Sonja Wild

NEW PAPER in #ornithology shows that some #raptors switched foraging strategy when #COVID19 lockdowns reduced the availability of #roadkill: buff.ly/jUug7Yj

POSITIONS default description

I am looking for a postdoc to work in our long-term system of food-caching mountain chickadees in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The expected start is April 2026. Please see details here: chickadeecognition.com/positions
If interested and qualified, please contact me directly (email on the website).

Dwarf mongoose

Rhesus macaques grooming

Meerkat

❓ Want to join us?
📢 Fully funded #PhD for UK-domiciled Black heritage candidates
🐵 Biological market monitoring & manipulation in social animals #mongooses #macaques #fieldwork

👥 With me, #LaurenBrent & #PatrickKennedy
🎓 @bristolbiosci.bsky.social

ℹ️ www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

🙏Share widely

A juvenile great tit solves a foraging puzzle by pushing a sliding door to the left while being observed by two other juvenile birds. Image credit: Sonja Wild.

@sonjawild.bsky.social @galarconnieto.bsky.social & @lucymaplin.bsky.social show that young #GreatTits, which have limited #ParentalCare, learn to solve a foraging #puzzle socially, but rather than parents, siblings & non-parental adults are preferred role models @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/46JZn6n

These songbirds learn more from siblings than from parents Siblings are special. Whether a sibling serves as protector or tormentor, friend or foe, the relationship between siblings is like no other.

Juvenile songbirds acquire key life skills primarily from siblings and non-parent adults, with sibling influence surpassing that of parents in species with limited parental care. doi.org/g9578b

These Songbirds Learn More From Siblings Than From Parents The powerful role of siblings is highlighted in this UC Davis study of a songbird species with limited parental care.

You don't have to tell me about the power of siblings. My big sis is the best ever. But it's very cool to see this bond is so important in other species, too, like these songbirds, according to a new @ucdavis.bsky.social study from @sonjawild.bsky.social. www.ucdavis.edu/climate/news...

Siblings and nonparental adults provide alternative pathways to cultural inheritance in juvenile great tits In species with extended parental care, parents are often the preferred sources of information, but what about species with limited periods of parental care? This study reveals that juvenile great tit...

Hi Ben! So sorry about that! This should work:
doi.org/10.1371/jour...

We are grateful to @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social and @cbehav.bsky.social for funding the study, and to four reviewers for their incredibly constructive comments. Rev #2 – whoever you are – a heartfelt thank you for the most positive review I have (and probably ever will) receive. (5/5)

YouTube video by Sonja Wild Juvenile great tits learn to solve foraging puzzles

Our study demonstrates alternative pathways to direct cultural inheritance from parents in species with multiple offspring and limited periods of parental care that can lead behavioral similarities within family units. (4/5)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4u1...

Presenting juvenile songbirds with sliding door foraging puzzles, we found that while the first learners of a sibling cohort did so from non-parental adults and partially from parents, subsequent siblings almost exclusively learned from their already knowledgeable sibling. (3/5)

Juveniles of many animal species with extended parental care rely on their parents for learning skills and behavior necessary for survival. What happens in species in which dependence periods are more limited? (2/5)

Out today in @plosbiology.org (1/5)

Siblings and non-parental adults provide alternative pathways to cultural inheritance in juvenile great tits 🐦🧩

Link to study:
10.0.5.91/journal.pbio...

Co-authors:
@lucymaplin.bsky.social
@galarconnieto.bsky.social

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...

Even Ground Squirrels Got In On the Vole Feast Last Summer - Bay Nature For the first time, scientists documented concerted carnivory by California ground squirrels. But why were there so many voles?

Apparently, when life gives you voles, that's what you eat.
📷 by @sonjawild.bsky.social/UC Davis
🖋️ Vishal Subramanyan
baynature.org/2025/03/06/e...

Reposting this starter pack for new users.

If you are doing research on animal social networks and would like to be added to the pack, just let me know.

If you are doing research on other types of networks, it would be great if you could help sharing this - many thanks!

go.bsky.app/39p1ccZ

KZLab is Seeking a Lab Technician! The Zamudio Lab (zamudiolab.org) in the Department of Integrative Biology at UT Austin seeks a highly motivated and detail-oriented laboratory technician to play a key role in supporting the resear…

Friends, plz repost and share! We are hiring a lab technician with exp in mol biology and general lab management. BS or MS degree and good org skills are required. Deadline Feb 1, 2025. We are a welcoming and equitable lab community. Details at link below. 🐸🐢🐍🦎

zamudiolab.org/2024/12/18/k...

Study by: Jennifer E. Smith; Joey E. Ingbretson; Mackenzie M. Miner; Ella C. Oestreicher; Mari L. Podas; Tia A. Ravara; Lupin M. L. Teles; Jada C. Wahl; Lucy M. Todd; Sonja Wild

YouTube video by Sonja Wild Vole hunting: Novel predatory and carnivorous behavior by California ground squirrels

Check out the video footage taken by Team Squirrel here:

A juvenile california ground squirrel consuming a California vole

We observed 74 events of squirrels hunting, killing, consuming and competing over voles at our long-term field site at Briones Regional Park. Squirrels of all age and sex classes engaged in the predatory behavior, highlighting their dietary and behavioral flexibility.

An adult California ground squirrel holding a California vole between its paws and consuming its head

Vole hunting: novel predatory and carnivorous behavior by California ground squirrels

In our new video article in the Journal of Ethology we document the emergence of this exciting behavior following a population explosion of California voles doi.org/10.1007/s101...

5 exciting PhD opportunities to join the Center for Research in Animal Behaviour at the University of Exeter in Sept 2025. www.exeter.ac.uk/research/gro...

Would love to be added! Studying social networks (and learning) in 🐬🐦🐿️

Behavioral ecologist here - could you add me please?

Post reproductive mother and Son copyright David Ellifrit Center for Whale Research

Exciting new NERC funded PhD opportunity available with us on #killerwhale #orca #behaviour and #conservation, co-supervised by Stephanie King, Sam Ellis and Dan Franks in partnership with The Center for Whale Research USA
exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin... - deadline 13th January 2025 #killerwhale

Starter packs BIOLOGY General Science community https://go.bsky.app/HVYAMEA Research Institutions in Life Sciences https://go.bsky.app/LxXpcvJ LGBTQIA+ in STEM https://go.bsky.app/BFc4wgf LGBTQIA+ in STEM 2 h...

Thank you so much to whoever put this very comprehensive list of #science Bsky starter packs together. This is just amazing: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Academic Staff Member in Animal Behavior Deadline: December 6th, 2024

JOB: Caroline Schuppli, I, and others at @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social are hiring a research tech to develop short term, remote tag attachment mechanisms for wild primates that do not require capture or handling stellen.uni-konstanz.de/jobposting/7...

🙋‍♀️

Two amazing jobs at Uni Bern. Assistent professorships in conservation biology and computational ecology. Bern is a wonderful place to live and work in!
www.iee.unibe.ch/about_us/job...

Funded PhD Available at the University of Exeter.

Loneliness is a global epidemic. We want to use field experiments in wild rabbits to understand why our social connections change with age.

Deadline: 11th Dec

More info & how to apply here: bpb-eu-w2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.bristo...