What we can learn from sparrows, starlings, and lizards
To some people, house sparrows, Eurasian tree sparrows, European starlings, and brown anoles are cute little animals. Others see these non-native species more negatively, as invaders that compete with and displace native species like purple martins, Eastern bluebirds, and green anoles. To us, they are an invaluable resource that allows us to improve our understanding of the impacts of stress on animals and humans, and reveal what allows wildlife to thrive in new environments.
Our lab studies how different neurotransmitters and hormones help wild animals successfully cope with environmental challenges from predators to disease. The hormone and neurotransmitter pathways we study are very similar in in all vertebrates from fish to birds to mammals, so sparrow, starling, and lizard research can help us understand how these systems work in humans and other animals.
Lab News
Jan 2025
Several Lattin Lab members attended and presented research at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology meeting in Atlanta Georgia this month. Everyone did a great job, and we enjoyed meeting other scientists from all over the world.
PhD student Marquise Henry gives a talk about his neophobia research at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology annual meeting in Atlanta.
Undergraduate Blake Dusang gives a talk about her research examining differences in how sparrows respond to different types of novelty.
LAGNiAppE postbacc scholar Elena Liebl presents her undergraduate research from Oklahoma State University on aggression and exploration in crickets.
Undergraduate Danna Masri and PI Christine Lattin stand at Danna’s poster about behavioral syndromes in house sparrows at the 2025 Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology annual meeting.
Olivia Saari (left) and lab PhD student Katie Stewart (right) present their undergraduate research from Trinity University on fledgling order and sibling competition in titmice.
Former LAGNiAppE postbacc scholar Emily Stelling with her poster on corticosterone in invasive brown and native green anoles.
Dec 2024
Dr. Lattin was a collaborator on a new paper led by Kevin Pham from the Wada Lab at Auburn University. The paper’s results suggest that artificial light at night may have caused metabolic disruption in zebra finches in the lab, increasing their body mass and glucose concentrations, with limited impacts on corticosterone secretion.
Dec 2024
Two undergraduate researchers in our lab graduated this month! Congrats to Ella Cochran and Blake Dusang, who will be much missed and are sure to be brilliant at whatever they do next.
Undergraduate researcher Ella Cochran receives her honors hood and cord from Drew Lamonica Arms from the LSU Ogden Honors College.
Blake Dusang presents her research poster to listening students at a summer undergraduate research conference.
Dec 2024
Warmer springs can increase hatching asynchrony in birds, and in the lab's new paper (led by former PhD student Keegan Stansberry) we found asynchrony has persistent negative effects on free-living European starling nestlings, esp the smallest "runts," who have reduced survival, body size, and circulating glucose levels, and potentially disrupted stress hormone levels.
The smallest chick from nests where nestlings hatched over multiple days (i.e., not synchronous) tended to have higher baseline corticosterone (Cort) and lower stress-induced corticosterone compared to smallest chicks from nests that hatched on the same day. These patterns of hormone secretion may be signs of developmental stress in these nestlings. From Stansberry et al. 2024.
Dec 2024
In a recently published study of house sparrow gut microbiomes before and after malaria exposure, we found several bacteria that were more prevalent in malaria-resistant sparrows, suggesting these bateria may help protect sparrows from infection. This project was the senior honors thesis of undergraduate researcher Riley Noble (also the co-first-author!)
Panels A-C show three indicator species that significantly differed in prevalence and abundance between resistant and infected house sparrows before inoculation with Plasmodium relictum (a naturally occurring strain of avian malaria). From Noble et al. 2024.
Nov 2024
Four former undergraduates from the lab who are now in MD, PhD or MD/PhD programs were highlighted in a very nice feature story on the LSU College of Science blog. We are so proud of our amazing undergraduate researchers and it is an honor and a privilege for us to help train Louisiana’s next generation of doctors and scientists.
Kaitlin Couvillion, former lab member and current LSU Health New Orleans MD/PhD student.
Eve Gautreaux, former lab member and current neuroscience PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania.
Allison Cannon, former lab member and current LSU Health New Orleans medical student.
Ayushi Patel, former lab member and current PhD student at LSU Health New Orleans.
Nov 2024
Four members of the Lattin Lab are collaborators on the first ever ManyBirds project examining aversive behavior towards novelty (neophobia) in 136 different bird species! Overall, we found that neophobia was higher in some bird families than others, that birds with a specialized diet were more neophobic than those with a broader diet, and that migratory species were more neophobic than non-migratory species. You can read the preprint here.
Color-coded latency difference scores (latency to touch food in the novel object condition minus latency in the control condition; measured in seconds) for all bird species included in ManyBirds study 1 (n = 136).
Nov 2024
Congratulations to lab member Ella Cochran, who successfully defended her Senior Honors Thesis on gene expression in three behaviorally relevant brain regions in Eurasian tree sparrows (Passer montanus). Ella did an amazing job with a really technically difficult project, looking at how a bird’s sex and behavior affected what genes were “turned on” in the brain.
Nov 2024
Members of the lab with their painted but not yet fired celebratory mugs.
The 6th annual Lattin Lab retreat was a lovely day involving board games, a potuck brunch, and the painting of celebratory mugs at BellyFire Pottery Studios.
Aug 2024
Three new students joined the lab this month! PhD student Katie Stewart will be studying neophobia in house sparrows, PhD student Allison Morales Palomino will be focusing on host-parasite interactions in free-living European starlings, and LSU LAGNiAppE postbaccalaureate scholar Elena Liebl is leading a research project examining gene expression, behavior, and color in anole lizards. Welcome Allison, Elena, and Katie!
Aug 2024
Congratulations to undergraduate lab member Caroline Henry, who is the recipient of a 2024-2025 LSU Discover Research Grant to investigate microbiome differences between native green anoles and invasive brown anoles!
Undergraduate researcher Caroline Henry, one of seven recipients of a 2024-2025 LSU Discover Research Grant!
Aug 2024
Dr. Lattin attended summer graduation so she could hood Dr. Keegan Stansberry, our second PhD from the lab! Despite challenging field conditions, Keegan collected two years of data testing important hypotheses about how climate-related stressors affect wild birds and basically established a brand new field system from scratch. We are all going to miss him very much, but are very proud of him and his accomplishments.
Dr. Lattin poses with the new Dr. Stansberry at LSU Summer 2024 graduation. Congrats Keegan!
Aug 2024
Can neophobia help explain invasion success? Our new paper in Biological Invasions found that Eurasian tree sparrows were much less likely to eat new foods & habituated to novel objects more slowly than their more successful invasive relative, the house sparrow. This research was also featured in a news story by a student journalist when it was presented at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology meeting in January.
Although they look a lot alike, are closely related, and were both introduced to North America in the 1800s, the house sparrow has spread everywhere in North America, whereas the Eurasian tree sparrow remains restricted to a small area around St. Louis Missouri.
July 2024
More evidence for social learning in the gregarious house sparrow! Our new paper in Frontiers in Bird Science led by PhD graduate Dr. Melanie Kimball-Toups shows that house sparrows habituate to novel objects near food over the course of three weeks, but not when exposed to sparrow alarm calls during the second week of trials. This research suggests that part of the secret of the house sparrow’s success as an adaptable urban and invasive species might be their ability to learn about novel objects from listening to each others’ calls.
House sparrows are a highly social species and often found in large flocks. New research from our lab shows that they learn about novel objects partly by listening to the calls of other sparrows. Image from Wikimedia Commons; photo taken by Raju Kasambe.
July 2024
Many congratulations to the lab’s newly minted PhD, Keegan Stansberry, who did a fantastic job presenting his PhD work on how climate-related stressors impact developing songbirds. We are all so proud of him and his amazing research!
Keegan Stansberry presents the three chapters of his dissertation examining the effects of climate-related developmental stressors on free-living European starlings.
The new Dr. Stansberry and a few of his proud lab mates in the Lattin Lab!
A new postdoctoral researcher joined the lab this month! Dr. Tori Coutts did her PhD at Auburn University and will be working on projects related to how social learning changes the brain and how the environment impacts reproductive trade-offs. Welcome Tori!
May 2024
May 2024
Dr. Lattin attended spring graduation events and had the opportunity to hood both her Senior Honors Thesis undergraduate student Kenedi Lynch (who has been in the lab for four wonderful years) and her first PhD student to graduate, Melanie Kimball-Toups! We are so proud of all of our lab alumni, including Maggie Dunn and Ria Ferdaus, who are graduating this spring. We will miss you but look forward to seeing everything that comes next for you all!
Dr. Lattin poses with the new Dr. Kimball-Toups at LSU Spring 2024 graduation. Melanie will start a postdoc this fall at UC Davis, where she will study bee cognition. (Yes, this means that Melanie will have studied the birds and the bees!!) Congrats Melanie!
Dr. Lattin and former lab member Ria Ferdaus, who graduated with an Honors distinction. Congrats Ria!
Dr. Lattin and undergraduate lab member Kenedi Lynch, who graduated with College Honors and also received recognition from the LSU Distinguished Communicator and Distinguished Undergraduate Researcher programs. Congrats Kenedi!
Kenedi Lynch accepts her Distinguished Undergraduate Researcher award from the LSU Discover program.
April 2024
Lattin Lab researchers Emily Stelling and Kenedi Lynch presented preliminary findings from their research in the lab at the LSU Discover Day Undergraduate Research Conference and both did a wonderful job! Many other lab members turned out to support them and to help judge other students’ posters and talks.
LSU LAGNiAppE Postbaccalaureate Scholar Emily Stelling presents a poster about hormones and behavior in green and brown anole lizards.
Lattin Lab members who attended LSU Discover Day.
Undergraduate Kenedi Lynch presents data from her Senior Honors Thesis research about brain inflammation in response to avian malaria in sparrows.
April 2024
Congrats to undergraduate researcher Kenedi Lynch, who defended her Senior Honors Thesis in the lab on tissue-specific cytokine responses to avian malaria. It has been a joy and a privilege for us all to work with Kenedi over the past 4 years. Kenedi also received the Biological Sciences Undergraduate Research Award this month. She exemplifies undergraduate research at its best!
Kenedi Lynch accepts her Biological Sciences Undergraduate Research award. Geaux Kenedi!
Undergraduate Kenedi Lynch gives her Senior Honors Thesis defense.
March 2024
Congratulations to Melanie Kimball-Toups, who successfully defended her PhD from the Lattin Lab on the effects of environmental perturbations on house sparrow neurobiology and behavior! We are all so proud of our new Dr. Kimball-Toups, and can’t wait to see what she does next!
The new Dr. Melanie Kimball-Toups gives her dissertation defense talk on her PhD research in the Lattin Lab.
Melanie and spouse Ben Toups (also a new PhD from the Brown lab at LSU!) celebrate their accomplishment with chocolate cake.