Viki graduated from the University of Bristol with a BSc Honours degree in Biology, and went on to obtain an MSc in Marine and Fisheries Science at the University of Aberdeen. She was then employed at the MBA for a year, working on the behavioural ecology of dogfish and the effects of fishing and climate change on demersal species assemblages. Viki’s Fisheries Society funded PhD research (MBA and University of Bristol) investigated the mechanisms underlying sexual segregation in the small spotted catshark. Upon completion of her PhD, Viki took up a 12-month contract with Cranfield University where she studied the impact of electromagnetic fields on the behaviour of elasmobranch fish.

Viki returned to the MBA in 2008 as a postdoctoral researcher to investigate the evolution of optimal search strategies in animals, a project funded by the Leverhulme Trust. This research uses a combination of laboratory and field techniques to examine animal movement patterns across a range of both extinct and extant marine animal phyla.

CONTACT DETAILS

email: vjw@mba.ac.uk
telephone: +44 (0) 1752 633277

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Wearmouth, V.J., Sims, D.W. (2009) Movements and behaviour patterns of critically endangered common skate Dipturus batis revealed by electronic tagging. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 380, 77-87.

Wearmouth, V.J. & Sims, D.W. (2008) Sexual segregation in marine fish, reptiles, birds and mammals: Behaviour patterns, mechanisms and conservation implications. Advances in Marine Biology, 54,  107-170.

Sims, D.W., Southall, E.J., Humphries, N.E., Hays, G.C., Bradshaw, C.J.A., Pitchford, J.W., James, A., Ahmed, M.Z., Brierley, A.S., Hindell, M.A., Morritt, D., Musyl, M.K., Righton, D., Shepard, E.L.C., Wearmouth, V.J., Wilson, R.P., Witt, M.J., & Metcalfe, J.D. (2008) Scaling laws of marine predator search behaviour. Nature, 451, 1098-1102.

Sims, D.W., Wearmouth, V.J., Southall, E.J., Hill, J.M., Moore, P., Rawlinson, K., Hutchinson, N., Budd, G.C., Righton, D., Metcalfe, J., Nash, J.P., & Morritt, D. (2006) Hunt warm, rest cool: bioenergetic strategy underlying diel vertical migration of a benthic shark. Journal of Animal Ecology, 75, 176-190.