Kevin Healy

Ecology not elsewhere classified; Biological sciences

Galway

I am a macroecologist interested in the large patterns that govern life. My research is mainly focused on understanding the fundamental evolutionary and ecological drivers of foraging and life history strategies in animals. However, if its a universal pattern seen at the macro scale, I'm also probably interested in that too. I use a mix of theoretical and comparative approaches and have to date published on the variation of animal traits such as venom potency in snakes, scavenging efficiency in theropod dinosaurs, lifespan in birds and mammals, and time perceptions in vertebrates. I completed my undergraduate (2011), PhD (2015) and a two year postdoc (2017) in Trinity College Dublin. I was a Marie Curie Research Fellow in St Andrews University in Scotland (2017-2018) and became a Lecturer in Zoology in the National University of Ireland Galway in 2019.

Publications

Kane, A*., Healy, K*., Guillerme, T., Ruxton, G.D., Jackson, A.L. 2016. A recipe for scavenging in vertebrates–the natural history of a behaviour. Ecography. DOI: 10.1111/ecog.02817.
Kane, A*., Healy, K*., Ruxton, G.D., Jackson, A.L. 2015. Body size drives importance of scavenging in theropods. American Naturalist. DOI: 10.1086/686094
Donohue, I., Hillebrand, H., Montoya, J.M., Petchey, O.L., Pimm, S.L., Fowler, M.S., Healy, K., Jackson, A.L., Lurgi, M., McClean, D., O'Connor, N.E., O'Gorman, E.J., Yang, Q. 2016 Navigating the complexity of ecological stability. Ecology Letters. DOI: 10.1111/ele.12648
Healy, K. 2015. Eusociality but not fossoriality drives longevity in small mammals. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B. 282(1806), 20142917, http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.0298.
Healy, K., Guillerme T., Finlay, S., Kane, A., Kelly, S.B.A., McClean, D., Kelly, D.J., Donohue, I., Jackson, A.L. and Cooper, N. 2014. Ecology and mode of life explain lifespan variation in birds and mammals. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B. 281(1784), 20140298, http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.0298
Healy, K., McNally, L., Ruxton, G.D., Cooper, N. & Jackson. Metabolic rate and body size linked with perception of temporal information. 2013. Animal Behaviour. 86(4), 685-696. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.06.018
Donohue, I., Petchey, O.L., Montoya, J.M., Jackson, A.L., McNally, L., Viana, M., Healy, K., Lurgi, M., O’Connor, N.E. & Emmerson, M.C. 2013. On the dimensionality of ecological stability. Ecology Letters. 16(4), 421-429. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele.12086,
Healy, K., Carbone, C., Jackson, A.L. 2019 Snake venom potency and yield are associated with prey‐evolution, predator metabolism and habitat structure. Ecology letters 22 (3), 527-537.
Healy, K, Guillerme, T., Kelly, S.B.A, Inger, R, Bearhop, S, Jackson, A.L. 2018. SIDER: AN R PACKAGE FOR PREDICTING TROPHIC DISCRIMINATION FACTORS OF CONSUMERS BASED ON THEIR ECOLOGY AND PHYLOGENETIC RELATEDNESS. Ecography