Our research examines the evolution and ecology of animal behavior. Research projects are diverse, but often focus on how animals obtain and exchange information about their environments. We study the behavior, cognition, learning, and ecology of animal communication, often focusing on birds.

I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Biology Department at Western Washington University in Bellingham.

Welcome to Chris Templeton's Lab!

Templeton, C.N., Zollinger, S.A., & Brumm, H. (2016). Traffic noise drowns out great tit alarm calls. Current Biology 26: R1173-R1174

Selected Publications

see Publications for a full list and links to pdfs

Templeton, C.N. & Greene, E. (2007). Nuthatches eavesdrop on variations in heterospecific chickadee mobbing alarm calls. PNAS 104: 5479-5482

Templeton, C.N., Akçay, Ç., Campbell, S.E., & Beecher, M.D. (2010). Juvenile sparrows preferentially eavesdrop on song interactions. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 277: 447-453

Templeton, C.N., Greene, E. & Davis, K. (2005). Allometry of Alarm Calls: Black-capped chickadees encode information about predator size. Science 308: 1934-1937.  

*Keenan, E.L., Odom, K.J., Araya-Salas, M., Horton, K.G., Strimas-Mackey, M., *Meatte, M.A., Mann, N.I., Slater, P.J., Price, J.J. and Templeton, C.N. (2020) Breeding season length predicts duet coordination and consistency in Neotropical wrens (Troglodytidae). Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 287: 20202482.

*Osbrink, A., *Meatte, M.A., *Tran, A., *Herranen, K.K., *Meek, L, *Murakami-Smith, M., *Ito, J., *Bhadra, S. *Nunnenkamp, C., & Templeton, C.N.

(2021) Traffic noise inhibits cognitive performance in a songbird. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 288: 20202851