Pranav Minasandra

New entry on my webcomic! The poem "HE TELLS HER" by Wendy Cope pminasandra.github.io/remarkable/?...

pyecoacc: A python package for supervised learning of behavioural modes from accelerometer data Supervised learning of behavioural modes from body-worn sensor data, especially accelerometers, has become a transformative research tool in behavioural ecology over the past years. Due to the pop...

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

🧪Before the day begins, meerkats share a unique ritual. After emerging from their burrows, they spend up to an hour "sunning" to warm up for the day. During this quiet time, they produce soft, tonal "sunning calls". Just standing, sunbathing, and calling. But why❓ #bioacoustics #meerkats #kalahari

'The Idea of the Brain' by Matthew Cobb What are minds? How well do we understand them? This book is the history of how people have thought about minds, brains, cognition, and the like. Covering the past, present, and predicted future of wh...

Sometimes, when I really like (or really dislike) something I read, I write a small review about it on my website. Sharing a more recent one:

pminasandra.github.io/reviews/2026...

The science behind clumsiness How a snowy trip to the ER made me wonder about brains and being clumsy.

After a trip to the ER for an extremely avoidable silly accident, I started wondering about the neuroscience behind being clumsy.

Sounds interesting? Have a look at my post on Substack!

How are sound elements combined to make calls in this Pūkeko population in NZ? How do calls change based on where they're made in the call sequence? Read our paper to find out!

Our group is looking for two MSc students to conduct a one-year research project on meerkat navigation and vocal activity at the University of Zurich and the Kalahari Research Center. Please share around!

Each dyad (a, b) moves through four discrete states over time, represented by coloured circles. The dyad remains in a given state for a certain duration, or "holding time", before transitioning to a new state according to state-specific transition probabilities, indicated by arrows showing all possible (non-zero) transitions. Paintings by Sofia M. Pereira & Judith von Nordheim.

New paper!

We propose a framework to empirically study animal social relationships by modelling social network (SN) data as time-series—that is, without the need to aggregate them over time.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Periodic reminder to check out my new webcomic, Remarkable Doodles!

Title: If Isaac Newton has seen further

Permalink: pminasandra.github.io/remarkable/?...

I have some brilliant news to share! I recently received a DFG-funded Emmy Noether 6-year grant to establish my own group in Germany. I will soon be looking for a PhD student and a research assistant to join the team and investigate how the balance of power is maintained in animal societies.

🚨STOP SCROLLING, IT’S AN EMERGENCY BROADCAST📣 This message will self-destruct in 10…9…8…7…⏰ …now that I have your attention:
🧪Our new paper on Alerting Components in animal vocalization is out in AnimBehav🎉
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#AnimalBehaviour #Bioacoustics #Communication

YouTube video by 3Blue1Brown But what is a Laplace Transform?

Ever since I made a video about Fourier Transforms, one of the most requested topics on the channel has been its close cousin, the Laplace Transform.

I've been having a lot of fun animating a mini-series about this topic, and the main part is now out.

youtu.be/j0wJBEZdwLs

I have a new webcomic! pminasandra.github.io/remarkable/?...

Although I use Bluesky mainly for science, I think some of you might enjoy some of these more nerdy comics. Some examples uploaded below. Check out the link for more!

Golden eagle on the nest in Finland (by O. Karlin)

🦅PhD position 🦅 in my new group at @fbm-unil.bsky.social in Switzerland, studying how the social and resource landscapes shape the learning process for soaring flight. Deadline: Oct 30. Pls repost! career5.successfactors.eu/career?caree...

I’m sorry. My Bluesky profile is meant to be mostly about science. But I have to speak up: my country is not okay. We are being ignored, both internationally and by our own authorities. The violence is real, and the world must see this. #Madagascar #GenZ

Analysis of communication and collective behavior in animal groups

⭐PhD position available!⭐
Come join us @imprs-qbee.bsky.social to study communication and collective behavior in animal groups! We're looking for someone excited to use computational approaches to tackle biological questions, using our full-group tracking datasets
imprs-qbee.mpg.de/121465/analy...

🧠 What does collective movement look like in cognitively advanced animals?

I have a new pre-print out for a super short solo-author paper I just submitted! I explore how the ability to forecast others' behaviours affects your own decision-making. Check it out: doi.org/10.1101/2025.08.14.670290

This article neatly summarises my Google Scholar fears. If there was a workable scientific-society-run or community-driven alternative, I would switch SO FAST

YouTube video by MitWissen Welche Gemeinsamkeit haben Hyänen, Erdmännchen und Nasenbären?

Unser Studie zu Verhaltenssequenzen wurde auf YT Channel MitWissen vorgestellt: youtu.be/5fT-lwwfmZE

MitWissen (auf Deutsch) wird von meiner Kollegin @cinig.bsky.social betrieben.
Schaut euch das Video an und abonniert gerne ihren Channel!

Another good reason to read this paper by @pminasandra.bsky.social👇

It just won the "Best Paper Award" from @uni-konstanz.de Bio Dept 👏 Congrats to Pranav + team @livingingroups.bsky.social @meg-crofoot.bsky.social @arispeshkin.bsky.social @animal-sounds.bsky.social

▶️ www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Hey friends in bioacoustics & acoustic communication:
I am (finally) sharing this post on the new version of @vocalpy.bsky.social I released after teaching a bootcamp with @tessarhinehart.bsky.social at the @nmac2024.bsky.social last year

blog.vocalpy.org/posts/2025-0...

#prattle 💬
#bioacoustics

The study of social animal migrations: a synthesis of the past and guidelines for future research | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Seasonal migration is a common behaviour seen in many species worldwide. There is evidence that social factors influence various migration decisions, but compared to the well-studied field of social f...

🚨 New paper alert! 🚨
Excited to share our new review in @royalsocietypublishing.org Proceedings B! 🎉

We synthesize research on social factors influencing animal migration and offer guidelines for future research. Check it out here: doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

#OpenAccess #Migration #MovementEcology

An illustration of a white-faced capuchin monkey carrying a howler infant on their back while cracking nuts with a stone

Humans have many unusual traditions. But did you know animals’ strange behaviors can become culture too? Out now in Current Biology (doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...) we show the rise and spread of a surprising tradition: interspecies infant abduction. Interactive timeline (www.ab.mpg.de/671374) 🧵 (1/12)

Hot off the press 📣: one of the most surprising and unsettling findings of my PhD. A novel social tradition emerged in the tool-using white-faced capuchins of Jicarón island… abducting and carrying the infants of another species. Thread with gifs, videos, and all the bizarre details 👇

Very different mammals follow the same rules of behavior Research hints at an underlying architecture that orders the movements of animals

Cross-species teamwork from @livingingroups.bsky.social reveals unexpected similarities in three social mammals 🤔

By lead author @pminasandra.bsky.social with Emily Grout, Katrina Brock, Meg Crofoot, Vlad Demartsev, Amlan Nayak, Eli
Strauss, Ari Strandburg-Peshkin🧵1/2

www.ab.mpg.de/679000/news_...

Pictures and videos belong to several authors of this paper, and have been used with their permission.

Authors: Me, Emily Grout, Brock, @meg-crofoot.bsky.social, @animal-sounds.bsky.social, Andy Gersick, @coatiben.bsky.social, Kay Holekamp, @wildcognition.bsky.social ition.bsky.social, Amlan Nayak, Josué Ortega, Marie Roch, Eli Strauss, @arispeshkin.bsky.social

Ilustrations by Sai P Kumaran

Linking the paper again: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Go check it out! Huge thanks to all the awesome collaborators who made this possible! (next post for credits) (10/10)

Remarkably, predictivity decay was quantitatively similar across all studied species and individuals, hinting at *general principles* underlying animal behaviour. (9/10)

We also explored how current behaviour predicts future behaviour at various timescales—something we call "predictivity decay."
Predictivity decay quantifies how quickly we lose predictive power when forecasting an animal's behaviour due to the accumulation of stochasticity. (8/10)