intended kills as a source of taxidermy material, and because museums are less willing to share their valuable resources for field studies. Taxidermy mounts too have their drawbacks, they require protection from environmental conditions and often the model organism being studied (due to attacks and the like). In the past, the vulnerability of the taxidermy mounts and the difficulty sourcing them has lead to the production of timber and clay mounts. These mounts have formed the backbone of a number of important studies in behavioural ecology, but they have a shortcoming too, relying on the subjective view, and talents, of the modeller.

To replace taxidermy and hand modelled mounts, and to produce mounts that are reproducible, able to be manipulated for size, shape, traits, and other sensory traits, etc, requires a new approach. It is my suggestion that consumer technology in two fields - 3D printing/scanning and, digital photography (see Troscianko & Stevens unpublished article - A Digital Imaging Toolbox for Biologists) - has come of age and will serve as a solution for the above problems, enabling the printing and painting of biologically accurate mounts. To this end, I will develop a 3D scan and spectrophotometry library of Australian brood parasites and their hosts, free to all whom would benefit from its use, and I would hope that other researchers working in this field would add to it as a course of their future research efforts.

Book reviews
Nick Davies, Cuckoo: cheating by nature, Emu - Austral Ornithology, 117:1, 103-104, DOI: 10.1080/01584197.2017.1275263. Matt Chaumont. (2017).
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David P. Barash, Out of Eden: The Surprising Consequences of Polygamy (2016). Human Ethology Bulletin. Matt Chaumont - accepted for publication. (2018).

Thesis (Honours - first class)

GIVING UP THE PARASITE BUT NOT THE GHOST: Identifying a ghost of brood parasitism past. Hawkesbury Institute of the Environment, Western Sydney University. Matt Chaumont (2016).

Current activities  
I am currently studying parental behaviour and child development in my two young daughters. And where possible I am investigating relaxed selection and enemy discrimination across a variety of species and keeping up with the brood parasite-host coevolutionary arms race literature. On top of that I have been learning GIS software, investigating big data and am currently reading Social behaviour: genes, ecology and evolution. Cambridge University Press. Székely, T., Moore, A. J., & Komdeur, J. (Eds.). (2010).

Current ideas 
Host-System Integrity (evolved defensive thresholds that prevent future brood parasitism). 
Cultural Traps (conflict between cultural selection and sexual/other selection that is fitness reducing). 
Subordinate Release (relaxed selection across and down dominance hierarchies though coalitionary strategies and niche construction). 
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3D printed cuckoos
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