Our research investigates how chemical defences and visual signals are perceived by predators, and how these perceptions shape the evolution and diversification of warning colouration and behaviour. In collaboration with the Max Planck Society and the University of Costa Rica, we study Costa Rican poison frogs that vary naturally in colour, toxicity, and behaviour, examining how visual signals, behavioural strategies, and the sequestration of dietary toxins interact to influence predator responses under natural ecological conditions.

Complementary experiments with naïve domestic chicks provide mechanistic insight into predator perception, revealing innate biases such as avoidance of red stimuli, preferences for prey shape, and neural responses to taste cues.

In parallel, through collaborative work funded by the Australian Research Council, we investigate geographic and temporal variation in warning colouration and chemical defence in the tiger moth Amata nigriceps across eastern Australia. By comparing populations that differ in climate and predator community structure, we quantify how environmental context and predator pressure shape the expression, reliability, and maintenance of warning signals across space and time. Together, these approaches link ecological variation with behavioural and sensory mechanisms to explain how predator cognition drives the evolution and persistence of chemical defence and signalling systems.

Publications

Hämäläinen, L., Binns, G. E., Hart, N. S., Mappes, J., McDonald, P. G., O’Neill, L., Rowland, H. M., Umbers, K. D. L., Herberstein, M. E. Predator selection on multicomponent warning signals in an aposematic moth.

Binns, G., Hämäläinen, L., Kemp, D. J., Rowland, H. M., Umbers, K. D. L., Herberstein, M. E. Additive genetic variation, but not temperature, influences warning signal expression in Amata nigriceps moths (Lepidoptera: Arctiinae). Ecology and Evolution, 12(7): e9111. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9111

Klank, J., Profit-Sánchez, F., Mora-Rojas, P., Rowland, H.M., Stynoski, J. How to move and when to escape: quantifying intraspecific exploratory and anti-predator behaviour in an aposematic poison frog. Ecology and Evolution, 1-18.