Professor Emeritus

Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences
University of Illinois

Dr. Patrick J. Weatherhead’s research has focused on animal ecology and behavior, and with the application of concepts from those fields to conservation biology. Taxonomically, the primary interest for him and his students has been on birds and snakes. A central focus of research on both taxa has been reproductive ecology.

Dr. Weatherhead’s topics of interest include mate choice, sexual selection, parental strategies such as sex ratio manipulation in birds and snakes, parental care and conflicts of interest between parents, between offspring and between parents and offspring in birds, and maternal effects on offspring phenotypes in snakes. Other interests include predator avoidance and thermal ecology of snakes. Applied research has focused on the conservation of threatened or endangered snake populations and on the ecology of avian nest predation by snakes, particularly as it affects bird species of conservation concern.