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...

Job alert🐦 2yr post-doc position with Prof. Sue Healy on project "Mistakes in Action: From the Normativity of Goal-Directedness to Novel Investigations of Avian Nest Construction"🪺 Start asap. Contact: sdh11[at]st-andrews.ac.uk @uniofstandrews.bsky.social

We have an exciting new position in our lab for a PhD on parrot tool use! See below

This comic is really making our whole lab crack up!

1/12 Goffin's cockatoos, famed for their innovative abilities, are now surprising with a culinary breakthrough. This is only the second documented case of a non-human animal modifying a food to specifically alter its taste. It is a study by @zewaldj.bsky.social

This is the video abstract to our new study with @zewaldj.bsky.social on food flavouring behaviour in Goffin's cockatoos www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Wko...

Our new study with @zewaldj.bsky.social on innovative food preparation in Goffins cockatoos just appeared in Current Biology: our results suggest that Goffins dunk noodles in selective yogurt mixtures to add flavour www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

After many years it was nice to see the Leipzig apes again!

Motor Imitation in parrots at Loro Parque! www.mpg.de/23837455/120...

Excited to be co-organizing this workshop with Mariel Goddu (Stanford) and colleagues at the MPI EVA! Join us in Leipzig, Dec 17-18th -> Free registration: bit.ly/intuitive-ph... #intuitivephysics #cognition #development #comparativepsychology #Leipzig

A video showing the two transport modes for the decision making task. www.vetmeduni.ac.at/fileadmin/v/...

A new Goffin Lab paper on weight cognition with fCelestine Adelmant and Antonio Osuna-Mascaró: Goffins decide to transport the lighter of two identical kettlebells. www.nature.com/articles/s41....

Very excited to start my journey on Bluesky! I am running the Goffin Lab in Vienna. Follow me if you are interested in animal tool use and innovation!