in addition to his movies and warmly genial public persona, I always liked Sam Neill’s tiktoks etc, increasingly rare kind of celeb just posting cute little daffy personal clips along with famous person stuff. here’s Sam Neill with one of his beloved chickens

This is the elusive Pampas cat, also called the colocolo, native to South America. They're a natural predator of wild guinea pigs, viscachas & are ruthlessly efficient hunters. For decades, the Pampas cat has been at the center of a debate about species. (📷: Tompkins Conservation)

I am so lucky to be in a country 🇦🇹 that pays you to learn German while you’re unemployed. But wow after over a year of it, I am so READY to start my postdoc in just a bit over a month 😮‍💨 Writing my PhD and journal papers während ich komplizierte Grammatik lernte, das war nicht einfach! Mein Gott.

What is your biggest obstacle to thinking of Gibson's ecological approach as a plausible option? Not necessarily what you disagree with, but what stops you from thinking it gets a seat at the table? (Trying to get a sense of the limiting factor here)

Instant Transmission

"verify your age" blew into a NES games cartridge and a spider came out

i do not want funding to "foster entrepreneurship", "develop innovative businesses", or "patent emerging tech", i want money to go sequence bird DNA on some islands in the middle of the ocean, for the love of god stop trying to make me run a start-up or whatever *deletes yet another RfP email*

In addition to my own personal account, I’m now running 4 other social media accounts, @asab.org, @asab-meetings.bsky.social, @araa.at and @behaviour2027.bsky.social If I volunteer for anything else, someone needs to stage an intervention…

We are excited to announce that #Behaviour2027 (XXXIX International Ethological Congress) will be taking place in Vienna, Austria! We are looking forward to having you all join us next year from August 23-27. Please follow and share!

This is very troubling but shout out to Student 22. A real one.

Dream PhD opening! Innovation in wild falcons! Application deadline Aug 1🦅

Great news everyone! #Behaviour2027 will be at UniWien. How awesome we get to have such a big conference locally, I highly recommend that everyone attends.

🐒 Work with primates? Have you observed 3 or more individuals grooming together? Polyadic grooming is barely documented and we know little about its distribution. Please take 1–2 minutes to fill out this short survey and share: forms.gle/cLPB1mnwrjJo...

Discouraging an activity with a benefit-to-cost ratio of nearly 10:1. A triumph of policymaking.

Very excited to hear this talk! Join us on July 17

We have a lot of eager masters students here in Vienna. Not a single one is even considering the US. Too much of a risk of being deported or funding being pulled. For women and minorities, it’s also just downright dangerous.

A question: Not having read a paper in #animal#cognition or #behavior in the last say 5 years, what did people miss? Any break through findings? Any new concepts or ideas around? What are the hot topics and methods at the moment? Link your (own) "must read" papers below⬇️⬇️⬇️ #AllSpecies welcome!

I ran an absolutely 100% human, zero AI-involvement at any stage passage of my writing through an "AI detector," curious if it could really tell human from AI work, and it said my own writing was "84% AI written" then asked I wanted to pay to have it "humanized." So there's that to keep in mind.

Goose morning! Hope you all have a heck of a honking good weekend 😊

Im getting my first, deep wrinkle on my face and it’s definitely from the expression I make when Im confused or concerned. So I guess my PhD has left some permanent physical evidence behind lol

Opportunity to pursue a doctoral thesis in the Goffin Lab and the Kea Lab The research will focus on play, exploration, and problem-solving abilities in cockatoos and kea. If exploring the minds of other species fascinates you, I highly recommend this opportunity.

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!!

Having done a PhD on the Goffin's cockatoos with Alice, I can do NOTHING but sing her praises. And Vienna is awesome! I highly recommend applying for this, hands down one of the best PhD opportunities! 🙌 Also this is the project I'm doing a postdoc on, so you'll also get to hang with me 😉

Something deeply troubling & shocking is happening at Exeter University*, where a mass cull of staff is planned, even though it's in surplus. No good justifications given. @jamesgdyke.info provides the details: www.technosphere.earth/the-bonfire-... *Disclosure: I have a Visiting Fellowship here. +🧵

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!

A feral population of 200 yellow-crested cockatoos in urban Hong Kong holds unexpectedly high genetic diversity. Representing 10% of the global population, these birds preserve rare lineages now extinct in their native Indonesia, offering a potential "genetic rescue." @npbrao.bsky.social reports.

Decades of the trade have pushed African grey parrots toward extinction. Now, seizures in Cameroon reveal a macabre shift: poachers are harvesting parrot blood for religious and medicinal practices, complicating enforcement as traffickers pivot to covert, highly fluid products.

Hard not to feel bummed about it. SGU is one of the oldest podcasts I’ve been listening to, since I started studying science. Insightful piece about why this keeps happening. “Cleverness can help you win an argument. Wisdom might tell you when the argument itself is cruel, lazy, or unnecessary.”

Today I was discussing Executive Dysfunction with some folks, and how in our household we call it "The Sits" I decided to make an info poster. It's based on my personal experience with it. Yes, the person is me 😆 #neurodivergent #memes #executivedysfunction

I love historic buildings. They are structures that help tell the story of Canada. That got me thinking about the oldest buildings in Canada and the role those buildings played in our history. To that end, here are the oldest buildings in each province and territory! 🧵 1/15

Can confirm Vienna is indeed QUITE HOT 🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵

A friend of mine is part of an emergency response medical team that was all set to go to Venezuela. Military plane from Germany on the runway. They’ve been refused entry along with all other international teams despite the complete medical crisis there 😟 www.samariterbund.net/aktuell/deta...

This is what makes it art: '(...) the publisher posted a blank white page with the cryptic phrase, “This article has been withdrawn due to article violation.” Springer Nature is nevertheless still selling the empty PDF for $39.95.' www.science.org/content/arti...

Truly bizarre story of how two papers from the 1940s by physics pioneer Max Planck have been "retracted" from Naturwissenschaften, potentially by an algorithm, for anachronistic "plagiarism" issues, leaving the current editor baffled (but it is Springer Nature so.... www.science.org/content/arti...

For what it's worth, I'm 100% in agreement with Anne here. My friend Kris Tsujikawa convinced me of this years ago.

Pub social pt 1 & 2 at Salettl UniWien then the blessedly air-conditioned Bird Yard. Sweltering 36 degrees, happy so many came out regardless ☀️ 😎

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+ 🤩

My dear friend @poppylambert.bsky.social (ethologist by day, science communicator in between) hosts a wonderful podcast launching TODAY 🚀 I know how hard she's worked for months on this and I couldn't be prouder! Enlightening conversations with brilliant biologists led by a stellar human being ✨

It's finally here. 🥳 We've released two episodes today with two incredible guests. I am so pleased I met them, and I am grateful to them for trusting me to interview them as a newbie podcast host. They have great stories to share, so give the episodes a listen, I promise you won't be disappointed!

NEW PAPER! 🐒 Cooperation experiments in animals are often done with one cooperation apparatus, creating a specific highly monopolisable setting. We found that presenting multiple apparatuses significantly changed macaques' partner preference compared to one apparatus. doi.org/10.1016/j.an...

Living Biology 🎧 is here! A new SEB #Podcast from the Society for Experimental Biology (@sebiology.bsky.social) exploring the people and ideas behind experimental biology. 🚨 Launch special: 2 episodes available now Listen here: www.sebiology.org/ressources/s...

My super awesome talented wonderful friend and colleague @poppylambert.bsky.social is the host and I’m SO proud of her !!!!!! Everyone should have a listen 🥰🥰🥰🥰

THEY WHAT

🧬 Coming this Friday! #LivingBiology, the new podcast from the @SEBiology , launches on 27 June. Explore the people, ideas and discoveries shaping modern biological research. 🎧 Trailer: www.sebiology.org/ressources/seb-podcast.html #SEBpodcast

I really dislike Instagram, it’s so addicting and a time waster … But explain to me how INSTA is the reason I JUST found out SSRIs have HEAT INTOLERANCE as a side effect?!? I thought I was just an extra wuss 😭💀☀️

Had a moment where I thought I had travelled back in time. Film canisters ?! 😮😮😮😮😯 Forgot my friend is storing some stuff in my fridge* and that her boyfriend is a hobby photographer 😋 *Poor thing’s flat is 29 degrees and her fridge went kaputt last night at 9pm 🥵😰 #HeatWave

Can confirm, over here in Vienna rn like 🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵

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...

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...

Taking “let sleeping dogs lie” too far imo