Incredible animal system, awesome science and the nicest group of people to work with - what’s not to like? ⬇️

📢 #CFP: We are now accepting #grant applications for research projects in wild animal welfare science. To learn more about the grants we offer, what we're looking for, and how to apply, visit our grants page: www.wildanimalinitiative.org/grants Submit your EOI by November 14.

Selection Shapes Animal Minds: More completely free videos of talks from our Royal Society Discussion meeting last year. Today's highlighted talk: Dr Zegni Triki (Neuchatel) @zegnitriki.bsky.social @royalsocietypublishing.org @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social youtu.be/WQLjnfhSyD4?...

Great new paper led by @laurenvane.bsky.social from her masters work on the dwarf mongooses. Despite early mornings and late nights, the increasing temperatures we’re seeing are stopping the mongooses maintaining body mass. @bristolbiosci.bsky.social @andyradford.bsky.social doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

New research from #BiologyLetters: Wild jackdaws learn to tolerate juveniles to exploit new foraging opportunities buff.ly/CXm7rPe | #AnimalBehaviour #Cognition #Ecology

@lucahahn.bsky.social gave a very interesting talk on his research investigating feedback effects between social relationships and social information in jackdaws @behaviour2025.bsky.social @asab.org

More than a century of data reveals how the UK has gone from supplying domestic seafood needs from productive home waters to importing seafood from almost 90 countries Read more here 👇 @exeter.ac.uk @exetermarine.bsky.social @uniexecec.bsky.social @profcallum.bsky.social @ruththurstan.bsky.social

A bit late on this, but here we explore how cultural information can guide development of behavior & cognitive skills just like genes. Can cultural evolution result in teaching trajectories that promote incremental acquisition of complex tasks? #culturalevolution #developmentalpsychology #modelling

Are you a current student with us and want a part-time job running our social media platforms? Our social media manager position is up for grabs! If you’re interested, contact Chris Laing ([email protected]) for all enquiries and applications! #ExeterCEC #StudentJobs #SocialMedia

Last but not least! today we share the talk of Christine Caldwell as plenary speaker at @ehbea2025.bsky.social Here she talks about the cognitive challenges for cumulative cultural evolution and how these abilities were selected 🧠 Don’t miss it! 👇 youtu.be/UvVNfyiYOGc?...

Lovely to receive this hefty tome in the post! Featuring our chapter with @josharbon.bsky.social on mammalian social learning among many other juicy nuggets of culture. Big thanks to editors Jamie Tehrani @rachkendal.bsky.social and @jeremykendal.bsky.social. Get your copy now!

Fantastic new job, advert now live - Associate Professor in Animal Behaviour, Dept Biology, Oxford. Closing date 8th Oct. Come and join us! my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Our article "Impediments to countering racist pseudoscience" (with @gillianrbrown1.bsky.social, @kztwyman.bsky.social & Marc Feldman) is now published online. We describe five factors that contribute to the spread of racism and suggest strategies for countering them. doi.org/10.1017/ehs....

📢Congratulations! 🎖️Prof Andrew Balmford FRS has won the @royalsociety.org's new Environment Medal and Lecture! Awarded for groundbreaking contributions to #conservationscience & redefining conservation education. Read more: bit.ly/41oPGr1 @conservation.cam.ac.uk

Immune genetic and disease surveillance of a wild meerkat population over 20 years shows that tuberculosis imposes strong pathogen-mediated balancing selection on major histocompatibility complex and identifies underlying mechanisms www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We're tabling all week at #Behaviour2025. Come chat about wild animal welfare, learn about the grants we offer, and pick up some free resources. @tanyapayne.bsky.social @janirecas.bsky.social @behaviour2025.bsky.social

Deadline for submitting an abstract to give a talk or poster is this Friday!

New paper led by @josharbon.bsky.social. Adults jackdaws often bully youngsters, but we show they can learn to be tolerant and attend to juveniles as sources of information. @uniexecec.bsky.social. Funded by @leverhulme.ac.uk & @swbiodtp.bsky.social royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

New @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social paper out today in @royalsociety.org Biology Letters. We found adult jackdaws can learn to tolerate usually bullied or ignored juveniles when they provided information about a new foraging resource. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Our latest blog post focuses on the Caribbean Spiny Lobster Project, talking about aquaculture, fisheries and the importance of community engagement. Read the full story here - sites.exeter.ac.uk/exetermarine... 🦑🌍🦤🧪🌐🐟

‪Come join us at the @asab.org Winter Conference 2025: how sensory info affects behaviour. 15th & 16th Dec, abstracts due end Aug. More info and registration asabwinter.github.io/2025 Co-hosted with @jtroscianko.bsky.social and Innes Cuthill

Ever wondered how animals know where they are? Or how they find where they need to be? The answer is that they have maps and compasses built into their heads! Excited to see this new review of map-and-compass navigation led by Joe Morford out in Animal Behaviour @asab.org doi.org/10.1016/j.an...

Today's highlighted talk is a great contribution by Arnon Lotem, discussing the evolution of learning mechanisms and their fine-tuning to fit different species' needs youtu.be/At9uqrPNz5Y @royalsocietypublishing.org @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social

Challenging alpha male’ norms: new study across #primates reveals that power relationships between males and females are less clear-cut than expected. An intl. team including D. Lukas @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social shows that context matters for which sex has power www.mpg.de/24986976/063...

Late to the party but the last paper of my PhD was published earlier this year! Pinyon jays (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) and Clark’s nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana) can discriminate between pilfering and non-pilfering conspecifics, but not between heterospecifics link.springer.com/article/10.1...

🚨JOB alert🚨 Full-time Managing Editor role for @asab.org journal Animal Behaviour. Applicants must have animal #behaviour background; previous editorial experience would be ideal. Apply by 31st July 2025. #publishing #editor #job More details: www.asab.org/opportunities PLEASE share widely.

📣 Join the K/Creative Ape Team 🤓 2 PhDs on Creativity in Wild Chimpanzees & Bonobos; w myself & the v awesome @kathelijnekoops.bsky.social @snf-fns.ch Uni Zurich @uniofstandrews.bsky.social @efp2026.bsky.social @ips-primatenews.bsky.social @primatesocietygb.bsky.social @primbehavecol.bsky.social 🐵🧪

@royalsociety.org talk, outlining some of the ideas in our Phil Trans paper "The Coevolution of Cognition and Sociality", featuring fab research by jackdaw team members past and present @lucahahn.bsky.social, @josharbon.bsky.social, @guillmcivor.bsky.social & Mike Kings. tinyurl.com/yc7zccb4

Selection shapes diverse animal minds: We recorded the talks at our @royalsocietypublishing.org discussion meeting last year to share with those who couldn’t be there. Our first speaker is Stephen Montgomery (Bristol University) @ebablab.bsky.social. youtu.be/BzmRZlhTcrc?...

In our new paper we discuss the coevolution of cognition and sociality (link: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...). It was a pleasure to work on this project with Andoni Sergiou, @josharbon.bsky.social, @inesfuertbauer.bsky.social, @shoalgroup.bsky.social, and @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social!

Societies might shape minds, but minds can shape societies. In this new paper we discuss how this feedback changes how we think about social and cognitive evolution. Led by @lucahahn.bsky.social royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Check out our new paper comparing #socialcognition in #tolerant and #despotic #macaques, by @awad-schwob.bsky.social, Rosie Bettle, Megan Mulhinch & @zeppypearl.bsky.social! royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....

very interesting collection, expertly compiled by @ellileadbeater.bsky.social & @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social! Featuring Hodge*, Alcalde Anton et al! ‘Modality specific long term #memory enhancement in #Heliconius butterflies’ 🧪 *Elizabeth’s 1st paper 🍾 royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

It was wonderful to work with @ellileadbeater.bsky.social on this special issue! Huge thanks to her and to all our contributors.

Huge congratulations @ebablab.bsky.social! Cambridge are lucky to have you.

Deadline tomorrow!!!

Fun morning playing our virus outreach game #VirusCraft with local school children as part of @uniexecec.bsky.social @exeter.ac.uk Festival of Science (organised by @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social) - game made by fantastic @thentrythis.social.thentrythis.org.ap.brid.gy

Another #PhD chapter out in the world! We investigate the impact of anthropogenic #noise on the territorial song of WA magpies 🔊🐦🔊 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @mandyridley.bsky.social @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social @dutourmylene.bsky.social

Great PhD project with fabulous supervisors! Get your applications in!

New paper in @behavecol.bsky.social (link: academic.oup.com/beheco/advan...) led by PhD student @marcofele.bsky.social using hard-won data from our amazing baboon team. Our @swanseauni.bsky.social press release: www.swansea.ac.uk/press-office... We introduce the idea of a "social spandrel".....

Mother Bats Shape Their Pups’ Voices Vocal learning isn’t just about listening—it’s about interactions! Mother bats play a key role in shaping how their pups learn to communicate, showing how important early-life interactions are. doi.org/10.7554/eLif... @eLife.bsky.social @ahanaaurora.bsky.social

Jackdaws' flexible behaviour helps them live alongside people, but sometimes they do some odd things! This guy decided a fork would make good nest material, but later changed his mind and chucked it out again. @uniexecec.bsky.social

What an interesting paper! I'd never thought about this before.

For our 🇫🇷 & 🇩🇪-speaking friends, these great @artefr.bsky.social films showcase animal culture research by group members past & present. #jackdaws #meerkats @uniexecec.bsky.social 🇫🇷 Apprendre des Autres: www.arte.tv/fr/videos/11... Transmettre pour s'adapter: www.arte.tv/fr/videos/11...

Happy 99th birthday to David Attenborough. Thanks for inspiring generations of animal behaviour researchers! 🐘🐬🐵🐸🐝🦅 www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

We're proud that our researchers played a role in giving scientific advice for ‘Ocean’, the new film/book by Sir David Attenborough. Here's some of the team at the film's premiere last night! Huge congratulations to all involved. Read more in our press release - news.exeter.ac.uk/top-stories/... 🦑🌊🧪

Our latest superb starling work in @nature.com. We observe long-term reciprocal helping relationships, and suggest reciprocity is an underappreciated mechanism promoting the stability of cooperatively breeding societies. Led by Alexis Earl and @gerrycarter.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Fantastic opportunity - great project, study organisms, PI, group and place. What more could you want? Check it out now...

Ever wondered what life is like for a crow or magpie? Check out our new paper on corvid consciousness doi.org/10.1007/s100...

Traditions of behaviour have been found to be passed on in numerous species of animals. Now, major #conservation agencies have begun to recognize that these discoveries could have big implications for conservation agendas. Explore the new #PhilTransB issue: royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202...