Nicholas Barry Davies
Nicholas Barry Davies FRS (born 1952) is a British field naturalist and zoologist, and Professor of Behavioural Ecology at the University of Cambridge, where he is also a Fellow of Pembroke College. Research. His books with John Krebs helped to define the field of behavioural ecology, the study of how behaviour evolves in response to selection pressures from ecology and the social environment. His study of a small brown bird, the dunnock, linked detailed behavioural observations of individuals to their reproductive success, using DNA profiles to measure paternity and maternity, and revealed how sexual conflicts gave rise  to variable mating systems including: monogamy, polygyny, polyandry and polygynandry. His studies of cuckoos and their hosts have revealed an evolutionary arms race of brood parasite adaptations and host counter-adaptations. Other studies include: territory economics in pied wagtails; contest behaviour and mate searching in butterflies and toads; parent-offspring conflict and the transition to independence in young birds. Media. In 2009, his research was featured as a BBC Natural World program "Cuckoo", produced by Mike Birkhead and narrated by David Attenborough. In 2011 he presented a BBC Radio 4 documentary entitled 'The Cuckoo'. In 2016 he was the subject  of a BBC Radio documentary in the series The Life Scientific. In 2017 he was the guest of Michael Berkeley on BBC Radio 3 Private Passions. In 2017 he appeared in an episode of the BBC Radio 4 Natural Histories series entitled "Cuckoo".