I completed my BSc at the Australian National University with a major in biochemistry, but decided after a field trip to Kakadu National Park at the end of my degree that I would much rather spend my research career in the field than in the laboratory. My honours and PhD research was carried out under the supervision of Andrew Cockburn, teasing out aspects of the bizarre mating system of superb fairy-wrens. Five years of working on birds in a botanic garden whetted my appetite for wilder places and I embarked in 1992 on a six-month journey to explore Madagascar. I spent a year working as technical advisor to the World Wide Fund for Nature in southern Madagascar, then joined World Learning as academic director of two semester abroad programs, firstly in Botswana and then in Madagascar. I held an ARC postdoctoral fellowship at the ANU from 1996-1998 before joining the Department of Zoology as a lecturer in 1999.  I was appointed as Senior Lecturer in 2004 and Associate Professor and Reader in 2007.

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My primary research interest is in the evolution of social behaviour and unusual mating systems. To date, my research has involved projects with birds, and combine field studies of behaviour with the use of molecular markers to assign parentage. Specific areas of interest include sexual selection, sperm competition, the evolution of extra-pair fertilisations in birds and the evolution of sex-limited polymorphism. My current research is funded by grants from the Australian Research Council and the National Geographic Foundation, and investigates the mechanisms and selective consequences of male plumage dichromatism in the paradise flycatchers (Terpsiphone), and mutual sexual selection in the black swan (Cygnus atratus).

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PhD students
Shandiya Balasubramaniam, Tania Billing, Taneal Cope, Alice Ewing, Dominique Potvin

MSc students
Emily Mcleod, Madeleine Yewers

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Coordinator
Graduate Seminar in Population Biology, Experimental Animal Behaviour, Animal Behaviour

Contributor
Biology of Cells and Organisms
Evolution and the Human Condition
Australian Wildlife Biology
Field Biology of Australian Wildlife

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Member, Science Multimedia and Educational Technologies Committee
Chair, Curriculum Committee, Department of Zoology
Member, Computer Committee
Webmaster, Department of Zoology

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Seddon, N., Amos, W., Mulder, R.A. & Tobias, J. (2004). Male heterozygosity predicts territory size, song structure and reproductive success in a cooperatively breeding bird. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London (Series B) 271: 1823-1829.

Kraaijeveld, K., Gregurke, J., Hall, C., Komdeur, J. & Mulder, R.A. (2004). Mutual ornamentation, sexual selection and social dominance in the Black Swan. Behavioral Ecology 15: 380-389

Dowling, D.K., Adcock, G.J. & Mulder, R.A. (2003). Novel polymorphic microsatellite markers for paternity analysis in the red-capped robin (Petroica goodenovii: Aves). Molecular Ecology Notes 3: 517-519.

Cockburn, A., Osmond, H.L., Mulder, R.A., Green, D.J. & Double, M.C. (2003). Divorce, dispersal, density-dependence and incest avoidance in the cooperatively breeding superb fairy-wren Malurus cyaneus. Journal of Animal Ecology 72: 189-202.

Mulder, R.A., Bishop, H., Cooper, M., Dennis, S., Koetsveld, M., Marshall, J., Saunders, B.L. & Langmore, N.E. (2003). Alternate functions for duet and solo songs in magpie-larks Grallina cyanoleuca. Australian Journal of Zoology 51: 25-30.

Mulder, RA, Ramiarison, R & Emahalala, RE (2002). Ontogeny of male plumage dichromatism in Madagascar paradise flycatchers. Journal of Avian Biology 33: 342-348.

Mulder, RA (1997). Extra-pair courtship displays and other reproductive tactics of superb fairy-wrens. Australian Journal of Zoology 45: 131-143.

Mulder, RA (1995). Natal and breeding dispersal in a cooperative, extra-group-mating bird. Journal of Avian Biology 26: 234-240.

Mulder, RA, Dunn, PO, Cockburn, A, Lazenby-Cohen, KA and Howell, MJ (1994). Helpers liberate female fairy-wrens from constraints on extra-pair mate choice. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B. 255: 223-229.

Mulder, RA and Cockburn, A (1993). Sperm competition and the reproductive anatomy of superb fairy-wrens. Auk 110: 588-593.

Mulder, RA and Magrath, MJL (1994). Timing of pre-nuptial moult as a sexually selected indicator of male quality in superb fairy-wrens, Malurus cyaneus. Behavioural Ecology 5: 393-400

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Further Publications: PubMed Search