John Altringham

Prof John Altringham

BA (York) PhD (St. Andrews)
Professor of Biomechanics
Institute of Integrative and Comparative Biology

Background: Professor of Biomechanics (Leeds, 1999-)
Lecturer, Sr. Lecturer and Reader (Leeds, 1989-1999)

I studied Biology at the University of York before going on to St Andrews University to carry out a PhD on the physiology and mechanics of fish swimming muscle. I was awarded a NATO Fellowship to work at the University of Washington in Seattle, testing some controversial theories about how muscle worked at the molecular level. I returned to St Andrews to study how muscle has evolved to power locomotion in different animals and different environments, including fish as diverse and fascinating as high-speed tuna and Antarctic ice-fish. A long-standing interest in the biology and conservation of bats led to a major change in the direction of my research and teaching. To help my teaching I wrote Bats: Biology and Behaviour, published in 1996 by OUP, which I�m currently rewriting and expanding. In 2003 my British Bats was published in the long-running New Naturalist series.

Office: Miall 9.19
Phone: +44(0) 113 34 32832
Email: email address for Prof John Altringham 

Centre membership: The Earth and Biosphere Institute

Lab: A member of the Altringham group

You can read more about Prof Altringham's interests here:
www.fbs.leeds.ac.uk/staff/Altringham/

Publications

List Prof Altringham's Publications


Research Interests

Animal mechanics. The biology and conservation of bats

I am interested in how evolution shapes the form and physiology of animals for locomotion, in particular for swimming and flying. To catch food, avoid becoming food, to find a mate or to migrate, animals must be able to move effectively and efficiently if they are to be successful in the evolutionary race. Integrating studies on muscle function with whole animal movement has been the major theme of my research. More recently I have become interested in bats, with the aim of relating their ability to fly and echolocate to their behaviour, ecology and ultimately, population biology. Despite their small size, bats have a life history strategy of low fecundity and longevity and through their ability to fly, they utilise the landscape on a large scale. Given these factors, and bats’ enormous diversity, they have considerable potential as a model group for studying mammalian ecology. Much of my work on bats is driven by a concern for their conservation: the very features which make them interesting also make them vulnerable in an ever more fragmented landscape.

Our research is multi-faceted, using a variety of field and lab-based techniques. In field studies, the foraging and social behaviour of bats is related to the distribution of their resources (e.g. food, roosts, mating and hibernation sites) and to the mating systems that have evolved within the constraints of the system. In the lab, in collaboration with Prof. Roger Butlin, molecular genetic approaches are used to probe mating systems and to study the effects social structure migration and mating patterns have on population structure.

Some of our research has more immediate practical goals, for example we are currently investigating new techniques for identifying bats in the field from their echolocation calls, assessing the effects on bat behaviour of protective grilles at hibernation sites and surveying and monitoring mating and hibernation sites in need of protection.

Funding for our work comes from the BBSRC, NERC and a number of conservation agencies and charities including English Nature and the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors National Park Authorities

 

Current Projects

  • The scaling of flight efficiency in insects.
  • Swimming in fish.
  • Behaviour, ecology and population biology of Daubenton's bats.
  • Swarming and hibernation in bats.
  • Namibia Biodiversity.
 

Studentship information

Principal interests:

  • Animal mechanics. The biology and conservation of bats

Postgraduate studentship areas:

  • Biomechanics and animal locomotion, biology and conservation of bats

See also: