P. McDonald

Publications84
h-index20
Citations1,377
Highly Influential Citations57
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Leaf-size divergence along rainfall and soil-nutrient gradients: Is the method of size reduction common among clades?
Summary 1Ecologists have long recognized that plants occurring in areas of low rainfall or soil nutrients tend to have smaller leaves than those in more favourable regions. 2Working with a large… Expand
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Nestling begging increases predation risk, regardless of spectral characteristics or avian mobbing
Models of parent--offspring conflict and nestling begging honesty often assume that signaling is associated with increased predation risk. However, little evidence exists that begging actually… Expand
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Bell miner provisioning calls are more similar among relatives and are used by helpers at the nest to bias their effort towards kin
  • P. McDonald, J. Wright
  • Biology, Medicine
  • Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological…
  • 22 November 2011
Kin selection predicts that helpers in cooperative systems should preferentially aid relatives to maximize fitness. In family-based groups, this can be accomplished simply by assisting all group… Expand
  • 61
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The Influence of Testosterone on Territorial Defence and Parental Behavior in Male Free-Living Rufous Whistlers, Pachycephala rufiventris
We studied a population of rufous whistlers, Pachycephala rufiventris, throughout a single breeding season in central New South Wales, Australia. We evaluated the relation between plasma testosterone… Expand
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Helping effort increases with relatedness in bell miners, but ‘unrelated’ helpers of both sexes still provide substantial care
Indirect fitness benefits from kin selection can explain why non-breeding individuals help raise the young of relatives. However, the evolution of helping by non-relatives requires direct fitness… Expand
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Evaluation of unmanned aerial vehicle shape, flight path and camera type for waterfowl surveys: disturbance effects and species recognition
The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for ecological research has grown rapidly in recent years, but few studies have assessed the disturbance impacts of these tools on focal subjects,… Expand
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To pluck or not to pluck: the hidden ethical and scientific costs of relying on feathers as a primary source of DNA
This article responds to the recent prominence of ornithological literature advocating the plucking or clipping of feathers to obtain DNA in avian studies. We argue that the practise of feather… Expand
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Weather dictates reproductive success and survival in the Australian brown falcon Falco berigora
Summary 1. We examined the influence of parental age, pair-bond duration, prey size and weather conditions on various measures of reproductive success and survival of a sedentary brown falcon ( Falco… Expand
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Selection on body size in a raptor with pronounced reversed sexual size dimorphism: are bigger females better?
An overabundance of hypotheses have been proposed to account for reversed sexual size dimorphism (RSD; females the larger sex) in raptors. Previous research principally focused on examining… Expand
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Theory pertaining to low fertility
Demographic transition refers to the process whereby populations shift from regimes of high mortality and high fertility in approximate long-run equilibrium (zero population growth) to a new… Expand
  • 35
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