Patrick Cain's interests in biology are highly varied. As an undergraduate, he developed his first project investigating agonistic behavior in male salamanders. He has since researched the effects of commercial harvest practices of snapping turtles in Maryland, the evolution of signaling traits in lizards, as well as using mathematical models to predict the simultaneous behavioral sequences of patch choice in a game played by a predator and prey.
Cain is also highly interested in developing software and hardware tools for use in biological research. For example, he has developed a robotic lizard to simulate the "push-up" behavior exhibited by male fence lizards, and is also currently field testing a low-cost GPS data logger for use on eastern box turtles.
TEACHING INTERESTS
Introductory Biology, Field Zoology, Field Botany, Conservation Biology, Ecology, Evolution
RESEARCH FIELDS
Conservation Biology, Evolutionary Ecology, Behavioral Ecology, Predator-Prey Dynamics, Game Theory, Statistics
PUBLICATIONS
Cain, P and W Mitchell. 2021. Modelling the sequential behaviours of simultaneous predator and prey patch use. Animal Behaviour 177:49–58.
Cain, P, A Ossip-Klein, W Mitchell, D Hews. 2020. Hidden in plain sight: assessing the potential for ultraviolet as a signal in Sceloporus lizards. Herpetological Review 51(3):451–456.
Cain, P and M Cross. 2019. A low cost method for simulating motion in studies using physical models of animals. Herpetological Review 50: 718–721.
Cain, P and M Cross. 2018. An open-source hardware GPS data logger for wildlife radio-telemetry studies: a case-study using eastern box turtles. HardwareX 3: 82–89.
Cain, P, M Cross, and R Seigel. 2017. Field data and stakeholders: regulating the commercial harvest of snapping turtles in Maryland. Chelonian Conservation and Biology 16(2):229–235.
Cain, P 2012. White bellies are aggressive too! Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Newsletter, pp. 6.
Cain, P and T Crabill. 2012. Coluber constrictor (North American Racer). Communal Overwintering. Herpetological Review 43(3): 657
AWARDS
The Irony Award, for the lightning talk “Awards in Science are evil”. 84th Annual Meeting of the Association of Southeastern Biologists, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. March 2023.
ACADEMIC DEGREES
Ph.D. in Ecology, Indiana State University (2019)
M.S. in Conservation Biology, Towson University (2010)
B.S. in Biology and Music, Central Michigan University (2007)
