Froggy Went A Courtin’

Ever wonder how frogs find their true love? Biology researchers at UNC are trying to figure that out as well. Dr. Sabrina Burmeister, professor in the biology department, studies the túngara frog species and the neural mechanisms that underlie their mating behavior. Undergraduate Andrea Martin is right there providing sound analysis of the male túngara frog’s mating calls.

Andrea is a biology major who will graduate in May 2007. She came to Carolina with a keen interest in neuroscience. But it was in her favorite college course, Animal Behavior, where she was introduced to the experimental designs and findings of animal behavior studies from all areas of biology, that her career goal became clear: Andrea wants to research the neurological mechanisms that underlie animal behavior.

While at Carolina, Andrea has had the opportunity to explore the career of professional research on a study abroad program in Costa Rica. In this program, through the Organization for Tropical Studies, she traveled to six biological stations set in various ecosystems around the country. There she developed and executed two independent field projects, one that examined the reciprocation of an ant-plant mutualism at La Selva Biological Station and another where she investigated the perch preference of a dragonfly species at Palo Verde Biological Station. She also worked with visiting researchers on their projects and explored rainforests, coral reefs, cloud forests, marshes, botanical gardens, and much more!

Andrea was awarded a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship through the Office of Undergraduate Research that allowed her to design her own independent research project. During the summer of 2006, in addition to working full time in the Burmeister lab, Andrea will be studying the effects of testosterone on the risk-taking threshold of male túngara frogs. She will travel to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Gamboa, Panama to conduct this field project and will then return to UNC to present her findings at the 8th Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research.

Says Andrea, “I never would have imagined that I would be given all of these opportunities to explore the career that I’ve always dreamed of. This is a university of limitless opportunities; and all you need is the desire to take them on!”

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