Personal Jorney

I completed my Bachelor in Biology in 2014 and became a Master in Biodiversity, Genetics and Evolution in 2016 at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto. I joined The Sociable Weaver Project as a master student, investigating the rules of cooperative care. In 2017, I obtained a scholarship to continue my research in the Project as a doctoral student. My PhD research focuses on prenatal allocation strategies and how these vary according to ecological and social factors, as well as on maternal effects and their consequences for offspring, parents and helpers in this cooperatively breeding system.

Research Interests

I have a broad interest in behavioural and evolutionary ecology questions. My research has been focused on reproductive strategies, maternal effects and cooperative care in group living systems. I like to explore whether and how environments lead to variation of traits and behaviour and to ultimately study the fitness consequences of different (reproductive) strategies. I am keen on working with long-term datasets as well as on integrating different fields, such as physiology and acoustics, to answer my research questions.

Email: ritafortuna@hotmail.com