Animal behaviour, social and cognitive evolution. Jackdaws, mongooses, now wagtails. Herchel Smith Research Fellow, University of Cambridge.
How exciting! Check out our paper, published earlier this month, in #AnimalBehaviourJournal 🦗
ASAB🦗Crickets! 🔊Vibrational stimuli! 🚧Sensitization! 👥 Individual variation! Our #EditorsChoice for the #AnimalBehaviourJournal: “Trait-specific responses to repeated stressor exposure reveal context-dependent learning in wild crickets” Read here: doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2026.123607
Great write-up of our new @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social paper on how many animals exhibit pre-emptive behaviour in a landscape of intergroup conflict. Thanks #JordanJoseph at @earthdotcom.bsky.social #OpenAccess paper here: doi.org/10.1016/j.tr... @josharbon.bsky.social @bristolbiosci.bsky.social
Redirectingdoi.orgEarth.comChimpanzees and other animals prepare for conflict long before they fight #EarthDotCom #EarthSnap #Earth
Our recent paper led by @oddjacobson.bsky.social recently covered by @mongabay.com
MongabayA 33-year study on Costa Rica’s white-faced capuchin monkeys reveals that extreme climate events force the primates to abandon their social norms. Severe droughts cause food scarcity, driving intense competition, territorial sensitivity and shifting group dynamics. Adam Litchkofski reports.
🤗Delighted our review on pre-emptive behaviour in a landscape of intergroup conflict is out now in @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social 🎓Resulting from endless fascinating chats with @josharbon.bsky.social #warfare #NERC #conflict #mammals #birds @bristolbiosci.bsky.social doi.org/10.1016/j.tr...
Online now: Pre-emptive behaviour in a landscape of intergroup conflict
Pre-emptive behaviour in a landscape of intergroup conflictIntergroup conflict is a powerful selective force throughout the animal kingdom. While research has traditionally focused on actions during and after contests, animals also exhibit behavioural flexibility in anticipation of potential intergroup encounters. Synthesising findings from diverse taxa, we describe how social species adjust pre-emptive information gathering, resource use, cohesion, synchrony, and intragroup interactions across a heterogeneous ‘landscape of intergroup conflict’. We show how variation in threat level, driven by spatial context, rival characteristics, and individual motivation, affects these behaviours, and how balancing sensed information and memories of past interactions underlies associated decision-making. Testing the consequences of intergroup pre-emptive behaviour using experimental, technological, and analytical advances will develop understanding of its role in socio-cognitive evolution, population dynamics, and community structure.dlvr.itHumans prepare for warfare in various ways, but we're not alone. Read how other species, from ants to apes, also exhibit behavioural flexibility in anticipation of encounters with rival groups in our NEW @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social review. Led by @josharbon.bsky.social doi.org/10.1016/j.tr...
Redirectingdoi.org
i love when a press release headline sounds like it was written by an aggrieved fish
So much support from the animal behaviour research community, and many others, who have signed this letter. Thank you. Your care, concern and kind words at this time provides such encouragement.
Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour (CRAB)Thanks to our colleagues from around the world who signed the Open Letter against redundancies in CRAB. The letter surpassed 700 signatures in just over 1 wk. We hope execs will now see the harm they are doing to the University of Exeter's global reputation. sites.google.com/view/save-cr...
The proposed job cuts at the University of Exeter threaten our amazing Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour (CRAB). The support from the community over the last few weeks has been overwhelming. I really can't express how much it means to all of us. Thank you, everyone, for standing with us.
Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour (CRAB)Thanks to our colleagues from around the world who signed the Open Letter against redundancies in CRAB. The letter surpassed 700 signatures in just over 1 wk. We hope execs will now see the harm they are doing to the University of Exeter's global reputation. sites.google.com/view/save-cr...
Visiting and giving a talk at CRAB last year has been amazing. Our colleagues there have created a safe, supportive, and high-end scientific environment where students from different groups feel like a team and continue to inspire us all. Can't even imagine what the loss of CRAB would look like.
Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour (CRAB)Thanks to our colleagues from around the world who signed the Open Letter against redundancies in CRAB. The letter surpassed 700 signatures in just over 1 wk. We hope execs will now see the harm they are doing to the University of Exeter's global reputation. sites.google.com/view/save-cr...
I compiled a list of 350 #funding opportunities for #postdoctoral research #fellowships: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J2M_tQgoqV4ivpfEClh9qs9f2KQN2O1G3Jpda2aoHfQ/edit?usp=sharing I realized I should share this again after mentioning it to some folks at the #EFP2026
Thanks to our colleagues from around the world who signed the Open Letter against redundancies in CRAB. The letter surpassed 700 signatures in just over 1 wk. We hope execs will now see the harm they are doing to the University of Exeter's global reputation. sites.google.com/view/save-cr...
HomeAs of 2026-07-14, this open letter has been signed by 754 people
Signatories include 198 Professors and members of 11 National Academies, including 12 Fellows of the Royal Society (FRS)
Signatories a...sites.google.com
Our new commentary rdcu.be/ftx6h in @natecoevo.nature.com written with folks from @inaturalist.bsky.social and @cornellbirds.bsky.social shows that use of AI to manipulate existing or create new wildlife images undermines the huge value of vast citizen science databases. 🌍🪰🪶 #Ornithology 🧵 1/10
Citizen science platforms must mitigate against the threat of generative AINature Ecology & Evolution - Citizen science platforms must mitigate against the threat of generative AIrdcu.be
New paper! We simulated foraging trips of Northern gannets at Bass Rock to decipher what information individuals use to keep returning to the same foraging patches. Memory was the strongest driver, but it wasn't the whole story. 🧵👇 doi.org/10.1186/s404... 1/5
🌟CONGRATULATIONS🌟 #HarrySuter on his first #PhD publication out now in @royalsociety.org #ProceedingsB 📑Optimal foraging #modelling to better understand #self-control in non-human animals @bristoluni.bsky.social @bristolbiosci.bsky.social #cognition #ECRs #evolution doi.org/10.1098/rspb...
Self-control: changing our perspective on performanceAbstract. To measure self-control in non-human animals, subjects are typically tested on how long they will wait for a larger–later food reward instead ofdoi.org
We started @abcmicrogrants.bsky.social to make a small but real change to barriers students face. Since then, we disbursed >£26,000 in microgrants & matched >120 mentees w. mentors! In our new paper, in #AnimalBehaviourJournal's SI on Biases in Animal Behaviour, we share what we did, why, and how 🐝
Animal Behaviour CollectiveOur 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!
We have lift off! The first Pufflings are now leaving the Isle of May as birds are now independent. This is a big moment as they’ve never flown and not seen the sea before! Good luck :)
Interested in a postdoc position? Olfaction in poison frog tadpoles! Based in Germany with some field work in Costa Rica (bilateral funding, 3 years). Please share with your froggie and neuro/behavior contacts 🐸 www.uni-giessen.de/de/ueber-uns...
@crab-exeter.bsky.social are a fantastic group of researchers, and a real beacon of excellence for Exeter. What a huge and deeply sad act of self sabotage this would be. Please consider signing their open letter👇🏻
Stu WestThe University of Exeter have announced a programme of academic staff cuts, including all of www.exeter.ac.uk/research/gro... Sign the open letter of support at docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... @crab-exeter.bsky.social
Honoured & humbled to have won the global #KeystoneAward for 'Outstanding Teaching & Mentoring' www.keg.com/keystone-awa... A HUGE thank you to all the amazing #ECRs I have been privileged to work with & who wrote such heart-felt testimonials 🙏 @bristolbiosci.bsky.social @brisunipress.bsky.social