Jessie C. Tanner

Trina notes: I am broadly interested in the #evolutionary pressures that shape animal #acoustic signaling, such as mate selection, within-individual variation, and environmental contexts. I work with several species of chorus #frogs and treefrogs around Knoxville, utilizing acoustic recordings and female phonotaxis behaviors as a measure of female preference.

We will be featuring our #SICB student awardees weekly
over the next several weeks.
Meet the Elizabeth Adkins-Regan Awardee for best poster:
Trina Chou working with Dr. Jessie Tanner at the University of Tennessee, Congrats Trina!!!

& read the image description

#amphibians #biology #science

Ejaculate investment differs by population, but not wing morph or perceived sperm competition risk, in Pacific field crickets Abstract. Conspicuous sexual signals are frequently under selection from conflicting sources, such as natural versus sexual selection and precopulatory ver

Some Hawaiian cricket populations are losing the ability to sing. Males on Oahu invest more in sperm competition than males on Kauai by making more sperm and packing more proteins to increase sperm viability and slow female remating:

@jessiectanner.bsky.social et al. (2025)

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Hawaiian populations of Teleogryllus oceanicus 🦗 and their parasitoid flies Ormia ochracea 🪰 continue to offer us interesting opportunities to study evolutionary dynamics in real time. Check out the paper -- it's open access.

We found differences between two populations with different sexual selection dynamics and flatwing frequencies, but not differences based on wing morph or experience of cricket song during rearing, which other studies have shown prompts increased male investment in sperm competitive traits.

Ejaculate investment differs by population, but not wing morph or perceived sperm competition risk, in Pacific field crickets Abstract. Conspicuous sexual signals are frequently under selection from conflicting sources, such as natural versus sexual selection and precopulatory ver

New paper out in Journal of Evolutionary Biology! Using a field cricket undergoing rapid sexual signal loss, we looked at whether seminal fluid proteins could explain differences in paternity success between males capable of sexual signaling and mutant, silent males. academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...

Justice for the Chicago Squirrel Hole.

Do I Sound Sick? Condition‐Dependent Advertisement Signals in Naturally Infected Frogs To understand whether infection has negative, sublethal effects on frog courtship behaviors, we conducted an observational field study of the effects of infection on spring peepers (Pseudacris crucif...

New work from our lab out today in Ecology & Evolution! Trina Chou led this study testing the hypothesis that sexual signals reflect infection. She worked with spring peepers 🐸 naturally infected with Bd, the pathogen that causes chytridiomycosis (#chytrid). onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Complex choice environments shelter unattractive signallers from sexual selection | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences For many animals, options abound when choosing a mate in socially complex environments like a breeding chorus or lek. In such environments, receivers often choose their mate based on individual differ...

New paper today in ProcB! We measured sexual selection on temporally emergent properties of treefrog calls – call rate and regularity – and found that while ♀ prefer fast & regular calls, selection weakens changes shape as the number of choices increases.

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

If you're out and about in the evenings, keep an eye out for tree crickets performing their incredible signaling behavior! Ashlesh could use some #communityScience help investigating its evolution.

#newPI #animalBehavior #citizenScience #behavioralEcology

A Cope's gray treefrog male perched on a tree branch produces a vocalization. His vocal sac vibrates visibly during the call. His thighs have yellow patches. The camera is shaky.

I never remember to bring a tripod and my camera work is shaky, but look at this little guy calling his lungs out. Cope's gray treefrog recorded in East Tennessee in May of this year.

😂 Coldplay setlists are weirdly heavy on their ambient stuff lately...just a couple hours of frog sounds.

Two Cope's gray treefrogs in amplexus (their characteristic mating posture) cling to a tree branch. The male is smaller and grayer than the female, who is mottled green.

Resurfacing after the treefrog season 😅
#newPI #bioacoustics #behavioralEcology

The thumbnail that got automatically inserted is not from our paper, in case you're trying to figure out what it means.

Choice overload and its consequences for animal decision-making Animals routinely make decisions with important consequences for their survival and reproduction, but they frequently make suboptimal decisions. Here,…

My new paper with Claire Hemingway is officially out today in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, with page numbers and everything. We review what's known about choice overload in non-humans, and discuss its possible ecological & evolutionary consequences.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

SoundLab: A free web app for exploring sounds Help us open up the world of sound for teachers, students, and acoustics nerds everywhere! | Check out 'SoundLab: A free web app for exploring sounds' on Indiegogo.

Bioacoustics fans, here's an opportunity to help fund a cool web tool to teach about sounds:

www.indiegogo.com/projects/sou...

Choice Overload - College of Arts and Sciences Does it get overwhelming? UT faculty team investigates how animals react to overwhelming options. Humans can have a lot to consider when working out the best choices for their needs: buying a car, cho...

Here is a write up from the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tennessee about my recent paper with Claire Hemingway.

Academics, how many student dissertation committees are you on right now?

I know it's small in the whole scheme of things, but the bloodbath at NPS in Hawaii is almost certainly going to lead directly to the extinctions of no fewer than 4 native Hawaiian songbirds in the next 4-5 years.

Two gray treefrogs in their characteristics mating posture (amplexus). They are floating in water and clinging to grass blades.

ᏩᎶᏏ ᏓᎾᎵᎪᎲᏍᎨᏍᏗ. ᏥᏈᏍᏗ ᏧᏓᎴᏅᏓ ᎠᏆᏛᏁᏗ ᏄᏍᏗ ᎠᏆᏛᏁᎢᏍᏙᏗ.*

*The frogs will be getting together soon. There are a lot of things I need to do to get ready. (Also, @bsky.app lacks a Cherokee language option in the list, so they should get on that??)

This is the best way to use social media.

It’s paywall free at that link for 50 days. Let me know if you have trouble accessing it.

Choice overload and its consequences for animal decision-making Animals routinely make decisions with important consequences for their survival and reproduction, but they frequently make suboptimal decisions. Here,…

Claire Hemingway and I have a new paper in Trends in Cognitive Sciences about choice overload and its ecological and evolutionary consequences in non-human animals. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

#behavioralEcology #behavioralEconomics #newPI

I'm sorry not everybody got it! I hope the other feedback you get feels better.

Big nerd for tiny animals; accurate.

ᎦᏙ ᎤᏍᏗ ᏂᎦᎵᏍᏗᏍᎪ ᎠᎭᏂ?

I feel like it might be a bad sign that I'm now thinking of my to-do list less like an agenda and more like a trolley problem

Thank you!!

Sure!

Nice! I’ll check them out before long, then.