Stephanie King

My research focuses on the mechanisms of animal behaviour, particularly the cognitive basis of social behaviour, and the evolution of complex communication.

Current projects include a long-term study of the male alliances found in the Shark Bay dolphin population in Western Australia, providing a unique opportunity to understand how vocal communication strategies may have evolved to facilitate male cooperation.

I use a combination of field-based playback experiments, drone technology, long-term datasets, and social network analyses to explore communication’s role in the evolution of cooperation.