Alexander Keyel, Biology

For the Birds

Alexander Keyel

There are few people, with the possible exception of Homer Simpson, who can say that doughnuts played an important role in their childhood. Alexander "Sasha" Keyel is one of these people.

"Growing up, my father would take my siblings and me bird watching," says Keyel, a new Tufts biology graduate student and Provost Fellow. "I was five years old at the time and I only went because we got to have doughnuts on the way there."

But, as it turns out, these trips were about more than feasting on ring-sized breakfast treats. For Keyel, they marked the beginning of a lifelong interest in birds.

"As I got older, I became more interested in birds, especially while I was an undergraduate at Arizona State, and started bird watching on my own," he says. "I'd see different types of birds and then look them up in a field guide."

Keyel spent most of last summer bird watching. As a tern foraging assistant for the Massachusetts Audubon Society, he observed Least Terns--which are a species of bird recognizable by their black caps, white foreheads, and yellow bills--living on beaches in Cape Cod.

For his part, Keyel monitored the behavioral patterns of a number of Least Terns with the hope that the data he and his fellow researchers collected might, in the future, shed light both on how these birds live and how they might be helped.

A typical day for Keyel would start early in the morning at the beach. With binoculars in hand, he would spend several hours watching 3-5 nests. After breaking for lunch, he would return in the evening to watch the same nests.

Keyel has also worked with Idaho Fish and Game and the National Audubon Society on bird-related projects.

"We observed the nests to see, for example, what types of fish the terns brought back to eat," says Keyel of the work. "In reality, many other things happened but we wanted to focus on their foraging behavior. For another project, we visited most of the beaches in Cape Cod and counted every single Least Tern nest. We were interested in seeing how they were doing this year, whether they were increasing or decreasing in population."

Keyel believes the experience was instrumental in helping him prepare for his graduate studies at Tufts.

"The work I did last summer, and that which I have done in the past, has definitely given me a solid grounding in research," says Keyel, who has also conducted bird surveys with Idaho Fish and Game, worked with the National Audubon Society on habitat conservation for a bird sanctuary in Orange County, California, and, as an undergraduate, researched honeybees and seed harvester ants.

Alexander Keyel's fascination with birds runs deep. As an avid bird watcher, he is interested in their aesthetic appeal, listing the Southern Cassowary, the Scarlet Macaw, and the Great Gray Owl as some of his favorites, but he is also keenly aware of the challenges many bird species face.

"I think it's very important to protect bird habitats," he says. "Take your Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Each spring, many of these birds migrate from Mexico to Massachusetts. After they cross the Gulf of Mexico, they are tired. If everything on the south coast of Texas is housing developments and what-not, then they don't have an appropriate stop-over habitat and they will die. This affects people here in Massachusetts who are anxiously waiting to see these birds. But it goes much further than that. If habitats are not protected, then birds will disappear and that's a tragedy. We don't just lose the beauty of birds, but these animals provide different functions in the ecosystem that we don't always understand. A lot of these birds eat different invertebrates who, in turn, might eat pests. Therefore, if these birds are gone then there might be more pest outbreaks because you will be losing the natural control of them. All of these things and more make protecting birds important."

At Tufts, Keyel believes he will be able to combine both his love of birds and his desire to protect them.

"One of the reasons I chose Tufts is Michael Reed," he says. "He is really interested in avian conservation and also does population biology. Also, when I was interviewing, I noticed that everyone seemed very enthused, very energetic. It seemed like a good place to do research and I'm looking forward to my graduate studies."

To learn more about the Provost Fellows program, click here.

Profile written by Robert Bochnak, G07, Tufts University Office of Graduate Studies

Photo by Melody Ko