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?...

**PhD POSITIONS** I am recruiting 1-2 PhD students to work on sociality and cognition in Monk Parakeets, starting Fall 2026. Full ad is here: hobsonresearch.com/index.php/20... (please help spread the word!)

We are hiring - PDRA position exploring how information access shapes social dynamics in killer whales. Collaboration with @samellisq.bsky.social @drwhale.bsky.social Prof Dan Franks (York) start 1st Nov (or ASAP) end 31st Oct 2028. Apps close on 19th Oct. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOT336/p...

Please share!🙏 🚨 PhD Oportunity in Avian Behavioural Ecology in Spain The BirdBond Project (MNCN & IREC) studies how pair bonds form, change & affect reproduction/survival in the spotless starling 🐦

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/...

ESLR is currently undergoing a transition, and a new committee (@alexschakowski.bsky.social, @ahnisnaahsi.bsky.social, @katebonner.bsky.social, @lucahahn.bsky.social, @mariapykala.bsky.social) is working on reinstating its presence and shaping its future. Please feel free to get in touch!

The first papers from our special collection on vocal communication in corvids are now live. Most are still under review, stay tuned for more updates as they’re published! link.springer.com/collections/...

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...

Join us!!! 2 (!) PhD positions on wild chimpanzees and bonobos in the Ape Behaviour & Ecology Group and Wildminds Lab!!! 🤩🤩🤩

NEW PAPER🎺 How does cognition determine an individual’s fitness? A systematic review of the links between cognition, behaviour and fitness in non-human animals Lots of studies try to explain how cognition might evolve, by taking a behavioural ecology approach Has this approach made any progress?🧵

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....

Part of the Phil Trans special issue "Selection Shapes Diverse Animal Minds", edited with @ellileadbeater.bsky.social. Thanks to co-authors Andoni Sergiou, @josharbon.bsky.social, @inesfuertbauer.bsky.social & @shoalgroup.bsky.social and all the special issue contributors. tinyurl.com/35mn84ty

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/...

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!

Selection Shapes Diverse Animal Minds: our special issue of @royalsocietypublishing.org Phil Trans B on the diverse evolutionary processes underlying cognitive evolution is out today. Thanks to all our contributors! royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202...

Exciting to see this R package for bayesian NBDA models out!

👇 New #preprint combining computational models with zebbie data: "Dynamic strategic social learning in nest-building zebra finches and its generalisability". 🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025... 🧵1/n

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...

The flexibility of social learning and its conservation implications in mammals & beyond. New paper, led by Josh Arbon with fab collaborators Neil Jordan & @neeltjeboogert.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2024.0136 @uniexecec.bsky.social @bristolbiosci.bsky.social @royalsocietypublishing.org

Two extremely important articles Why long-term field studies are rare: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... And why field studies are important: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

BEHOLD THE FLAGSHIP PAPER OF MY PHD! 🚢 I trained wild and zoo housed Guinea baboons to pull a lever for peanuts to test whether they monitored the foraging skills of others and used the information to inform their social choices 🧵 (1/9) royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Applications for DISI extended to Monday, March 10th! Cannot recommend more - I've attended as a scientist and a storyteller and both experiences were transformative :)

📣 preprint klaxon: New study with @dalmaijer.bsky.social @barbaraklump.bsky.social @lucymaplin.bsky.social where we take a closer look at the innovation arms race between cockatoos and residents of Sydney doi.org/10.1101/2025...

For those who missed the @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social conference in Durham last September, the recorded talks are now freely available to watch here: underline.io/events/456/l...

So exciting to see MacaqueNet out into the world! 🤩 Learn about our global community & database centralizing standardized affiliative & agonistic data from 61 populations across 14 macaque species: doi/10.1111/1365... Explore >600 networks & request data: macaquenet.github.io/database/

(1/9) Our new paper "Pair-bond strength is consistent and related to partner responsiveness in a wild corvid" is now out in Proc R Soc B! Research together with Beki Hooper, @guillmcivor.bsky.social, and @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social Link: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

New paper in #ProcB with @alexmesoudi.com, @jfbonnefon.bsky.social, @rmcelreath.bsky.social and Rob Boyd. We investigate how social learning shapes the way we explore and show that it can even preserve useless theories! 🧵👇

Recruiting a #PhD student to work on collective behaviour in real and artificial systems. Oct 2025 start. Working with @shoalgroup.bsky.social, Rob Heathcote, @willallennz.bsky.social, @joefresna.bsky.social, @marinapapap.bsky.social Advert: www.swansea.ac.uk/postgraduate... Deadline: 24.02

📣📣📣 Applications for the 2025 Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute (DISI) are now open!! Are you interested in intelligence, mind, and cognition in all its forms? Early-career scholars from any discipline—and storytellers in any medium—are encouraged to apply! More info: disi.org

Vocal communication in corvids: a systematic review. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti.... In our new paper we review 130 papers and summarise empirical evidence for socioecological factors affecting vocal communication, as well as evidence for vocal learning in different corvid species.

New year, new paper! We continue to unpick the interplay between ecological upheaval and sociality and show altered social structure could result in 2x disease transmission rates. Senior authored by the unstoppable @ctestard.bsky.social. In Ecology Letters: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Birds have complex social lives; they pair-up, divorce and repair, but we know very little about when and how these relationships form. New work from Daisy Abraham & Josh Firth on Wytham Woods Great Tits shows that divorce happens early - probably soon after breeding www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Want to use a unique dataset to study the spatial and temporal dynamics of genomic diversity and its drivers in a wild bird population? Apply for this #NERC #PhD position @uniexecec.bsky.social @animalecol-nioo.bsky.social. www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin... 🐦🌍🧪🧬 #ExeterCEC #Vlieland #NIOO-KNAW

When and why does social plasticity evolve, and what are its consequences for the pace of phenotypic evolution in fluctuating environments? Check out our new preprint where we use evolutionary quantitative genetic theory to develop general answers to these questions. ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

Interested in cognition, conservation and choughs? This PhD is for you! Fully funded by NERC GW4+. Based at @exetercec.bsky.social; co-supervised by @drrmiller.bsky.social and collaborators. Apply: tinyurl.com/58s9kb4k

Corvids calling! New PhD opportunity on corvid communication in the wild. Sep 2025 start. Fully funded by @swbiodtp.bsky.social. Application deadline 11 December. Apply here: tinyurl.com/yw785v75.

Come do a PhD with Sinead English @englishse.bsky.social , Dan Padfield @padpadpadpad.bsky.social and me on Gulls! GPS- and Bluetooth-tracking! Microbiomes & AMR acquisition & transmission! Human-wildlife conflict & mitigation! should be fun :-)

New episode!! 🪺🎙️ A conversation w/ Dr. Susan Healy about avian architecture. Popular wisdom says that birds' nests are the products of instinct, built according to rigid templates. But the latest research says otherwise. Nestcraft is the work of flexible minds. Listen: disi.org/nestcraft/