Doors open at 10:30 a.m. | Presentation at 11 a.m.
In her new book The Social Lives of Birds, Washington University evolutionary biologist Joan Strassmann explores the behavior of social birds, showing that even in cooperative groups, each bird looks out for itself or its own family. Birds in flocks often try to place another bird between themselves and the direction a predator might come from. In communal nests, there is frequent egg tossing. Even birds in devoted pairs will find chances for philandering. With stories of birds from around the world, Strassmann will both entertain and inform. Drawing as well from her 2022 book Slow Birding, set entirely in the St. Louis area, she will share valuable lessons on how to observe and appreciate the beauty of birds in our own backyards.
About Joan Strassman:
Joan Strassmann is an award-winning teacher of animal behavior, first at Rice University in Houston and then at Washington University in St. Louis, where she is the Charles Rebstock Professor of Biology. She has written more than two hundred scientific articles on behavior, ecology, and evolution of social organisms. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a fellow of the Animal Behavior Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has held a Guggenheim Fellowship. She lives with her husband in St. Louis, Missouri and Leland, Michigan.
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The Member Speaker Series is presented by Siteman Cancer Center based at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.
View recordings of past Member Speaker Series programs here.
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