Innes C. Cuthill (born 1960) is a professor of

behavioural ecology Behavioral ecology, also spelled behavioural ecology, is the study of the evolutionary basis for animal behavior due to ecological pressures. Behavioral ecology emerged from ethology after Niko Tinbergen outlined four questions to address when ...

at the

University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

. His main research interest is in

camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the ...

, in particular how it evolves in response to the

colour vision Color vision, a feature of visual perception, is an ability to perceive differences between light composed of different wavelengths (i.e., different spectral power distributions) independently of light intensity. Color perception is a part of ...

of other animals such as

predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

Life

Innes Cuthill was educated at

University College School ("Slowly but surely") , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day school , religion = , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = Mark Beard , r_head_label = , r_hea ...

, London. He read zoology at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, graduating in 1982 and gained his D.Phil. at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

in 1985. He worked at Oxford until 1989 when he became a lecturer at the

. He became a professor there in 1998 and was head of the School of Biological Sciences there from 2008 to 2012. He describes himself as "wear ngtwo hats, behavioural ecologist and sensory ecologist", unified by seeking to explain the "design, through

natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Charle ...

, of animal form and function." He states that his main research interest is in the

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

of one kind of animal, such as prey, in response to the colour vision of another kind of animal, such as a

Work

Cuthill has contributed to over 180 research papers, mainly on vision and

, though he has also written on the use of statistics in biology, cited over 1600 times, and on guidelines for reporting the use of animals in research, cited over 2000 times.

Awards and distinctions

Cuthill won the Scientific Medal of the

Zoological Society of London The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. It was founded in 1826. Since 1828, it has maintained the London Zoo, and since 1931 Whipsnade Park. History On 29 ...

in 1998, and the

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

and

NESTA Nesta (formerly NESTA, National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) is an innovation foundation based in the UK. The organisation acts through a combination of programmes, investment, policy and research, and the formation of part ...

award for mentoring in science in 2005. From 2007 to 2010 he was president of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. He gave the

Tinbergen Lecture The Tinbergen Lecture is an academic prize lecture awarded by the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (ASAB). Lecturers *1974 W.H. Thorpe *1975 G.P. Baerends *1976 J. Maynard Smith *1977 F. Huber *1978 R.A. Hinde *1979 J. Bowlby ...

of 2014 and won the 2018 ASAB medal for contributions to the science of animal behaviour.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cuthill, Innes English biologists 1960 births Living people Camouflage researchers