Research team led by Alex Thornton at the University of Exeter's Centre for Ecology and Conservation, studying cognition in wild jackdaws and other creatures.
wildcognitionresearch.com
Why do some animals have many social partners while others invest in a few strong relationships? Our new @royalsocietypublishing.org paper suggests the answer may be: it depends on the weather ☀️🌧️ 🐑
tinyurl.com/mry3mtpf
Call for proposals!
We're accepting EOIs for our:
🔬 Research grants, which fund projects in wild animal welfare science
🤝 Fellowship Program, which provides mentorship for early-career researchers
Learn more about criteria and submit your EOI by October 31:
⭐ Exciting opportunity! Volunteer with BTO Youth and join the Youth Advisory Panel! ➡️ www.bto.org/our-work/youth
If you love nature, would like to join our amazing team of volunteers aged 16-24 and get involved with BTO's work, then this role could be for you. 🐦
📝 Closing date: 4 October 2026.
Delighted that my master's project @biology.ox.ac.uk about social trade-offs in a wild population of birds is now published in Animal Behaviour @asab.orgdoi.org/10.1016/j.an... 🧵
🚨 new Special Feature!
📝 the collection, edited by David Fisher and Natalie Pilakouta, aimed to explore how organisms plasticly alter their social behaviour in response to environmental variation.
🐒 read the full collection here: buff.ly/iWJVFw5
🎙️ and listen to the podcast here: buff.ly/qGycB98
👏Congratulations @josharbon.bsky.social on a fantastic new #TREE review from #NERC funded postdoc.
doi.org/10.1016/j.tr...#OpenAccess; please share.
💬If you're at #ISBE2026 & interested in #pre-emptive behaviour and/or intergroup #conflict, seek Josh out for a chat. @isbe2026.bsky.social
Do humans and birds share an eye for design? 🐦🎨
For my Master's diss, I’m testing if we share aesthetic tastes with bowerbirds.
I need 100 responses to finish!
Visual, anonymous & under 5 mins.
Link: exe.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
🧪 cc: @scienseed.com#AcademicSky#SciComm
If you have (or will soon) complete your PhD & would like to join a thriving cultural evolution research group in NEW ZEALAND, drop me a line. UoA offers a handful of funded research fellowships. Applications must be made by a faculty member. Deadline August. Pls share with your students
🚨New primate urbanization paper🚨We looked at weather anthropogenic experiences link to within population innovativeness. Our new results from @urbanvervetproject.bsky.social can be found here 👇🏼 Behavioral flexibility and its drivers in semi-urban vervet monkeys academic.oup.com/beheco/artic...
🥁 Announcing our latest research grants!
This year, we're funding 13 research projects that will advance wild animal welfare science.
Visit our blog to learn more.👇️
Why do habits evolve? New theory suggests forming and breaking habits can free cognitive resources for other tasks—like staying alert to predators—making behavior more flexible, not less academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...
A study in Nature Ecology & Evolution shows that wild dwarf mongooses pre-emptively alter their behaviours, including space use and sentinel calling, in relation to the level of threat posed by the size of rival groups. go.nature.com/4w9P0Tf 🧪
Interested in the evolutionary genomics of host-pathogen interactions or the evolutionary ecology of senescence? 1 week left to apply for the two postdoc positions in our badger - bovine TB project🦡🦠🧪🧬👇
We are recruiting 🌟2 postdoctoral researchers🌟 for a NERC Large Grant project on the eco-evolutionary dynamics of badger - bovine tuberculosis (bTB) interactions.
The WISDOM OF CROWDS emerges in flocks of thousands of migrating songbirds!
Excited to share our work published by @aaas.org in Science Advances!
doi.org/10.1126/scia...
My department has funding for 2-year MByRes studentships (full tuition fees and research allowance) on ecosystem resilience, broadly defined. Apply to do a project with me modelling social-ecological networks.
#culturalevolution#socialnetworksecologyconservation.exeter.ac.uk/masteer-coho...
🔴 PhD advert alert!
Want to do a PhD working on ocean protection and restoration in a vibrant research community @exetermarine.bsky.social?
Link here!! DM or email me if you'd like a chat about this opportunity :)
Please share
University of Exeter website: www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...
Field stations are the inspirational lifeblood of many research projects, providing essential facilities and infrastructure, and in our new Perspective series researchers from across the globe tell us about the incredible field stations where they work
journals.biologists.com/jeb/collecti...
Dwarf mongooses change their pre-emptive behaviour relative to the size of their neighbouring rivals🐻🥊
We leveraged 10 years of behaviour and GPS data to investigate the pre-emptive behavioural changes mongooses make to navigate a landscape of intergroup conflict:
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Food production does more harm to wild species than any other sector of human activity, but how to limit this impact is a contested topic. Join Professor Andrew Balmford FRS on 16 June as he explores how we feed the world without costing the earth: https://bit.ly/42PqGJy
Sexier in the city? Urban male great bowerbirds decorate bowers with human-made objects, creating brighter and more varied displays than rural males. Males strongly prefer human-made objects over natural ones, possibly boosting their appeal to females! shorturl.at/lcNY2@royalsocietypublishing.org
Postdoc Opportunity! 4-year @royalsociety.org funded post
@uniexecec.bsky.social: “Understanding the role of individual cognitive variation in reintroduction biology”. Closes: 5 June 2026. More info & to apply: careers.exeter.ac.uk/vacancies/78... Wt: @paradiseparkhayle.bsky.social & Wildwood Trust
New paper🎈: Lessons Learned from Big Team Science Projects in Cognitive Science in @collabrapsychology.bsky.socialonline.ucpress.edu/collabra/art...
We share practical, experience-based strategies for running large-scale collaborations - from project structure to ethics, funding, & AI use.
Job Alert 🚨 - please share!
My brilliant friend and collaborator, Fumihiro Kano, is launching a new Ecological & Collective Cognition lab at Kyushu University, and has postdoc, grad, and tech openings!
Lab video: youtu.be/rXT-yjQzJxU
More details: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
PhD Opportunity! 4-year funded PhD @uniexecec.bsky.social: “From cognition to conservation: using cognitive and behavioural research to enhance animal reintroductions”. Closes: 5 June 2026. Funding: @royalsociety.org (UK/Home students only). More info & to apply: www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin... 1/
🐦⬛Bowerbirds!🕺Sexual signals!🪹Bower construction!🚨Disruptions!
Our #EditorsChoice for the #AnimalBehaviourJournal:
“Male great bowerbirds upregulate multiple sexual signals following bower wall removal”
Read here:
doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2026.123480