Valeria Mazza

Behavior drives morphological change during human evolution Dietary shifts and corresponding morphological changes can sometimes evolve in succession, not concurrently—an evolutionary process called behavioral drive. Detecting behavioral drive in the fossil re...

Really cool study looking at how behaviour precedes morphological change across taxa - and implications for human evolution 💀🧪 massive congrats to all the authors, including @vivek123.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The effects of urbanization on species interactions - Nature Cities Cities are renowned for catalyzing human interactions, but their effects on urban species are less clear. This Perspective argues for such a focus, and proposes a framework for studying interactions b...

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

A white and gray dog touches a yellow dot hanging on the wall with his nose. Text says ManyDogs 2 - Join the Team!

🚨 Calling all dog behavior & cognition researchers - ManyDogs Project is launching ManyDogs 2!

🔍🐕‍🦺We're studying overimitation: Do dogs copy irrelevant actions just b/c their favorite human does them?

Email manydogsproject2@gmail.com to collaborate globally and contribute to reproducible science!

Linking individual animal behavior to species range shifts under climate change Climate change has led animal species to shift their ranges to greater elevations, latitudes, and depths, tracking their preferred abiotic niche. Howe…

The first paper from my postdoc is finally out! In collaboration with @kaitlyngaynor.bsky.social and Amy Angert, we outline how behavioral plasticity influences animal species’ distributions and can improve our understanding of range shifts under climate change! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Save the date information for the upcoming European Conference on Behavioural Biology: Animal Behaviour in the Anthropocene. 1-4 September 2026 at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK.

Save the date for the next European Conference on Behavioural Biology!
Animal Behaviour in the Anthropocene, 1-4 September 2026 at Anglia Ruskin University.
Watch this space for updates on speakers, plenaries, and calls for abstracts!

#AcademicSky #UpcomingConferences

🚨 Call for abstracts! Present your work live at #ABL2025: 15min talk + 5min Q&A via YouTube chat 💬🐾

📅 Nov 13–14, free & online
🌎 Reach a global audience of animal behaviour researchers
🔗 Learn more, register, submit ablaoc25.sciencesconf.org

Rubber arm illusion in octopus The feeling of a body as belonging to oneself is called the sense of body ownership and the centerpiece of conscious experience. Kawashima and Ikeda investigated the sense of body ownership in an octo...

Octopuses respond to the rubber hand illusion. Check out the video abstract. Cool work by Sumire Kawashima and Yuzuru Ikeda--these are the kinds of questions we can be asking to investigate the nature of consciousness www.cell.com/current-biol...

Measuring Personality in Wild Small Mammals: A Review of Methods and Proposal for a Standardised Approach We provide a systematic review of methodologies used to study personality in small mammals. We propose adopting ‘Standardised Experimental Design’ and ‘Behavioural Measurements’ to effectively compar...

Our review led by S. Savazza "Measuring Personality in Wild Small Mammals: A Review of Methods and Proposal for a Standardised Approach" is out, free open access, in mammal review
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Urbanization enhances biodiversity loss. Yet sometimes cities may *paradoxically* shelter species threatened by other components of global change

We studied if urban areas are sheltering an endangered iconic lizard 🦎 from a rapidly spreading predator 🐍 in Ibiza👇

📸G. Casbas

doi.org/10.1016/j.ge...

An aerial photograph of a river running through a dense forest in Borneo. Text reads: Expressions of interest: Social Media Editor, Wildlife Research" and below that we see the logo of the journal Wildlife Research. The photo is by donwogdo, Getty Images Signature.

Are you passionate about wildlife and communicating science?

Consider joining the #WildlifeResearch editorial team as Social Media Editor!

Find out more about this opportunity:
www.publish.csiro.au/wr/Expressio...

#EditorialBoard #WildlifeScience #Ecology #SciComm

Check our new preprint! Our systematic review of 206 reversal learning studies shows that behavioural flexibility research is heavily biased towards birds, rodents, and humans, with most animal diversity virtually untested. #Manymanys #BigTeamScience #ComparativeCognition

Important new paper by Luigi Baciadonna, Eleonora Rovegno, Giulia Bigazzi & David Baracchi: pronounced interindivual variation in delay gratification in bumblebees! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Opportunities — ASAB

We are seeking a full-time Managing Editor for our journal Animal Behaviour. This editor will be involved in all stages of the publication process & must have a general understanding of the topics covered. Position starts Oct 1, application deadline July 31.

More details:
www.asab.org/opportunities

Planning policy changes, including the Planning and Infrastructure Bill: letter from the Animal Sentience Committee

I very much appreciate this report from the UK's sentience committee, urging the government to give due regard to the welfare of local wild animals when planning new infrastructure
www.gov.uk/government/p...

From student to researcher, a #career in #science can come with a high price tag. @drcraigmc.bsky.social explores how wealth shapes opportunity in #STEM and proposes structural changes to support #equity and inclusion. 🧪
plos.io/4edGlY4

PhD positions in bird cognition and behavior at the University of Hong Kong are open for motivated candidates. Applicants should have a biology background. Apply to Dr. Simon Sin at sinyw@hku.hk. More info: www.simonywsin.com. #phd

📢 Abstract submissions for Animal Behaviour Live Annual Conference are now OPEN!

🗓 Deadline: 7 Sept 2025

🎤 Choose from:
🔹 15-min live or recorded talk
🔹 5-min pre-recorded video poster (our classic format!)
📄 Submit here: ablaoc25.sciencesconf.org

#ABL2025

Qr code to register to the conference

📣 Registration for #ABL2025 is now OPEN!

Join the Animal Behavior Live Annual Conference on 13–14 November 2025 — a free, global, online event celebrating animal behavior research🧠🌍
🆓 The event is FREE, but registration is mandatory.
📄 Register here: ablaoc25.sciencesconf.org

Australian 'trash parrots' have now developed a local 'drinking tradition' Wild cockatoos in Western Sydney have learned to drink from water fountains — choosing to drink from them even if they have to queue.

Clever #cockatoos and a playful title: A media report by @oliviaferrari.bsky.social on recent work by @barbaraklump.bsky.social and @lucymaplin.bsky.social. Enjoyed the chance to offer a brief comment alongside others 🙂

www.livescience.com/animals/bird...

#SciComm #AnimalBehaviour @livescience.com

In 2024, Infant and Child Development (ICD) withdrew as a PCI RR-friendly journal and reneged on three Stage 1 recommendations issued by PCI RR. In addition, Wiley – the publisher of ICD – notified PCI RR and the PCI core team of its decision to withdraw all Wiley journals from PCI and PCI RR, including an additional 9 PCI-friendly journals. Finally, Wiley appears to have banned all of its ~1600 journals from considering submissions that have been previously reviewed by PCI or PCI RR. This statement explains the history of ICD joining PCI RR and developments that led to the current outcome. The PCI RR Managing Board believes that this shift in policy to become “PCI-hostile” renders Wiley journals incompatible not only with community-based preprint review but with preprint archiving in general.

NEW: Statement from the PCI RR Managing Board on the withdrawal of Infant and Child Development as a PCI RR-friendly journal, and the decision by Wiley to refuse preprints that have been peer-reviewed by @peercommunityin.bsky.social / @pci-regreports.bsky.social

Read here ➡️ osf.io/tn8mh

#ICCB2025: Join us at Animal Welfare in Conservation, Thurs. @ 11:45, where @janirecas.bsky.social will discuss how to integrate conservation & welfare.

PhD opportunity at University of Groningen focusing on bird population projections and climate change, using Seychelles warbler data. Application open until June 29, 2025. More info: https://www.rug.nl/about-ug/work-with-us/job-opportunities/?reply=3D00347-02S000BDKP #phd

You might have heard that psychology has a WEIRD problem. Though it aims to understand human minds, many of its studies have historically been skewed towards WEIRD minds.

In this 🚨NEW PAPER🚨, @kristinandrews.bsky.social and I argue that comparative cognition also has a WEIRD problem. 👇🧵 1/17

A fire salamander perching on a road.

We asked if salamanders with more warning coloration are bolder and produce more toxin! Read about it in our @mmoiron.bsky.social preprint "The bright, the bold and the toxic: do coloration, personality, and toxicity represent an integrated phenotype in fire salamanders?" doi.org/10.32942/X24...

We're hiring two PhD and two postdoc positions! Interested in pollinators, soils, agroecology, pesticides? Then come and work with us and with collaborators and all over Europe! stanleyecologylab.org/vacancies #findaphd Please share!

I ll talk about the project that brought me to Italy for a year, join us for some RobotFalcon and 🕊flocks updates 😁
#heterogeneity #collectives

🐠💥2 year postdoc in fish sensory ecology!! 💥🐟
If you’re into animal colour, collective behaviour, predator-prey interactions, enjoy behavioural experiments and fieldwork, please apply! Based in Oxford with fieldwork in northwest Thailand (and elsewhere). Please repost! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNM294/p...

Five white Goffin's cockatoos sit on various branches of a small tree with large green leaves. They have cute, big eyes and quite small beaks. They are about the same size as the leaves.

Why did some birds evolve to be so clever? Mark O'Hara & Berenika Mioduszewska took on the challenge of studying wild Goffin's cockatoos on a small Indonesian island.
Their exciting findings help answer that question.

Listen: linktr.ee/wild_behavior_pod
Photo: Goffin Lab Tanimbar

A collage illustrating diverse biological behaviors across life forms: orange and yellow lichens growing on rock (symbiotic behavior), a close-up of bacteria (microbial interactions), leafcutter ants cooperating to carry a leaf (social insect behavior), a sundew plant trapping an insect (plant predation), and phylogenetic trees representing evolutionary relationships.

What theoretical & methodological challenges emerge when investigating #behavior across the tree of life? We are organizing an interdisciplinary workshop on 'comparative behavioral biology' (Sept. 26-27). Please help us share the open CfA! 📢👇 hiw.kuleuven.be/clps/events/... #philsci #HPbio #evobio