3/3 The fact that they consume their entire prey (rather than caching it) suggests that this is a consequence of the typical desert food scarcity. It also indicates a degree of self-awareness, since it requires the cooperation of four crows, who must recognize their individual limitations.

1/3 Cooperative hunting in ravens Brown-necked ravens (C. ruficollis) work together to prevent lizards (U. aegyptia) from entering and blocking their burrow by inflating their bodies using their pointed tails to obstruct the entrance. (paper; 2010) link.springer.com/article/10.1...

The statistical fragility of animal cognition findings: a meta-meta-analytic reappraisal ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

Mon interview chez @mr-mondialisation.bsky.social est en ligne !! Merci infiniment à Maureen pour ces échanges et cet excellent article :)

This is an interesting article that categorizes 350 theories of consciousness. (blog) www.newscientist.com/article/2498... And it works perfectly as an introduction to exploring the Closer to Truth website, where the topics are compiled and explained one by one. (blog) loc.closertotruth.com/map

1/11 Play in cold-blooded animals Review of evidence of play in fish, reptiles, and amphibians. It is less common than in mammals, but it does exist. Here are some examples and descriptions of how the authors explain it. (paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Après les poissons et les animaux "de la ferme", @cervelleoiseau.bsky.social s'est attaqué...aux rats ! La BD, illustrée par Josselin Billard est actuellement en financement participatif et a besoin de vous ! Pour soutenir et faire tourner, c'est là : fr.ulule.com/scelerats-mo...

1/2 Personality in Sea Anemones Despite lacking a centralized nervous system, Actinia equina displays predictable personality traits for each individual. This study shows that high temperatures increase their boldness and affect their ability to learn. (paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

"While the handling and marking of chamois in this study were noninvasive, the method of capture (falling nets) nevertheless had the potential to cause high levels of stress and resulted in the deaths of five chamois." 🔽

2025. Norway Rats Exhibit Social Learning in Nature bioengineer.org/norway-rats-...

Early-life social instability affects aggression, but not response inhibition, in chickens https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.29.685273v1

1/6 Emotional/affective contagion in bumblebees First evidence that emotions are contagious in insects too. Bumblebees that observed an optimistic bumblebee became optimistic themselves. This is the most basic form of empathy. (paper) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Beliefs about one's own beliefs in chimpanzees. Five experiments have demonstrated that chimpanzees evaluate their beliefs based on evidence and the source of that evidence (by epistemic defeat). Language is not needed for any of this. (paper) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Rapid Social Transmission of Predator Location via Gaze Following in Pigeons https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.29.685277v1

NEW PAPER: Female wild turkeys produce fewer male offspring where hunting increases male mortality, suggesting adaptive adjustment of brood sex ratios to enhance reproductive success under harvest pressure. ➡️ vist.ly/4cff4 #ornithology #birds #adaptive #sexratio 🪶

New paper, led by Vlad Demartsev: Alerting components in animal vocalization www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Synchronous and asynchronous counterillumination by three types of photophores in the firefly squid, Watasenia scintillans https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.29.685447v1

When bats confront rats: The seasonal struggle for survival phys.org/news/2025-10...

2025. Review: Peer social bonds in farm animals www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A podcast episode for #Arachtober! "New Zealand's Dr Fiona Cross tells a tale of two spiders: one that outsmarted its researchers and another that's mysteriously drawn to our smelly socks." Some legendary spiders, as well as my story of what inspired me to work with them 🕷 pod.link/aHR0cHM6Ly9m...

🐀❤️‍🔥💣 Une bande dessinée s'apprête à révolutionner notre perception des ✨rats✨, sous la plume du célèbre vulgarisateur en éthologie Sébastien Moro, aka @cervelleoiseau.bsky.social ! Un financement participatif est lancé, merci de faire circuler l'info! 🦾 fr.ulule.com/scelerats-mo...

Exploring the Winner-Loser Effect on Emotion in Crickets https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.24.684431v1

Josselin Billard et moi préparons un ouvrage de synthèse sous forme de BD sur la cognition et le comportement des rats. Pas loin de 1000 études en bibiographie. Il est autant destiné au grand public qu'au monde universitaire.

Vocal sequences of diverse parrots suggest an important role for note repetition https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.24.684295v1

Exciting new work from former team members Eric Romero, Cwyn Solvi, Fei Peng and colleagues makes the cover of Science: affective contagion in bumblebees! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

In a paper under review @abigaildesmond.bsky.social and I argue that self-directed tool use should be the most common form of novel (and possibly temporary) tool use, because of the immediacy of the feedback and the stability of the self as an environment. Fingers crossed it survives review! 🧪🪮🐼

Campagne de préfinancement pour une BD sur nos amis (oui) les rats, écrite par @cervelleoiseau.bsky.social ! Les corneilles approuvent fr.ulule.com/scelerats-mo...

Can fish and birds be “fooled” by the same optical illusion? 🐟🐦 Our new study in Frontiers in Psychology compares guppies and ring doves in their perception of the Ebbinghaus illusion — with surprising results! 🔗 www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.... @univie.ac.at @fusanilab.bsky.social

Community structure and microhabitat associations of cryptobenthic fishes in Veracruz, Mexico First PhD-paper by @r-higueras.bsky.social, exploring the tiny fish communities on reefs off the coast of her hometown 🥹 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

1/5 Birds around the world use the same alarm call to warn of the presence of brood parasites. They studied 21 species from nine families that were separated by 50 million years of evolution. Perhaps the most interesting finding: the alarm call is learned. (paper) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

1/8 Numerical cognition in birds They handle quantities, proportions, simple arithmetic, etc. The numerical cognition of birds is similar (sometimes superior) to that observed in primates, which represents an astonishing evolutionary convergence. (paper) www.nature.com/articles/s44...

1/3 Reading minds through facial expressions The cognitive processes involved in decision-making in mice can be understood by observing their facial expressions. This would allow non-invasive access to their decision-making processes. (paper) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

It sounds silly but this new précis of The Edge of Sentience is one of my favourite pieces of my own writing. Yes, it's true, you could get chatGPT to summarize my book (and it's open access, so you literally could) - but I do it better! www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/animsent/vol...

Investigating the potential for mirror self-recognition in honeybees (Apis mellifera): a preliminary study using the mark test https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.14.682345v1

2025. From nociception in aneural animals to human suffering: toward a comparative biology of pain url: journals.biologists.com/jeb/article-...

NEW PAPER: do common ravens show consistent boldness–shyness responses to risk? Reactions of individually marked ravens vary by age but not over time. Ravens fear bird-of-prey calls more than gunshots, suggesting flexible, not fixed, personalities. ➡️ vist.ly/4adpy #ornithology #birds 🪶

2025. Why some birds fear novelty phys.org/news/2025-10...

Le grand moment est enfin arrivé ! Après des mois de travail acharné, la nouvelle BD sur les rats est enfin sur les starting blocks ! Contrairement aux deux précédentes, ce projet-ci passe par un financement participatif pour voir le jour youtu.be/eXPxfGWZHno

Social and Spatial Affinity Drive Wound Care by Ants https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.08.681151v1

Les semaines qui arrivent vont être sportives ! :D

2025. Activity and behavior patterns of cattle, horses and sheep grazing in mountainous areas using geolocation collars url: academic.oup.com/jas/article/...

NEW PAPER: Wild rock pigeons more than double grooming during peak molt, showing that the intensity of grooming parallels the intensity of molt throughout the molt cycle. Molt may be costlier than thought, as birds invest extra energy in feather care. ➡️ vist.ly/47pgr #ornithology #birds 🪶

Comprehensive healthspan assessments and influence of sex as a biological variable in aging rats https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.22.677661v1

Nice article featuring how we and others use robotic animals to study animal behavior 🤖🐟🧪

Flexible Self-Protection as Evidence of Pain-Like States in House Crickets https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.12.675781v1

First direct quantification of floral handling costs in bees https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.15.675838v1

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

I'm delighted to share that, together with @crowbrain.bsky.social our paper on time estimation in crows is now published in @natcomms.nature.com We found that crows not only keep track of time, but individual neurons prefer different time durations 🐦⏱️🧠 Check it out: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Conditioned orienting predicts preference for, and affective response to, amphetamine after multiple exposures in male rats. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.06.674656v1

Flexibility in task performance and division of labour in a cooperatively breeding cichlid https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.08.674851v1