Nicholas Barry Davies (born 1952) is a British field naturalist and zoologist, and Emeritus Professor of Behavioural ecology at the University of Cambridge, where he is also an Emeritus Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge.

Education Davies was privately educated at the Merchant Taylors' Boys' School, Crosby and the University of Cambridge where he was a student at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He was awarded a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1973, which was automatically converted into a Master of Arts (MA) degree in 1977. He completed his PhD at the University of Oxford in 1976 supervised by Euan Dunn. Career and research Davies books with John Krebs helped to define the field of behavioural ecology, the study of how behaviour evolves in response to selection pressures from ecology and the social environment.Book Review: An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology, Animal Behaviour, Volume 85, Issue 3, March, Pages 686–687.

Davies study of dunnocks, linked detailed behavioural observations of individuals to their reproductive success, using DNA profiles to measure paternity and maternity, and revealed how sexual conflicts gave rise to variable mating systems including: monogamy, polygyny in animals, polyandry in animals and polygynandry.

Davies studies of cuckoos and their hosts have revealed an evolutionary arms race of brood parasite adaptations and host counter-adaptations.

Other studies include: territory economics in pied wagtails; contest behaviour and mate searching in butterflies and toads; parent-offspring conflict and the transition to independence in young birds.

Awards and honours Scientific Medal of the Zoological Society of London, 1987 Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1994 University of Cambridge Teaching Prize, 1995 William Bate Hardy Prize of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 1995 Medal of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour, 1996 President of the International Society for Behavioural Ecology, 2000-2002 British Trust for Ornithology / British Birds "Best Book of the Year Award" in 2000 (for Cuckoos, Cowbirds and Other Cheats) and in 2015 (for Cuckoo - Cheating by Nature). Frink Medal of the Zoological Society of London, 2001 Elliott Coues Medal of the American Ornithologists' Union, 2005 Hamilton Prize Lecture of the International Society for Behavioural Ecology, 2010 Croonian Medal and Lecture of the Royal Society, 2015 Godman Salvin Medal of the British Ornithologists' Union, 2022

Publications Behavioural Ecology - An Evolutionary Approach An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology Dunnock Behaviour and Social Evolution Cuckoos, Cowbirds and Other Cheats

Media coverage

In 2009, his research was featured as a BBC Natural World program "Cuckoo", produced by Mike Birkhead and narrated by David Attenborough.

In 2011 he presented a BBC Radio 4 documentary entitled 'The Cuckoo'.

In 2016 he was interviewed by Jim Al-Khalili for The Life Scientific.al-Khalili, Jim (2016) The Life Scientific: Nick Davies, BBC Radio 4 (Broadcast June 21, 2016)

In 2017 he was the guest of Michael Berkeley on the BBC Radio 3 show Private Passions.Private Passions BBC Radio 3 (broadcast August 6th, 2017)

In 2017 he appeared in an episode of the BBC Radio 4 Natural Histories series entitled "Cuckoo".

Personal life

Davies married Jan Parr in 1976 and has two children.

His entry in Who's Who lists his hobbies as cricket and birdwatching.

References