New UT Center Combines Disciplines to Study Animal Behavior
The Collaborative for Animal Behavior (CoLAB) is a pioneering research center dedicated to understanding the complexities of animal behavior in a rapidly changing world. This new center within the UT College of Arts and Sciences brings together scholars from diverse fields to collaborate on research programs that address critical challenges at the intersection of animal behavior, environmental change, and human influence.
CoLAB integrates expertise across multiple disciplines and colleges at UT, including ecology and evolutionary biology, psychology, environmental sciences, mathematics, paleontology, neurobiology, animal science, and veterinary medicine. Its launch marks a significant step forward in growing the understanding of how animals interact with their environments and each other.
“Our goal is to establish UT as a national and international leader in the study of animal behavior,” said Elizabeth Derryberry, director of the center and a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB). “By asking timely questions about how animals use behavior to solve the problems imposed on them by global change, we aim to provide groundbreaking insights that can inform conservation efforts, ecological management, and our understanding of life on Earth.”
Researchers Unite for Holistic Approach
The idea to unite faculty from multiple fields into the collaborative of a research and academic center arose from the recognition that understanding animal behavior requires a holistic approach.
“Faculty from psychology bring critical insights about the cognitive, developmental, and motivational processes that underlie behavior, while faculty from EEB provide the ecological and evolutionary context,” said Todd Freeberg, associate director of the center and a professor in the Department of Psychology. “Together, these disciplines complement each other perfectly, enabling us to tackle questions that neither could fully address alone.”
Assistant Professor Jessie Tanner, a lead researcher at the center, combines these disciplines with her dual academic roles in both EEB and psychology.
“Behavior is the product of complex interactions between neurological processes, ecological pressures, and evolutionary history,” said Tanner. “Combining the strengths of faculty across college divisions allows us to explore these interactions in depth, offering a more comprehensive understanding of animal behavior.”
Other CoLAB members add to this wide range of insight from their varied backgrounds. Professor Daniel Hembree, Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences highlights the importance of integrating a deep-time perspective to the research.
“By studying the fossil record, we can trace the evolutionary roots of animal behaviors and better understand how they might respond to current environmental challenges,” said Hembree.
Assistant Professor Blair Downey, Department of Animal Science in the UT Institute Agriculture, underscores the practical applications of the team collaboration.
“Our work has direct implications for animal health and welfare, particularly as we seek to improve the lives of both wild and domestic species facing unprecedented changes in their habitats,” said Downey.
Initial Projects and Focus Areas
CoLAB already has projects underway that focus on key areas of animal behavior research. One of the central themes is how animals respond to a rapidly changing environment. Researchers are studying how noise and light pollution affect animal communication, perception, and decision-making, and how rising temperatures influence cognitive and physiological processes in different species.
Another major theme is the study of information transfer in human-altered environments.
“We’re particularly interested in how animals communicate in environments disrupted by human activity,” said Assistant Professor Alejandro Vélez Meléndez, psychology. “For instance, how do frog vocalizations and hearing abilities change in noisy urban areas, and do these changes facilitate communication?”
Projects currently in progress include investigations into how sensory pollution affects mating and foraging behaviors in animals, the role of social learning in adaptation to new environments, and how immune responses increase or decrease social interactions in animals.
Moving forward, the center will seek to add faculty who bring innovative approaches to understanding behavior, whether through advanced data analytics, computational modeling, or insights into domestic animal health and welfare.
“The center is poised to make groundbreaking contributions to both basic science and applied conservation efforts,” said Derryberry. “CoLAB reflects the college’s forward-thinking vision in promoting multidisciplinary research that not only addresses current challenges but also generates novel hypotheses at the cutting edge of scientific collaboration.”
For more information about CoLAB, please contact Professor Elizabeth Derryberry, liz@utk.edu.
By Randall Brown