Dr Jamie Samson
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My interestsMy academic interests My PhD focused on cache protection and decision making in Cape ground squirrels (Xerus inauris). This work has allowed me to tackle questions on when animals cache in response to audience effects, what animals cache in terms of 'economic payoffs' and where animals cache to maximise recovery. In addition to this, I am interested in social dynamics, especially dominance hierarchies and how group demography can shape this. To tackle research questions related to this, I use a combination of computational statistics, dominance scoring techniques and social network analysis. My analytical interests I have a strong interest in data handling, analysis and visualisation, using the powerful programming software R to undertake these tasks. Please click on the links below to find examples of tools I have built or teaching materials I have published: Interactive software to mine the sentiment of news articles: click here An interactive guide to the timeline of scientific discoveries: click here Code to build route maps in R using ggmaps: click here
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Teaching materialsClick on the links below to view various teaching materials
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Profile
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PublicationsIn prep Samson, J., Manser, M. & Clutton-Brock, T. Fine-scale analysis of dominance hierarchies in the Cape ground squirrel (Xerus inauris) 2016 Samson, J. & Manser, M (2016). Use of the sun as a heading indicator when caching and recovering in a wild rodent. Scientific Reports, DOI: 10.1038/srep32570 Samson, J. & Manser,M. 2016. Are Cape ground squirrels (Xerus inauris) sensitive to variation in the payoffs from their caches? Ethology, DOI: 10.1111/eth.12504 2015 Samson, J. & Manser, M. 2015. Caching in the presence of conspecifics: Are Cape ground squirrels sensitive to audience attentiveness. Animal Cognition, DOI 10.1007/s10071-015-0910-0 2014 Bell, M.B.V., Cant, M.A., Borgeaud, C., Thavarajah, N, Samson, J. & Clutton-Brock, T. 2014. Suppressing subordinate reproduction provides benefits to dominants in cooperative societies of meerkats. Nature Communications, 5 4499 click here 2012 Hoppitt, W., Samson, J., Laland, K. N. & Thornton, A. 2012. Identification of learning mechanisms in a wild meerkat population. PloS ONE 7, e42044 click here Nielsen, J.F., English, S., Goodall-Copestake, W.P., Wang, J., Walling, C.A., Bateman, A.W., Flower, T.P., Sutcliffe, R.L., Samson, J., Thavarajah, N, Kruuk, L.E.B., Clutton-Brock, T. & Pemberton, J.M. 2012. Inbreeding and inbreeding depression of early life traits in a cooperative mammal. Molecular Ecology, 21, 2788-2804 Thornton, A. & Samson, J. 2012. Innovative problem-solving in wild meerkats. Animal Behaviour, 83, 1459-1468 2010 Thornton, A., Samson, J. & Clutton-Brock, T. 2010. Multi-generational persistence of traditions in neighbouring meerkat groups. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 277, 3623-3629
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Scientific presentationsJuly 2015: Annual "Mongoose meeting" at Cambridge University. "Patterns of dominance in the Cape ground squirrel" March 2015: European Student Conference on Behaviour and Cognition. "Head towards the light: Cape ground squirrels use the sun as a frame of reference when caching and recovering" July 2014: International Society for Behavioural Ecology. "Caching in the presence of conspecifics: Are Cape ground squirrels sensitive to audience attentiveness". December 2013: European student conference on Behaviour and Cognition: "Cache protection and decision making in the Cape ground squirrel" December 2012: ProDoc conference "Proximate and Ultimate Causes of Cooperation": "Cache protection and decision making in the Cape ground squirrel" October 2012: CogBio conference at the University of Zurich: "Cache protection and decision making in the Cape ground squirrel" July 2012: Annual "Mongoose meeting" at Cambridge University: "Cape ground squirrels of the Kalahari"
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