Elodie Mandel-Briefer

Elodie Mandel-Briefer

@ebriefer.bsky.social

Associate Professor in vertebrate social behaviour, University of Copenhagen. Research: animal behaviour, bioacoustics, emotions, cognition, welfare. Mom of 2

918 followers521 following59 posts

Elodie Mandel-Briefer reposted

ARAA
@araa.at

#HotOffThePress 🔥🖊️ “Vocal identity and information content in the flight initiation calls of greylag geese (Anseranser)” 🪿🔊 Sept 2026. Bioacoustics. D.A A. Mostafa & @ebriefer.bsky.social doi.org/10.1080/0952...

doi.orgVocal identity and information content in the flight initiation calls of greylag geese (Anser anser)Vocal signals are used to convey information in environments and over distances where signals of other modalities would fall short. Some of the information that they contain concerns the individual...
Elodie Mandel-Briefer
@ebriefer.bsky.social

New paper on sheep vocal expression of emotions & sociability with A. Villain. Using a genetic line selected for reaction to social separation, we found that vocal expression of sociability prevails over emotions. Thanks to A. Boissy for the collaboration and @carlsbergfondet.dk for funding!

royalsocietypublishing.orgVocal encoding of heritable sociability prevails over emotions in sheep bleatsAbstract. Vocalizations of animals are good indicators of their emotions. Temperament is known to influence the regulation and expression of emotions. Howe

Elodie Mandel-Briefer reposted

Science Magazine
@science.org

Learning over an extended childhood has been fundamental to survival during human evolutionary history. Researchers show how Sumatran orangutans use their 8 years of dependency to master a broad diet, necessary for independent survival. Read more in this week’s issue: https://scim.ag/4xDjOfh

Elodie Mandel-Briefer
@ebriefer.bsky.social

More on collective movements, but this time in giraffes 🦒🦒🦒 We found that female are often the ones initiating group movements, and that large groups tend to split following these events. Thanks to Herbert Kasozi for involving me in this interesting work! @behaveco.bsky.social

academic.oup.comThe socioecological correlates of collective movements in giraffesGiraffes often travel together to find food and water. We found that adult giraffes, especially females, were most likely to initiate group movements. Youn

Elodie Mandel-Briefer reposted

Luke Rendell
@lrendell.bsky.social

New paper! Costs and benefits of group size for sperm whales of the open ocean royalsocietypublishing.org/rsbl/article... w/ Hal Whitehead, Sam Walmslsey and @anaeg.bsky.social 🐋🦑 @seamammalresearch.bsky.social

royalsocietypublishing.orgCosts and benefits of group size for sperm whales of the open oceanAbstract. Individual feeding success can change with the size of a social group through competition, cooperation, recruitment and other processes. Female s

Elodie Mandel-Briefer reposted

Matthias Nau
@matthiasnau.bsky.social

🚨 Job alert 🚨 Our department @vuamsterdam.bsky.social is hiring an Assistant Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience! Join our lovely community here in beautiful Amsterdam! 🧠🔥 Deadline: October 15 Apply: workingat.vu.nl/vacancies/as...

workingat.vu.nlVacancy — Assistant Professor in Cognitive NeuroscienceJoin the Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) as Assistant Professor in cognitive neuroscience.

Elodie Mandel-Briefer reposted

Federico Rossano
@federicorossano.bsky.social

Chimpanzees usually fail a simple pointing task that human infants and dogs pass. In our new iScience paper, we provide a possible explanation: once their attention is engaged, chimpanzees use human pointing to find hidden food 73% of the time. Attention may be the missing piece.

Elodie Mandel-Briefer reposted

Compassion in World Farming UK
@ciwf.org.uk

Watch the countdown. For pigs slaughtered using CO₂ gas, it can take up to 60 seconds to fall unconscious. Eight months after promising a consultation on banning this cruel practice, the Government still hasn't released it. 🐷 Email the Government now: https://bit.ly/4wt83bD

Elodie Mandel-Briefer reposted

Dan Stowell
@danstowell.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy

New paper: "Twelve quick tips for applying deep learning to animal sounds" https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1014604 - led by Burooj Ghani and Leonie Baier, distilling lots of tips & handy links based on our computational #bioacoustics recent experience

journals.plos.orgTwelve quick tips for applying deep learning to animal soundsDeep learning is transforming the study of animal sound, enabling the automated identification of species, individuals, behaviors, and ecological patterns from large collections of recordings. While bioacoustic machine-learning models are growing more powerful, many biologists—ecologists, behavioral scientists, conservationists—and others working with acoustic data feel unprepared to navigate the computational workflows required to implement them. This article presents practical guidelines covering the full lifecycle of bioacoustic machine learning, including problem definition, data sourcing and annotation, model training, evaluation, deployment, reproducibility, and ethical considerations. Rather than providing a linear checklist, the guidelines outline an iterative framework for building science-led workflows, leveraging transfer learning and open-source tools, evaluating models based on the real-world cost of errors, and addressing domain shift under variable field conditions. Ultimately, this workflow demystifies the software-engineering process, providing a low-barrier and reproducible pathway for researchers applying machine learning to animal sound.

Elodie Mandel-Briefer reposted

Alan McElligott
@amcell.bsky.social

2026. Social information about others' affective states in a human‐altered world. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.comSocial information about others' affective states in a human‐altered worldFaced with anthropogenic change, animals now encounter challenges different from their evolutionary past. To cope with such challenges, animals may use social information about others' affective stat...
Elodie Mandel-Briefer
@ebriefer.bsky.social

Mason, Nielsen and Mendl’s great textbook on animal emotions is out, with a chapter on vocal indicators by former postdoc A. Villain & me. We follow the book’s format, exploring responsiveness & selectivity of vocalisations as indicators (3 years In press but hopefully still up to date).

onlinelibrary.wiley.comVocal SignalsThis chapter analyses if, based on current evidence, vocalisations have construct validity as indicators of emotional valence across species. It then explores the responsiveness and selectivity of vo...
Elodie Mandel-Briefer
@ebriefer.bsky.social

Very glad that this is finally out! Former PhD student Bing found that wild plains zebras use visual and tactile cues to decide when to move as a group. Thanks to Cedric Sueur for the collaboration!

link.springer.comPlains zebra (Equus quagga) group movement decisions are associated with visual and tactile behaviours performed by initiators, followers and non-followers - Behavioral Ecology and SociobiologyDiverging needs often occurs among group members, prompting group-living animals to engage in collective decision-making, such as coordinating collective movement. Existing models classify these decis...

Elodie Mandel-Briefer reposted

Oca sapiens
@ocasapiens.bsky.social

#passerines #evolution #biogeography #citizenscience Stunning paper, bravo!, and enthusiastic Perspective by @ebriefer.bsky.social, with three helpful - and probably familiar - birdsong recordings.

Quentin Bacquelé@quentinbacquele.bsky.social

1/ The world's songbirds sing in just 8 basic sounds. And where a bird lives decides which ones it uses. My first PhD paper is out now in @science.org (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aee6239) Here is what we found:

Elodie Mandel-Briefer
@ebriefer.bsky.social

Important read for animal welfare researchers: new paper by Roi Mandel and colleagues on what they term ‘pragmatism bias’, i.e. tendencies to focus on intensive production systems, short-term gains, and symptoms rather than root causes. It is time for a change if we want to widen our knowledge!

frontiersin.orgFrontiers | Pragmatism bias in farm animal welfare scienceA fundamental role of farm animal welfare science is to generate evidence-based knowledge on animals’ needs and well-being to inform decision-makers, and ult...

Elodie Mandel-Briefer reposted

Springer Nature
@springernature.com

Great apes may have been laughing with a similar rhythm to modern humans for at least 15 million years, suggests study in @commsbio.nature.com. Findings suggest laughter has become faster, more variable, and increasingly influenced by the situation it occurs in. 🧪 #evosky #evolution

spklr.ioRhythm and timing in laughter reveal that human vocal plasticity falls on a hominid continuum - Communications BiologyComparative analysis of laughter rhythm across all extant great apes reveals that isochrony is ancestral to hominids, with tempo, variability, and context-sensitivity increasing progressively toward humans, tracing a continuum of vocal plasticity.
Elodie Mandel-Briefer
@ebriefer.bsky.social

Coming up in two days! 🤗

Elodie Mandel-Briefer@ebriefer.bsky.social

Join the award event for the Year 2 of the Coller Dolittle Challenge for Two-Way Interspecies Communication on the 25.6 at 15:00 UK time on Zoom link below, for a great list of talks from short-listed applicants and a plenary talk:
zoom.us/webinar/regi...

zoom.usWelcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Coller Dolittle Challenge for Two-way Inter-species Communication - Second Annual Awards. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joi...Join us for the Coller Dolittle Challenge Awards, a live virtual ceremony celebrating cutting‑edge research in animal communication. Hosted by the Jeremy Coller Foundation in partnership with Tel Aviv...

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Nora Slania
@noraslania.bsky.social

Have a look at the final publication here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Turns out (and I know we've all suspected it) chimp culture may be way broader and richer than 39 behaviors. 😉

sciencedirect.comChimpanzee culture beyond the conspicuous: Evidence for broad-scale observational social learning in wild individualsWild chimpanzee cultures have traditionally been studied through group-level comparisons of a limited set of conspicuous skills. The cultural relevanc…
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Elodie Mandel-Briefer reposted

Stand Up for Science!
@standupforscience.net

The Trump admin is trying to dismantle a major ocean monitoring network that helps scientists track data related to climate change and ocean conditions - which would worsen weather models that save lives. Good news: some lawmakers are beginning to fight back. Articles: zurl.co/l3ouf

zurl.coLawmakers fight to stop the Trump administration's dismantling of a $386M ocean observatory projectLawmakers are demanding the National Science Foundation stop dismantling the Ocean Observatories Initiative, a $386 million ocean monitoring network being wound down under President Donald Trump's administration.

Elodie Mandel-Briefer reposted

joeymaier 🌊
@joeymaier.bsky.social

🦑 🐋 #whale #pilotwhale #shipnoise #Gibraltar "They found the mammals were able to increase the volume of their calls used for short distances, but long-distance calling was more challenging, according to their recently published study." Link to study in comments share.google/IWIEgtmWE5by...

share.googlePilot whales can’t hear each other over ship noise in Strait of Gibraltar, study findsThe rumble of ship traffic is drowning out the calls of long-finned pilot whales and potentially other marine species in the Strait of Gibraltar, a narrow strip of water between Morocco and Spain that...