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...

Wonderful to see this project published! We were glad to contribute a small part to this impressive collaborative effort through ECoBird.

Long John, the one-eyed Goffin is a large and rather dominant male in one of the Singapore groups. He has no trouble navigating through the canopy or strategically displacing pigeons from his feeding places. We think he is beautiful! - pics from Singapore with @theroesa.bsky.social

New paper on precise tool use learning in carrion crows @currentbiology.bsky.social. We show that—like New Caledonian crows—expert carrion crows pay close attention to the working end of their tool, suggesting tool integration into their peripersonal space. 🧵 & vids! 👇 www.cell.com/current-biol...

early morning bird

Fighting Goffins turned into dancing stars ....Fielwork with @theroesa.bsky.social

Some strange visitors came to our field side today... had some trouble fending off house crows. Fieldwork in Singapore with @theroesa.bsky.social

Early morning bird... on field trip to Singapore with @theroesa.bsky.social

Goffins like challenges...feeding upside down. Enjoying fieldwork in Singapore with @theroesa.bsky.social

House crow destroying Goffin Feather for no reason after aggressive encounter ... enjoying fieldwork in Singapore with @theroesa.bsky.social

Goffins versus housecrows - fieldwork in Singapore with @theroesa.bsky.social

Goffins being social in Singapur - enjoying fieldwork with @theroesa.bsky.social

" Der Erfindergeist der Tiere" ist für "Wissensbuch des Jahres 2025" nominiert! Wenn euch das Buch gefällt bitte mitwählen und teilen! www.konradin-service.de/umfrage/inde...

Podcast zum 'Erfindergeist der Tiere' (in German) open.spotify.com/episode/27Co...

#Stellenausschreibung: Zwei wissenschaftliche Stellen sind im #EU-Projekt #UrbanBEE ausgeschrieben 🐝 #PhD-Stelle an der #univienna, Universitätsassistent*in Praedoc (30h/Woche), befristet auf 3 Jahre 🐝 Studentische Assistenz bei der #AGES, Teilzeit: 20h/Woche, Dauer: 6 Monate klf.univie.ac.at/de/

We interrupt our regularly scheduled shitshow for a bit of delightful bird behavior.

Gedanken mit Ö1 Radio oe1.orf.at/programm/202...

@auersperga.bsky.social Alice Auersperg hat auch ein großartiges Buch dazu geschrieben, "Der Erfindergeist der Tiere" - für alle, die mehr wissen wollen! www.brandstaetterverlag.com/buch/der-erf...

Nächster Mittwoch 18:30 Buchvortrag zum "Erfindergeist der Tiere" im Naturhistorischen Museum Wien. www.brandstaetterverlag.com/stories/vera...

Nächste Buchpräsentation zum "Erfindergeist der Tiere" ist Montag den 14. im Haus des Meeres um 18:30. Anmeldung: [email protected] www.verein-hdm.at/cms/14-april...

An der Vetmeduni Wien erforsche ich den Erfindergeist von Tieren. Wenn wir besser verstehen wie diese denken, können wir nicht nur etwas über die Evolution unserer eigenen Intelligenz lernen, es hilft uns auch Tiere zu respektieren und zu schützen. #ichforschegerninwien #TopForschungWien

ORF Topos Story (for German readers) about cockatoos and ravens topos.orf.at/voegel-intel... featuring my new book "der Erfindergeist der Tiere" www.brandstaetterverlag.com/buch/der-erf... and Thomas Bugnyar's 2023 Book "Raben" www.brandstaetterverlag.com/buch/raben/

For German readers interested in animal innovation and tool use. My new book is now available ! ( e.g. Amazon, Hugendubel, Thalia or via the publisher) www.brandstaetterverlag.com/buch/der-erf...

🚨Fully-funded PhD studentship on insect behaviour, cognition & muscles with me & @viveknityananda.bsky.social at @newcastleuni.bsky.social 🐝🍀🎓🙌Application deadline April 30, start date in September. Drop me an email if you have questions! www.ncl.ac.uk/postgraduate...