PAST RESEARCH
NICHOLAS WU
Ecological Physiologist at Western Sydney University, Australia
0000-0002-7130-1279
Tuatara scent-discrimination behaviour
Special topic project (BIOL307) - University of Waikato, New Zealand
Advisor:
Prof. Joseph R. Waas
About:
Tuataras are a primitive group of reptiles from the order Rhynchocephalia. They are endemic to New Zealand and are highly cryptic. During the breeding season, conspecific interaction is mainly visual with territorial males being highly aggressive towards other males within their territory. The discovery of the “tuataric acid”, produced within the tuatara cloaca may play a possible role in pheromone communication, and tuatara have been shown to use chemosensory to detect prey. Individual tuataras have unique mixtures of triglycerols that remain stable over many years, potentially allowing individual recognition. I examined the behaviour of tuatara subjected odours of tuatara from different geographic regions. In particular, if tuatara are able to behaviourally detect and discriminate between the same population and different populations.
Skills:
Cloacal odour extraction, camera set-up, and behavioural analysis through video recording.
Species:
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Tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus)
A tuatara from the Hamilton Zoo. N. Wu
Restraining a tuatara for extracting cloacal secretions. J. Wass
A tuatara at the Otorohanga KiwiHouse. N. Wu
A baby kiwi (Apteryx) being hand fed. N. Wu
An adult brown kiwi (Apteryx mantelli) at the Otorohanga KiwiHouse. N. Wu