Professor Darren Croft

Professor Darren Croft is Professor of Animal Behaviour and Co-Deputy Head of Psychology Department. He is a behavioural ecologist, and his research interests lie in two main questions (i) What are the mechanisms and functions that underpin the structure of animal societies? (ii) What are the ecological and evolutionary implications of this structure? To address these questions Darren’s research group combines experimental and observational work on wild animal populations with controlled laboratory experiments. The research topics covered by his group are broad and include the evolution of cooperation, life history evolution, social recognition and sexual conflict. As such they work on a wide range of study systems ranging from small freshwater fish to killer whales.

Postgraduate Research Opportunities: Prof Croft is open to email enquiries from students with their own funding who are interested in pursuing an MSc by Research or PhD in Animal Behaviour / Behavioural Ecology - particularly for projects on killer whale behaviour and ecology working in partnership with the Center for Whale Research. I am also open to supporting students who would like to apply to the China Scholarship Council, Commonwealth Scholarship, or other PhD funding schemes.