Alumni Spotlight #1: János Kis
All began when I was a high school student, developing a keen interest in birds. I visited Tibor Csörgő's bird ringing station in Ócsa, Hungary, but my fascination lay in bird behaviour. My search led me to Tamás Székely's work, which captivated me with its clear aims and perspectives. Initially, I was tasked with studying nest defence behaviour in Northern Lapwings at Miklapuszta, central Hungary. Working alongside PhD students András Liker and Gábor Noszály, who were under Tamás's supervision, we conducted experiments involving simulated attacks on a taxidermy-mounted Hooded Crow near lapwing nests. Tamás, who was a postdoc in the UK at the time, oversaw the project during his occasional visits.
Upon completing my MSc, I continued my journey as a researcher by delving into remating opportunities in Kentish Plovers for my PhD. Tamás relocated our fieldwork to Tuzla, southern Turkey, where around a thousand pairs of plovers were breeding. My responsibilities included fieldwork, data digitization, and partial data analysis. From publications of other groups, we knew that adult sex ratios were male-biased in several plover populations, indicating that males might struggle to find new partners after deserting the brood, while females had better chances to select among available mates. Our experiments confirmed that, on average, males indeed required more time than females to find new partners. We also found evidence that the Tuzla population had a male bias, reinforcing the role of remating opportunities in shaping the population pattern, where males often cared for chicks alone, and females did so only occasionally.
I found only one picture about me, shot by Tamás. We went to the Yumurtalik Bay from Tuzla, June 1996, to explore more breeding grounds. To access a mudflat, we hired a boat. The person on the left is Mustafa, the maintainer of the Izcilik Kampi (Scout Camp) where we were lodged at Tuzla. In the centre is Mehmet, a local fisherman, Mustafa's friend.
My journey led me to various bird species, and I was intrigued by uniparental male or female care as well as biparental care coexisting simultaneously in several Kentish Plover populations. This sparked our curiosity about why such variation persisted across distant populations. With the collaboration of Alaisdair Houston's team, where Tamás was a postdoc, ingenious field experiments were devised to explore potential factors explaining this variability.
After learning how to conduct fieldwork and connect practical experience with theoretical concepts, I pursued new research independently. Shifting my focus from sexual conflict over parental care to sexual conflict over mating, I started working with Clouded Apollo butterflies (see Gór 2023 a, b). In this context, males produce external devices blocking the female's copulatory opening, with three distinct types: large sphragis, small stopple, and tiny filament. Larger devices were more effective in preventing female remating than smaller ones, offering insight into the costs and benefits influencing the evolution of sexual conflict in these species.
Measuring bird morphology is now standard for ornithologists, but I faced challenges when working with live butterflies, as there were no existing guides. Today, I can relate male investment in mate guarding to female body size, with female size closely associated with fecundity in insects.
Throughout my journey, I've come to appreciate the scientific significance of my projects in Tamás’ Lab and consider myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to participate in it. Spending time in the field, I learned something new about birds almost every day. The more I observed their behaviour, the deeper my understanding grew, leading to more questions and an ever-exciting experience.
List of Publications Produced While in Tamás Székely Lab
Bókony, V, A. Liker, T. Székely, J. Kis & I. Szentirmai. 2005. The functions of melanin-based plumage in birds: the attractive black. Állattani Közlemények 90: 17-28 (in Hungarian).
Küpper, C., J. Kis, A. Kosztolányi, T. Székely, I. C. Cuthill & D. Blomqvist. 2004. Genetic mating system and timing of extra-pair fertilizations in the Kentish plover. Behav Ecol Socbiol 57: 32-39.
Lendvai, A. Z., Kis, J., Székely, T. & I. C. Cuthill. 2004. An investigation of mate choice based on manipulation of multiple ornaments in the Kentish plover. Animal Behaviour 67: 703-709.
Székely, T., Cuthill, I. C, Yezerinac, S., R. Griffiths & J. Kis. 2004. Brood sex ratio in the Kentish plover. Behavioral Ecology 15: 58-62.
Székely, T., J. Kis & A. Kosztolányi. 2004. Using a mobile hide in wader research. Wader Study Group Bulletin 103: 40-41.
Bókony, V, A. Liker, T. Székely & J. Kis. 2003. Melanin-based plumage colouration and flight displays in plovers and allies. Proceedings of the Royal Society London B 270: 2491-2497.
Kis, J. & T. Székely. 2003. Sexually dimorphic breast-feathers in the Kentish plover Charadrius alexandrinus. Acta Zoologica Hungarica 49: 103-110.
Blomqvist D., M. Andersson, C. Küpper, I. C. Cuthill, J. Kis, R. B. Lanctot, B. K. Sandercock, T. Székely, J. Wallander & B. Kempenaers. 2003. Why birds engage in extrapair copulations: a reply to Griffith & Montgomerie. Nature 422: 833-834.
Blomqvist D., M. Andersson, C. Küpper, I. C. Cuthill, J. Kis, R. B. Lanctot, B. K. Sandercock, T. Székely, J. Wallander & B. Kempenaers. 2002. Genetic similarity between mates explains extra-pair parentage in three species of waders. Nature 419: 613-615.
Kis, J., A. Liker & T. Székely. 2000. Nest defence by parent lapwings: observations on natural behaviour and an experiment. Ardea 88: 155-163.
Székely, T., I.C. Cuthill & J. Kis. 1999. Brood desertion in Kentish plover: sex differences in remating opportunities. Behavioral Ecology 10: 191-197.