Nicholas Sutton

Assistant Professor

Offices, Departments, or Centers: Biology ,

I am broadly interested in all questions regarding decision-making in animal behavior. In particular, I am interested in how information encoded in the environment is gathered, shared, and otherwise used by animals to inform individual decision-making, and consequently how decisions made at the individual level may shape higher-order processes and species interactions.

I believe in taking an integrative approach to research, leveraging methods and data from multiple different sources to answer questions. Currently, I am focused on combining theoretical modeling frameworks with empirical data gathered in the field and in a laboratory setting to answer questions regarding risk perception and decision-making during predator-prey interactions.

Most recently, I have been exploring game theoretic approaches to studying pursuit and evasion behavioral dynamics in wildlife populations. I am also interested in developing methods for identifying and detecting patterns in animal behavior, especially in sparse datasets or when dealing with imperfect information.

Education and Degrees

PhD in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology: 2022 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Bachelor of Science in Integrative Biology: 2015 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Selected Publications

Sutton, Nicholas M., Michael A. Weston, Patrick J. Guay, Jenna Tregoweth, and James P. O’Dwyer. “A Bayesian optimal escape model reveals bird species differ in their capacity to habituate to humans.” Behavioral Ecology, Volume 32, Issue 6 (2021): 1064–1074.

Sutton, Nicholas M., and James P. O’Dwyer. "Born to run? Quantifying the balance of prior bias and new information in prey escape decisions." The American Naturalist 192.3 (2018): 321-331.

Sutton, Nicholas M., and Edward J. Heske. "Effects of human state park visitation rates on escape behavior of white-tailed deer." Human–Wildlife Interactions 11, no. 1 (2017): 12.