9503234 Stanback The International Junior Investigator and Postdoctoral Fellows Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award will support a six-month postdoctoral research visit by Dr. Mark Stanback with Dr. Robert Simmons at the Namibia National Veterinary Laboratory in Windhoek, Namibia. The goal of this project is to study sperm storage and sperm competition in Tockus hornbills. The focus will be on the red-billed (T.erythrorhynchus) and Monteiro's hornbills (T. monteiri). Using a population of Tockus hornbills breeding in nestboxes, the PI will combine a field experimental approach with laboratory analyses, thus bridging the gap that presently exists between lab studies of sperm storage in domestic species and field studies of behavior and paternity. ***
