variation & Trade-offs in ecological & physiological traits

Our research examines variation and trade-offs in phenotypic traits by combining behavioral, ecological, and physiological data collected from wild and captive animals. 

CURRENT RESEARCH projects

• Comparing specialization in leopard seal diets across their Southern Ocean range

• Determining the distribution of leopard seals across the southern hemisphere

• Examining ecological and physiological changes in gray wolves across a coastal to terrestrial gradient use

METHODS USED

• Field studies (e.g., New Zealand, Chile, Antarctica, Alaska)

• Stable isotope analysis

• Hormone analyses

• So many statistical analyses

some Findings

• Most leopard seal individuals are specialists that forage at specific trophic levels, even though the species is a generalist at the population level because of their diverse diet (Sperou et al. 2025)

• Northern elephant seals show dramatic sex-specific differences in their foraging strategies, where males use a high-risk, high-reward strategy compared to females (Kienle et al. 2022)

• Leopard seals show high variability in their movement patterns, dive behavior, trophic levels, and hormones (Kienle et al. 2022, Sperou et al. 2023, Sperou et al. 2025)

• Leopard seals are residents in South America (Borras-Chavez et al. 2024)