Summary
Formally trained in zoology and psychology, Dr Morton is an early-career lecturer specialising in animal psychology. He publishes in world-leading journals for animal behaviour and cognition, and his work garners major global media attention, including the BBC, The Guardian, TIME, and National Geographic. He has obtained over £530,000 in grants as a P.I. and co-investigator, including NERC and the prestigious Newton Fund, and was awarded a ‘Research Excellence Award’ from the University of Hull in 2022. He is the founder and co-director of the recently established Hull Animal Behaviour Centre, which is comprised of 6 research programmes involving >600 stakeholders (including researchers, students, and citizen scientists) from over 7 countries. He is the early career representative for his department’s research committee and is presently supervising 2 PhD students and 2 MSc students. Since 2018, he has been studying the behaviour and problem-solving abilities of wild carnivores, including raccoons in the United States, and foxes and badgers in the United Kingdom. The primary goal of his research is to understand what factors drive behavioural adaptability in animals, which is important for understanding the past, present, and future of species in an ever-changing world.