Happy Birthday MaxCine 🎂 This October, MaxCine celebrates 15 years of inspiring young scientists. Join us to celebrate this achievement at the MAXCINE FESTIVAL: three days of science, art, ideas, and community. Come in person or participate online. Talks are FREE. Registrations are open👉 maxcine.de

New blog post alert!🚨 Citizen scientist coders for wildlife conservation – a MoveApps story Find out more about the collaboration between the MoveApps team, academic ecologists and volunteer coders 👇 #move_apps #mpiab @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @moveapps.bsky.social buff.ly/56Wuiuc

The #MaxPlanckPostdocProgram offers a guaranteed contract of at least 3 years, targeted mentoring, and career workshops. The call for applications is open now! 🚀 Take advantage of this opportunity and browse the job vacancies. www.mpg.de/en/max-planc...

Scientists discover the secret behind the shrew’s amazing ability to shrink their brains 🧠 The clever trick sheds unwanted weight without compromising too much on cognition. Find the 5-letter word 👇 Study by @cecibaldoni.bsky.social Dechmann Lab #shrewcrew et al www.ab.mpg.de/743885/news_...

Detail of two hyenas #SciArt @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social

Also many thanks to @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social, @imprs-qbee.bsky.social and @daadworldwide.bsky.social who make my research, travels and said Gala dinners possible!

The secret to shrew brain shrinkage? 🤔 Not cell loss, but water loss! Our new paper shows that brain cells shrink by losing water, a wild feat of brain plasticity 🤯 Check the paper! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @labdavalos.bsky.social @batichica.bsky.social

Initiatives such as the Icarus Initiative from @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @animaltracking.bsky.social are pioneering future efforts to understand where, when and how animals struggle and die in particular areas and context: www.ab.mpg.de/669445/icaru...

MELA — a short documentary on the Mating Ecology of Lek Breeding Antelope — takes you behind the scenes of an interdisciplinary #UniKonstanz @cbehav.bsky.social @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social research journey. This film reveals how science is done, shared, and lived: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i4d...

In humans, bigger teams often mean less effort per person — the #Ringelmann effect. Weaver #ants 🐜 flip the script: #teamwork makes them superefficient! Video + paper out now in Current Biology! @cellpress.bsky.social tinyurl.com/44yrvp6m tinyurl.com/3jnnevfn

New work led by Martina Scacco @safilab.bsky.social and Tom Carrard @ethz.ch in collaboration with the Swiss Ornithological Institute and the Konrad Lorenz Institute ⬇️

Unser Studie zu Verhaltenssequenzen wurde auf YT Channel MitWissen vorgestellt: youtu.be/5fT-lwwfmZE MitWissen (auf Deutsch) wird von meiner Kollegin @cinig.bsky.social betrieben. Schaut euch das Video an und abonniert gerne ihren Channel!

🫶🙌😍

Thrilled to share our new article in @pnas.org highlighting global gaps in where we study animal movement—and outlining the next generation of smart bio-loggers. 👉 Read the full study in PNAS: lnkd.in/exP8NCeZ 1/

From bio-logging to conservation 🔽 New paper by an @animaltracking.bsky.social dream team @diegoellissoto.bsky.social @anflack.bsky.social @arispeshkin.bsky.social Timm Wild, Hannah Williams, @teagueo.bsky.social @cbehav.bsky.social @uni-konstanz.de www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Our bat team's work on noctules was featured by the science show Quarks. It starts at 30 minutes in 🦇 @dechman.bsky.social @edwardhurme.bsky.social www.ardmediathek.de/video/quarks...

We have a full house . Konstanz School of Collective Behavior is off to a great start with Iain Couzin as our opening keynote speaker @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @cbehav.bsky.social

Waving our hands in the air like we don’t care #mpiab #summer #konstanz #maxplanckinstitut #love

Another good reason to read this paper by @pminasandra.bsky.social👇 It just won the "Best Paper Award" from @uni-konstanz.de Bio Dept 👏 Congrats to Pranav + team @livingingroups.bsky.social @meg-crofoot.bsky.social @arispeshkin.bsky.social @animal-sounds.bsky.social ▶️ www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

If there is an optimal behavior, why is there so much variation in the world? We found that, for white storks, context is everything. @anflack.bsky.social @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social New paper! @cellpress.bsky.social doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2025.06.044 🧵1/5

Look at this beautiful new study by @hbronnv.bsky.social in @cellpress.bsky.social, and it even has a pretty animation! Experience AND motivation count when white storks migrate! #birds #migration #biologging #ontogeny #whitestork #ornithology Very proud supervisor here @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social

"Salvatore and the Goats of Mount Etna" has been selected for the The Canadian Children’s Book Centre Best Books for Kids & Teens list 🎉 #mpiab author Uschi Müller based the tale on research into animals as an early warning system 🌋🐐🛰️ @greystonebooks.bsky.social ▶️ bookcentre.ca/products/sal...

Congrats to Dr. @zoegoldsborough.bsky.social on successfully defending her dissertation @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social and @imprs-qbee.bsky.social

Hey Camera Trappers 📸🐺🐗🦌🦅Snapshot Europe is back for 2025! Join us in deploying cameras this Sept-Oct. Help build a crucial snapshot of European biodiversity. Learn more & express interest here ▶️ app.wildlifeinsights.org/initiatives/... Spread the word and help expand our community across Europe🙏

News you can use for better sleep 💤 Like us, orangutans need a good night's sleep. If they don't get enough, they squeeze in a nap the next day. They even have a trick: up to 10 mins napping for each hour missed last night. Try it at home. @livingingroups.bsky.social www.ab.mpg.de/718751/news_...

We know some animals nap. But do they do it to make up for lost sleep? Our joint study with Caroline Schuppli and the Suaq team dives deep into the sleep patterns of wild orangutans to find out their strategy for sleep homeostasis 🦧 💤 Paper @cellpress.bsky.social ▶️ doi.org/10.1016/j.cu... 🧵 1/8

Behold the world’s first off the grid Mormon cricket virtual reality system! @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @uni-konstanz.de @sercansayin.bsky.social @1imurphy.bsky.social @vishwanathvarma @pvnkmrksk.bsky.social @icouzin.bsky.social

My first co-author paper is out in Current Biology! In this study, led by Daniela Perez and Serena Ding, we show that nematode self-assembling towers occur in nature and can serve as a collective dispersal mechanism 🪱 Check out a video where Daniela explains the findings and the paper here 👇

Aaah, the animal cognition that continues to cognize. Next stop=world leadership @lucymaplin.bsky.social @barbaraklump.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/06/03/s...

Move over, starling murmurations. There’s a slimier, squirmier collective behavior in town. It's a living, twisting tower of worms. Everybody, meet the wormuration 🪱🪱 Latest paper by Daniela Perez, Serena Ding and team @uni-konstanz.de Paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.cu... youtube.com/shorts/F8QVc...

Our new preprint is out! 🧬 In this great study with @labdavalos.bsky.social, we looked at the mysterious pancreas of Aselli in #shrews: an unexpected site for plasma cell differentiation and a critical hub of immune function beyond the bone marrow! 😍 Have a look! 👉 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The Hyenas' composition is taking shape! #SciArt #mammals @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social

New paper! #Goldeneagles ride the wind – literally! Soaring birds use invisible lifts in the air- so-called thermals and orographic lifts. Our latest research uncovers another source of uplift that golden eagles use: #gravitywaves (c) T. Thusholt @vogelwarte.bsky.social @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social

Do you use Earth Observation #data for #wildlife #ecology? Take this survey to share how you use remotesensing, climate and weather data. Part of SOS (www.dfg-sos.de), a project of @dlr-de.bsky.social, @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social, ‪@uni-wuerzburg.de‬ survey.lamapoll.de/EarthObserva...

A new version of the orangutans animation. Based on discarded sketches for an illustration for @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social The last frame is part of my proposal for #wia2025 #sciart

Heuschreckenschwärme sind Wunder der Koordination. Wie sich die einzelnen Tiere im #Schwarm orientieren, können @icouzin.bsky.social et al. vom @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social und @cbehav.bsky.social @uni-konstanz.de) jetzt annähernd erklären: www.laborjournal.de/rubric/journ... (von Larissa Tetsch)

Some sketches for this surprising publication by ‪ @zoegoldsborough.bsky.social @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @bjjbarrett.bsky.social @meg-crofoot.bsky.social @livingingroups.bsky.social Capuchin monkeys abducting howler monkey infants and carrying them around! 😐

#Capuchins are abducting baby howlers. But why? Zoë Goldsborough, Brendan Barrett, and Meg Crofoot @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social discuss what’s behind this novel animal tradition. www.youtube.com/watch?v=mooQ... @zoegoldsborough.bsky.social

The @royalsociety.org has elected behavioural biologist @icouzin.bsky.social as Fellow. Couzin is Speaker of the #UniKonstanz Cluster of Excellence @cbehav.bsky.social and Professor at the University of Konstanz, as well as Director at the @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social. Full story: t1p.de/ap3uw

Royal Society has elected @icouzin.bsky.social as a Fellow in recognition of contributions to research on animal collectives 🐟🦗🦈🐜 Congratulations to Max Planck Director and Prof @cbehav.bsky.social @uni-konstanz.de, Iain Couzin FRS! @royalsociety.org @maxplanck.de www.ab.mpg.de/679766/news_...

Hot off the press 📣: one of the most surprising and unsettling findings of my PhD. A novel social tradition emerged in the tool-using white-faced capuchins of Jicarón island… abducting and carrying the infants of another species. Thread with gifs, videos, and all the bizarre details 👇

On a remote Panamanian island, capuchin monkeys began kidnapping baby howlers and carrying them for days. Nobody was on the island to witness the origin and spread of this strange social tradition. But camera traps were there: www.ab.mpg.de/677569/news_... Study from @livingingroups.bsky.social ⬇️

Humans have many unusual traditions. But did you know animals’ strange behaviors can become culture too? Out now in Current Biology (doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...) we show the rise and spread of a surprising tradition: interspecies infant abduction. Interactive timeline (www.ab.mpg.de/671374) 🧵 (1/12)

Cross-species teamwork from @livingingroups.bsky.social reveals unexpected similarities in three social mammals 🤔 By lead author @pminasandra.bsky.social with Emily Grout, Katrina Brock, Meg Crofoot, Vlad Demartsev, Amlan Nayak, Eli Strauss, Ari Strandburg-Peshkin🧵1/2 www.ab.mpg.de/679000/news_...

Fascinating new results from @pminasandra.bsky.social have us scratching our heads here @livingingroups.bsky.social! Looking forward to seeing if these patterns hold across an even more diverse set of species. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

The orangutans and bonobos are the first two illustrations of a series on behavior and movement of animals in their environment. #SciArt More coming soon! :) For @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social

🚨 Out this week in @pnas.org 🚨 The flagship paper from my PhD @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @livingingroups.bsky.social - We show surprising statistical similarities in animal behaviour across states, individuals, and even species. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... (🧵 1/10)

Reminder: The rainforest is calling! 🐒🌴 Just a heads-up: the registration deadline for the Animove Workshop this year in Costa Rica is May 31st. Don’t miss your chance to join us and maybe a few monkeys included. animove.org/next-animove... #Animove2025 #LaSelva @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social

Nature’s hidden #algorithm: a team of biologists & robotic engineers have developed a VR system for fish to decipher how they school. The ‘control law’ that is used by #zebrafish to facilitate collective motion has also implications for #robotics 🐟🤖 tinyurl.com/454bnpfy @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social