Assistant Teaching Professor
Fields of Interest
Education
Biography
For my dissertation, I studied maternal care in a neotropical frog, Leptodactylus insularum, in Panama. These large frog mommas often care for schools of 1000s of tadpoles in temporary ponds. I found that they reached metamorphosis surprisingly quickly, growing from egg to juvenile froglet in about two weeks! In order to grow and develop so fast, these tadpoles were constantly active and foraging. This activity attracted a lot of attention from predators, such as fishing spiders and herons, and I found that the only schools that survived to metamorphosis had a mother guarding them. These courageous moms not only fought off predators (even my hand!), but also communicated with the schools, guiding them to safe foraging areas. Some males have large and muscular arms with thumb spines (intrasexually selected weapons), and the only males I observed breeding were huge and covered in battle scars.
I’m a Behavioral Ecologist that has studied parental care, territoriality, male-male combat, vocal communication, mating and courtship in frogs, birds, and fish throughout the Neotropics. In zoos, I designed enrichment for monkeys and frogs, and used positive reinforcement to train monkeys and sea lions, skills that I am now using to study wild hummingbirds!
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Selected Research
- Alejandro Rico-Guevara, Diego Sustaita, Kristiina J. Hurme, Jenny E. Hanna, Sunghwan Jung, Daniel J. Field. (2024) Upper bill bending as an adaptation for nectar feeding in hummingbirds. J R Soc Interface ; 21 (220): 20240286. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2024.0286
- Intrasexually selected weapons, Rico-Guevara Alejandro and Hurme Kristiina, Biological Reviews, Volume 94 (2019)
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Autumn 2025
Spring 2025
Autumn 2024
Spring 2024
Autumn 2023
Spring 2023
Additional CoursesBiol 452 - Vertebrate Biology (lab)
Biol 417 - Comparative Reproductive Physiology of the Vertebrates
Biol 497B - Exploring Natural History through Citizen Science
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