Alice Barratt

My interests are in the ecological function and adaptive significance of behavioural and physiological responses to thermal conditions and predation risk. A central theme of my work is the role of torpor—a temporary, controlled reduction in body temperature and metabolic rate—in reducing starvation risk and, by altering foraging decisions, predation risk. By linking field-based biologging with behaviour and ecological context, my research aims to understand the costs and benefits of energy management strategies, improve knowledge of thermal physiology in free-living animals, and assess how energetic constraints shape vulnerability to environmental variability.