Katy Willcox, PhD

Excited to share that last week I successfully defended my PhD thesis 🎉 I am beyond grateful for everyone who has supported me on this journey, I couldn’t have done it alone! #PhDone

Mentee Sign-Up Sheet (link: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...) Mentor Sign-Up Sheet (link: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...)

Funded 3.5 year PhD🎺 The effects of gamebird release and management on the lowland ecosystems of S England Lots of fieldwork. A robust and resilient student is required. Focus on reptiles and ecto-parasites Any Qs, please DM or email me Please RT www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Join us for your bachelor or master projects on Japanese macaque affect & cognition at the Affenberg Research Station in Austria. Details in the photo 👇 Write to us: affenberg.lewi@univie.ac.at / debottam.bhattacharjee@uni-goettingen.de Project abstract link: gepris.dfg.de/project/5630...

Super mega stocked to share this ⭐new review ⭐ on the impact of urbanisation on social learning. tinyurl.com/2pt6s6zs

I'm so excited to finally see the special issue "Addressing Biases in Animal Behaviour" fully published: www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu.... Huge thanks to my brilliant co-editors @viveknityananda.bsky.social & @nicolakoyama.bsky.social. Special issue grew from @asab.org's 2024 Winter Meeting 🧵

Our latest microgrant funding round is open now! 📢 Below is a reminder of what we do and don't fund. This round closes October 30th! Want to help us support students? Please spread the word, and donate if you can! For more informaition and to apply: opencollective.com/animal-behaviour-collective

Fantastic to see ABC mentor @williamohearn.bsky.social and his former mentee @giuliaseverino.bsky.social at @ecbb2026.bsky.social! Huge congratulations to Giulia for winning the #ECBB2026 Best Early Career Primate Presentation Prize! 👏🐒 Follow us to hear about our next mentorship-matching events 🤝

Got caught by surprise with the award! Thank you @ecbb2026.bsky.social !! Forgot to take a photo of my poster, but here's a glimpse of it featuring the showstopper Paul. ✨😁

Growing up demands the right cognitive toolkit at the right time 🧠 We show cognitive development over key life transitions from ontogeny to adulthood in wild meerkats. 🚨 Read our new findings👇🏼 doi.org/10.1098/rspb... Great Thanks to @royalsocietypublishing.org @templetonworld.bsky.social @snsf.ch

Thank you to the organisers of @ecbb2026.bsky.social for allowing us to spread the word about our microgrants & mentorship at their brilliant, inclusive conference! #ECBB2026 Our next migrogrant funding round opens this month! Save the date 🗓️

@vernouilleta.bsky.social & Elias Garcia-Pelegrin put together such an interesting and varied symposium on Social Cognition in a Human World #ECBB2026 🌍🐤

How can we improve the study of lizard cognition? @birgitszabo.bsky.social opens with first explaining why we study lizard cognition!

Had such a fun week at @ecbb2026.bsky.social !! Lots of exciting talks and so many lovely and inspiring people. Very grateful to the organisers & to ASAB for my travel grant! 🐤 #ecbb2026

Great few days at #ECBB2026 in Cambridge: great talks, great people, and plenty of ideas to bring home 🧠🐔 And, of course, I kept spreading the chicken agenda: they’re not just farm animals, but fascinating models for understanding behavior and cognition.

#ECBB2026 @vitorhbf.bsky.social closing out Symposium 10: Social cognition in a human world with his talk Humans as social partners? Experience and selection history shape responses in domestic chickens

New paper out! 🎉 Common waxbills (Estrilda astrild) have spread far beyond their native African range, reaching cooler regions - so how do they cope when temperatures drop? doi.org/10.1016/j.cb... @ecobird.bsky.social

We are thrilled to announce that this microgrant funding round we distributed ~£1300 to 7 recipients! 🎉 The next funding round opens September 21st! Learn more about how to donate or apply: opencollective.com/animal-behav...

Our paper is out now! 🎉📝 We describe how we work to address barriers faced by students and early-career researchs in the animal behaviour field, through our mentorships and microgrants. We hope that this can inspire and provide practical resources for others hoping to do the same!

Keeping the Pride Spirit Alive! 🌈 Hope you all celebrated this past month! We’ve gathered some fascinating examples of queer behaviour in nature to share with you.

Very grateful for my amazing jury!!

A huge congratulations to newly-appointed Dr. Katy Willcox!!! @katywillcox.bsky.social 🍾🎉 For her thesis @ecobird.bsky.social, Katy evaluated the influence of early-life social environments on inhibition, aggression, & social networks in chickens & quails 🐥

Our first round of ABC microgrants for 2026 is done, and for the first time, we were able to fund each and every eligible application! 🎉🎉🎉 We funded a total of 5 applications – this was made possible thanks to our generous donors! 🙏🏽

📣 I am excited to share some new collaborative work published in Biology Letter @royalsocietypublishing.org on spatial learning and lateralisation in lizards 🦎! Check out the full OA paper here: doi.org/10.1098/rsbl... #AnimalCognition #ThinkLikeALizard

In part 2 we apply this framework across three tasks, and test the performance of herring and lesser black-backed gulls in the detour task, the thwarting task (often used with fish) and the stop-change task (developed from the human cognition literature) 🐦 Part 2: rdcu.be/e2pyI 5/6

We explain how this framework applies to the main tasks used to measure response inhibition in the field of animal cognition Part 1: rdcu.be/e2pyN 4/6

🚨Not one, but two papers now out on response inhibition (also called motoric self-regulation or inhibitory control in the field of animal cognition). Many studies find no link between individual performance on different tasks supposedly measuring response inhibition. 1/6

Let’s celebrate women and girls in science on this International Day of Women and Girls in Science! UNESCO reports that women represent only 35% of STEM graduates, about 1/3 of researchers worldwide, and just 1/10 STEM leaders.

Attention - the first round of microgrants for 2026 is running! Apply and read terms and conditions here : opencollective.com/animal-behav...

I am looking for a PhD student to join my new Socio-Eco-Evo group, hosted in Katie Peichel's Evolutionary Ecology Division @ University of Bern. We're offering a fully funded 4-year position, studying social plasticity and behavioral adaptation among stickleback in Greenland. Please share around!

Round 1 of our training and travel grant is open! Grants up to £500 are available to support the training and development of PhD students and postgraduate research assistants. Send us your application by 25 January ⏰

Perhaps the question is not whether cows can use tools, but why it took us so long to notice. Maybe because we continue to underestimate the minds of the animals we eat. Veronika is here to remind us of our biases

There is still some time to submit for our Special Collection on social cognition and anthropogenic environments! We are looking forward to hear from you! link.springer.com/collections/... Please do get in touch if you have any questions. #openaccess #socialcognition

Cow Tools! We have lived alongside cows for nearly 10,000 years. We breed them and exploit them It is now, only now, that we have discovered THEY CAN USE TOOLS Here I describe our study (paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... in @currentbiology.bsky.social with @auersperga.bsky.social

New pre print out! Last chapter of my PhD looking at nightjar movement with environmental conditions. Super proud of this one, I love the interactions and thinking about what else we could do. www.authorea.com/users/101810...

Proc B with @sampassmore.bsky.social! We used simulations to explore the innovation strategies of speed climbers 🧗‍♀️ Innovation is higher among slower athletes and lower when the population size is larger, and the overall balance of innovation and copying appears to be suboptimal 🔗 bit.ly/499QjZM

✨New paper✨ How do juvenile ravens find social groups? We describe how juvenile common ravens, who have left their natal territories seeking to join non-breeder flocks, use space with respect to other birds, and discuss what this means for social integration. www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

Had a nice break seeing friends, family, and (most importantly) Tabitha

📢📢PhD opportunity! We are looking for enthusiastic researchers to develop a project looking at the ontogeny of migratory behaviour! Deadline for expression of interest: 8 February 2026 👉Check details here: drive.google.com/file/d/1wow2... #migration #ornithology #GPStracking

A male rock ptarmigan (Lagopus muta) in winter plumage. Ptarmigan is from Gaelic 'tarmachan' meaning "croaker". The p- was added when people mistakenly assumed it was a Greek word. A bird forever warning people: "A werewolf!" (just in case of werewolves).

Hope 😍

Christmas came early, my "big chicken paper" has been accepted 🎉 very grateful to everyone involved and looking forward to sharing it soon

Tighter visa rules will cost UK up to £10.8bn giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

JOB ALERT! 🦜🔭🌿 Are you passionate about #Birds, #Ecology, #Fieldwork, #Research? The University of Salford is looking for a #ResearchTechnician to assist with ecological monitoring of #Ringneckedparakeets in Manchester, UK. More info & how to apply 👇 Hurry! Closes 15 Dec @salforduni.bsky.social

Today in end-of-phd-brain: had a hyper-realistic dream where I came up with some great research ideas for an animal that, unfortunately, only existed in that dream

Relatable Corvid