Berkay Arslan

MSc by Res opportunity - developing behavioural indicators to inform killer whale conservation with
@exeter.ac.uk @whaleresearch.bsky.social @seadocsociety.bsky.social

People from underrepresented groups in marine science encouraged to apply.

Deadline 19Dec

www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...

Social learning is critical to breastfeeding success: evidence from rural Namibian pastoralists AbstractBackground and objectives. Lactation is one of the defining features of mammals, yet many humans struggle with breastfeeding. One reason for this i

New paper out on the important role of social learning in breastfeeding! academic.oup.com/emph/article...

We’re looking for a motivated & curious researcher to join our team as a PhD candidate! You’ll work with Prof. Bridget Waller, Dr. Annika Bremhorst, & me at the Dog Cognition Centre, UoP.
Are you fascinated by the dog–human bond & dog-human communication? 🐶
Interested? Get in touch with me.

Fully-funded 4-year #PhD in Cultural Evolution! Join my @erc.europa.eu project exploring how compression & compositionality drive cultural innovation: hmc-lab.com/ERCPhDCultur...
Apply by Nov 12!
Maybe of interest to folks from #COSMOS2025 or @eslr.bsky.social? Please feel free to share! 🙏

The Adaptive Relationships Framework illustrating how broad socioecological pressures shape the social solutions animals use to meet these challenges, and how these lead to social strategies and emergent structures that help them gain access to those solutions.

Social relationships are powerful predictors of fitness across social animals. But *why*?

In our new @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social paper, we outline testable predictions for why relationship quality and quantity adaptively vary across socio-ecological contexts.

tinyurl.com/55dnkeh7

So excited that our first major empirical @themanybirds.bsky.social paper is now out in @plosbiology.org!
Leading this big team science project, with our excellent core leadership team, is a labour of love for me, delighted to see our hard work over the past 4 years has reached this milestone!

Left: Examples of novel objects used. Each black/white bar is 5 cm long. The objects ranged in size from a third to half the size of the subjects: (a) Southern cassowary, Casuarius casuarius, (b) Moluccan eclectus, Eclectus roratus, (c) Rüppell’s vulture, Gyps rueppelli, (d) gray-winged trumpeter, Psophia crepitans, (e) common waxbill, Estrilda astrild. Right: Secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius) at Adlerwarte Berlebeck, Germany, interacting with a novel object. Image credit Kai Caspar.

Fear of novelty varies across species & individuals, impacting adaptability & survival. @themanybirds.bsky.social @drrmiller.bsky.social &co assess #neophobia in 1400 subjects from 136 #bird species, identifying phylogenetic influences & broad ecological drivers @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4haLEsN

Image showing Hobson Lab logo (with parakeets, a social network, and R code), two Monk Parakeets, and several individually-marked parakeets with the text "Now recruiting PhD students!!"

**PhD POSITIONS** I am recruiting 1-2 PhD students to work on sociality and cognition in Monk Parakeets, starting Fall 2026. Full ad is here: hobsonresearch.com/index.php/20... (please help spread the word!)

Please share!🙏
🚨 PhD Oportunity in Avian Behavioural Ecology in Spain
The BirdBond Project (MNCN & IREC) studies how pair bonds form, change & affect reproduction/survival in the spotless starling 🐦

Flyer for Open Methods in Comparative Cognition Research webinar

Looking forward to discussing open methods in comparative cognition, including the challenge of 'species fair' task design as part of the ManyManys webinar series 🤩

🐒🦜🐜🐕👶🦎🐐🐟

📅 September 12, 11:00 a.m. (ET) on Zoom

🔗Registration: airtable.com/app0bcw8jYPv...

#openscience #bigteamscience

🐒🕸️ New preprint! Confused about how to model animal social networks?

ASNA can be confusing—but also full of opportunity. We break down 5 common misunderstandings in animal social network analysis and share solutions from behavioural ecology, anthro, stats, & network science. Hope it helps!

A 🧵

🎊 New paper out! In this @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social Forum, we (with @lucasmolleman.bsky.social and @bjornlindstrom.bsky.social) summarize how reward learning can lead to adaptive social learning. We also explore the broader consequences for cultural evolution:
www.cell.com/trends/cogni... 🚄

Congrats Elisa and Sofia on the first (of many) papers that derived from their @einsteinberlin.bsky.social price-winning project (paper available here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...)

Social anxiety in macaques

Tibetan macaques show self-directed behaviors before facing difficult social situations. For example, when females plan to approach higher-ranking females, or when low-ranking males are plan to approach receptive females.

(paper) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

🎊Fully funded PhD position on cooperative sustainability🌳

Are you curious about
🧒 developmental,
🌍 cross-cultural
🦧 species comparative
research on cooperative sustainability?

All info here or dm me with questions!
career2.successfactors.eu/sfcareer/job...
Please share! 🙏

Map of study site showing the islands of Coiba and Jicarón in Coiba National Park, Panama. On Coiba, both sexes of adult white-faced capuchins use stone tools, while on Jicarón only males have been observed to use tools.

Why do we see sex-biases in tool use in some primate groups but not in others? Read my 2nd PhD chapter, #openaccess in American Journal of Primatology
(doi.org/10.1002/ajp....) for an exploration of this question in an unique island system where white-faced capuchins use stone tools. A 🧵 (1/8)

Postdoctoral Fellowships call: 6 steps to prepare your application These tips and tricks will help you find the best host organisation and prepare a successful proposal.

📢 The MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship call is now open!
Join our international expert team to explore minds across species.

We study:
🐒 Primates
🐕 Dogs
🐘 Elephants
🐴 Donkeys and horses

🔗 contact one of us to discuss your application: marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/actions/post...
#MSCA

Chimpanzee drumming shows rhythmicity and subspecies variation Chimpanzees drum on the buttress roots of trees for communication. Eleuteri et al. investigate the presence of key elements of musical rhythm and of regional variation in chimpanzee buttress drumming....

TLDR: new paper headed up by @vestaeleuteri.bsky.social
& with an awesome team, incl @andrearavignani.bsky.social , showing chimps have rhythm in their drumming & differences b/w east & west drum rhythms!

www.cell.com/current-biol...

But didn’t we know this already you ask? Well… 🧵1/16

My interview for *The Philosopher's Zone* podcast on Feminism and Primatology is out now!

I managed to scrounge up the courage to listen and I'm quite proud 🙃

You can listen to the ep via the ABC website or in the usual podcast places

#hps #sts #histsci #PhilSci #feminism #primatology

Wanted to share a handy little resource with you all (especially those in dev psych) — my lab & I made a "journal submission cheat sheet" that summarizes article types, word limits, & other requirements for the journals we typically submit to. Link below 👇🏼
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Early empathy development: Concern and comforting in 9- and 18-month-old infants from Uganda and the UK Empathy, the capacity to share and understand others’ emotional states, is important for navigating our social lives, yet its development in infancy remains poorly understood. Moreover, most research ...

🚨 New paper alert 🚨

Collaboration between @yorkpsychology.bsky.social and @durhamdcerc.bsky.social / @durhampsych.bsky.social

A longitudinal, cross cultual, study on infant development of concern & comforting:
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

@zannaclay.bsky.social

The flexibility of social learning and its conservation implications in mammals and beyond | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Conservation strategies seek to ensure that populations persist and are resilient to environmental change. As learning from others can shape the development of skills that help animals survive, reproduce and respond to changing conditions, understanding ...

The flexibility of social learning and its conservation implications in mammals & beyond.

New paper, led by Josh Arbon with fab collaborators Neil Jordan & @neeltjeboogert.bsky.social.

doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2024.0136

@uniexecec.bsky.social @bristolbiosci.bsky.social @royalsocietypublishing.org

Please share our recent posts about the floods in Congo with your friends and followers. The more people who see what’s happening, the more support we can rally.

#Emergency #SaveBonobos #FloodRelief

1/7 Alternatives for a complex mind

Look at the image, it shows the proportion of neurons in the pallium (in blue) and in the cerebellum (red). Primates (including humans) have a rodent-like proportion

(paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
by @gallinaciega.bsky.social
via @Raccoonologist

Two black-and-white headshot photographs presented side by side: on the left that of a human (Charles Darwin) and on the right that of a chimpanzee. In both cases their eyes are gazing intently at the camera.

I’m interested in how we can better communicate genetic science, when cool soundbites may confuse more than they clarify. An example: “You share 98.8% of your genes with a chimpanzee!” Is this true? What does it really mean? Let’s unpack this oft-quoted pearl of wisdom in a 🧵 all about sharing. 🧪1/n

Behavioural diversity in animals threatened by #biodiversity decline. In @science.org, @ammiekalan.bsky.social @uvic.ca & Lydia Luncz @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social emphasise the urgent need to develop strategies for preserving animal cultural #behaviour. tinyurl.com/569u66sv & doi.org/10.1126/scie...

Bonobos may combine words in ways previously thought unique to humans Phrases used to smooth over tense social situations have meanings beyond the sum of their parts, study suggests Bonobos use a combination of calls to encourage peace with their partner during mating rituals, research suggests. The discovery is part of a study that suggests our close evolutionary cousins can string together vocalisations to produce phrases with meanings that go beyond the sum of their parts – something often considered unique to human language. Continue reading...

Bonobos may combine words in ways previously thought unique to humans

🐳 UPCOMING BOOK ALERT 🐬
The Evolution of Cetacean Societies

Edited by @darrencroft.bsky.social @andrewfoote.bsky.social @ellengarland.bsky.social and myself

Preorder available now
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

#whale #dolphin #animalbehaviour

The loss of a legend- Kanzi, the language-competent bonobo, has died age 44.
Kanzi was exceptional in so many ways and offered us profound insights into the linguistic & cognitive capacities of great apes. He has taught us so much and will be hugely missed.
www.apeinitiative.org/remembering-...