We have an exciting new position in our group for a PhD on parrot innovation !!! The position will be part of our new @fwf-at.bsky.social Emerging Fields project with @barbaraklump.bsky.social , @mohara.bsky.social , @christophvoelter.bsky.social and Justus Piater. Apply & share!!

I knew her podcast would be good, Poppy is talented etc etc. But I’m a podcast junkie. I listen to 6-7 dif ones a day, easily. I’m picky. So what a relief to discover that the new Living Biology podcast is not just good, but EXCELLENT. Drawn in immediately, easy to follow, great storytelling. A+ 🤩

Join us in Vienna! We are looking for a PhD student and a Postdoc to investigate innovation in corvids within the “Comparative ecological innovation styles” project funded by @fwf-at.bsky.social. More info: barbaraklump.com Application deadline July 24th. Please share widely!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=arVs... video abstract

New paper out with the Buttercups goats!

Our new Paper with @susanamonso.com and @biotay.bsky.social is out. It tests one of the components of Susana Monso's minimal concept of death in a Touch Screen Setup: sensitivity to permanent non-functionality. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

1/16 Do other species understand death? In this study with cockatoos, we approach this question from its foundation, by studying one of its central components: sensitivity to the permanent loss of a function. I will explain it in this thread (with videos) (paper) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Professor Lars Chittka FRS is elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. His work has transformed our understanding of animal intelligence by demonstrating that bees, despite their tiny brains, exhibit advanced cognitive abilities such as counting, attention and others. #RSFellows https://bit.ly/49xJuRy

(1/2) Hiring! 🤸🧠🐩 Postdoc position in my new group @univie.ac.at & Messerli Research Institute on the neuro-cognitive foundations and evolution of sociality across humans, dogs, and other carnivorans. 📍 Vienna 📅 Application deadline: 26 July 2026 ℹ️ shortifyme.co/p3NjN

(2/2) The postdoc will have the opportunity to develop their own research project, with access to human and awake dog neuroimaging, behavioural, and psychophysiological facilities, as well as unique comparative datasets. Happy to answer any questions & please share with potential candidates!

extreme extractive foraging - fieldwork with @theroesa.bsky.social

Two post doc positions at the Messerli Institute of Vetmeduni Vienna, including a few topics on parrots! Deadline July 26. www.vetmeduni.ac.at/fileadmin/v/...

common ground - fieldwork with @theroesa.bsky.social

knock knock - who is there?

early morning bird - fieldwork with @theroesa.bsky.social

Heavenly hornbills at Birdparadise singapore !

Another visit from the otters (fieldwork with @theroesa.bsky.social )

Having just fed, he's now got some moves

Mature females can be identified by their red eye colouration (fieldwork with @theroesa.bsky.social )

Long John is still around, seen together with his partner in a Ketapang tree... the eye injury has no effect on his cracking skills.

More fieldwork in Singapore with @theroesa.bsky.social

In Part I of the #OutstandingStudentPresentation at #CO32026, we heard behavioural findings from 7 exceptional students. Two major themes emerged: The effects of variation in developmental conditions and mechanisms for learning revealed by #memorytasks.

There's a really long discussion on Wikipedia about whether our study of Veronika is fake and the videos were generated by AI My favorite part is where they even bring up Russian military intelligence haha Human beings are extraordinary ٩๏̯͡๏)۶ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Ve...

Our new emerging field within the excellence initiative of the @fwf-at.bsky.social will look into the process of innovation across apes, parrots, corvids and embodied artificial agents with @mohara.bsky.social @barbaraklump.bsky.social @christophvoelter.bsky.social

2/2 On the left, Alice Auersperg (@auersperga.bsky.social) with Veronika and her new fancy broom. On the right is a photo of me with the ever-great Witgar Wiegele.

This is who runs this account

Naked scientist Podcast with Veronika: www.thenakedscientists.com/podcasts/nak...

Cover girl Veronika is making headlines across the globe🐂 (animal cleverness trumps human stupidity) Notably, she is a 'companion cow' not used for meat or dairy. Maybe if we saw other creatures less as a means to an end, we could appreciate their richness better... www.cell.com/current-biol...

I have prepared a video summarizing the study. Please come back here after reading the thread : ) youtu.be/bAk4PFEuWKQ English also youtu.be/CETjjZBMT5c Spanish youtu.be/tkpjlCxDJZA German (Thanks to Esau Dharma for providing the Spanish voice for Witgar Wiegele!)

Die klügste #Kuh der Welt: Veronika aus Kärnten verblüfft mit ihrem intelligenten Gebrauch von Werkzeugen. Ihr spezialisierter Besengebrauch wird von Kognitionsforschenden untersucht. #FWF-funded @auersperga.bsky.social @biotay.bsky.social 🐮 via @derstandard.at www.derstandard.at/story/300000...

Last week I had the privilege of speaking with @auersperga.bsky.social and @biotay.bsky.social about a very talented cow. She's called Veronika, she's fabulous and she's currently getting a lot of well-deserved attention. Here's my piece for @iflscience.com: www.iflscience.com/we-didnt-eve...

Cows itch, just like us. But Veronika the cow takes things into her own hands. Or rather: into her mouth. Scientists say it’s the first experimentally verified instance of cattle using a tool. https://wapo.st/3NzJ84A

Cow Tools! We have lived alongside cows for nearly 10,000 years. We breed them and exploit them It is now, only now, that we have discovered THEY CAN USE TOOLS Here I describe our study (paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... in @currentbiology.bsky.social with @auersperga.bsky.social

Veronika‚s Story in the New York Times www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/s...

The perfect story to take your mind off other news: Veronika, a cow in Austria, has been documented not only using a tool - a broomstick - but using it in different ways to scratch different parts of her body. 🧪 #animals #animalbehavior #intelligence www.livescience.com/animals/land...

No bull: nice article about our study by David Grimm | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Verrückter Fakt des Tages #vfdt heute hochaktuell: Veronika, eine Kuh aus Kärnten, verwendet offenbar gezielt und überlegt Werkzeuge. Sie zeigt ein Niveau von Werkzeugnutzung, das man bisher nur von Schimpansen kannte. science.orf.at/stories/3233...

Our new paper (with @biotay.bsky.social) is out and on the cover story of @currentbiology.bsky.social !!!! Veronika, a Carinthian mountain cow flexibly uses a “multi-purpose tool” to scratch herself. A video and more information will follow in the comments. www.cell.com/current-biol...

New Messerli Professorship available: www.nature.com/naturecareer...

A fun and informative video by @zefrank.bsky.social (True Facts) about our research on Goffin's cockatoos!! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq9J...

Our new theoretical paper on combinatory tool use origins is out ! with @raccoonologist.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

I had the honour of working to bring @auersperga.bsky.social’s baby to life. It’s a VERY heavy baby - over 200 references (and yes I read them all) - but necessary to do justice to our new hypothesis of combinatory tool use origins 📝👶🛠️ onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

How do curiosity and surprise intersect following a violation of expectation? Read our paper here🔥 @auersperga.bsky.social @ivojacobs.bsky.social @elifduran.bsky.social

New paper out today w @dalmaijer.bsky.social @barbaraklump.bsky.social and @lucymaplin.bsky.social as part of the Phil Trans special issue doi.org/10.1098/rstb.... Over 2 years, we studied a population of cockatoos thought to be the source of the innovation of bin-opening.

Highlight of my day: Steve Novella from my fave podcast @theskepticsguide.bsky.social saw right through this immediately. The issue here is definitional and you can almost claim any object is tool use with the current definitions - which is why ”tooling“ is a better framework to study the phenomenon

Beyond criterion: cognitive flexibility in wild striated caracaras: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... | #BiologyLetters #Behaviour #Cognition #Ecology

Highly recommended! I just finished a cover-to-cover read, and it's a great addition to the avian sensory ecology literature with excellent discussions of the links between brain & behavior. I prefer reading paper books (better retention) but the whole thing is freely downloadable! bit.ly/482xPZm 🦉🧠

Fully funded #PhDposition in Comparative Cultural Psychology @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social. We will use touchscreen experiments & eyetracking to study mental simulations in nonhuman apes & human children across different cultures. All info here: www.eva.mpg.de/career/posit... Please share / apply!🙏

Excited to share our newly published study on object neophobia and how it relates to problem-solving in #GoffinsCockatoos #TanimbarCorella! @auersperga.bsky.social @mohara.bsky.social @bmioduszewska.bsky.social @plosone.org doi.org/10.1371/jour...