Dr. Susan K. Willson

Assistant Professor

I am a tropical avian ecologist and conservation biologist. I received my BA from Skidmore College, and my Ph.D from University of Missouri-Columbia. Before coming to SLU, I taught with the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) in Costa Rica, and also led a semester program in Tanzania for Earlham College while teaching there. I regularly teach General Biology, Ornithology, General Ecology, Environmental Security, and Tropical Ecology. I have done most of my professional research in Amazonian Peru on the population, community and behavioral ecology of a specialized group of birds called obligate army ant followers (families Thamnophilidae and Dendrocolaptidae). This work has led me to become a specialist on the army ants as well, and I am fascinated by how multiple colonies move over the landscape and interact in space and time. I am also interested in ecology and conservation of birds here in the North Country, and am currently focusing on the nesting success of grassland birds that nest in local agricultural hayfields. I welcome students who would like to join my lab and have interests in local or tropical birds, or army ants. I am affiliated with both Caribbean and Latin American Studies (CLAS) and African Studies, and welcome students interested in combining interests from multiple departments.

Representative publications:

Willson, S. K. 2004. Obligate army-ant-following birds: A study of ecology, spatial movement
    patterns, and behavior in Amazonian Peru. The American Ornithologists’ Union:
    Ornithological Monographs No. 55.