Vesta Eleuteri

Africa's wildlife has lost a third of its natural 'power', study warns Africa's ecosystems are running on less than two-thirds of the natural energy they once had, according to new Oxford-led research published today in Nature. The study reveals a dramatic loss of wildli...

“Restoration isn't just about bringing animals back, it's about bringing back what they do," says Ty Loft, lead author of new research on decreasing trophic energy flows suggesting collapse of ecosystem functions by animals like primates & terrestrial herbivores in Africa phys.org/news/2025-10...

Elephant Dream 2025 - Females are more wary here in Marataba. Although we were with them for a while, these females seem to start forming a coalition against us here to warn us before crossing the road. So we talked gently to them to reassure them we weren’t a threat

Elephant Dream 2025 - Yesterday we had a large elephant gathering at the river. We observed them for hours playing, swimming, greeting, affiliating and sometimes even aggressing each other. Elephants are such complex beings where social gatherings shape their deeply social lives.

Me too! Before the video we didn’t really want to move cause of the younger males ahead of us. I think the big male was aware we were stuck because he just waited feeding reaching his trunk beside the car without asking us to move.

Yesterday we ended up being surrounded by our big boys. Here we had a magical elephant encounter up close. The Mountain wanted to go past our car but we couldn’t move as there were other males a few meters ahead so he gently passed by us ❤️.

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

Days 1 and 2 of 🐘 fieldwork:

-Flat tyre ✅
-Got stuck in sand and had to dig out the car for an hr while checking our backs for lions/ellies ✅
-Mozambican spitting cobra under our wheel ✅
-Got lost at night in the park ✅
-Amazing rhino encounters: also ✅

👋 Back in the field! Stay tuned for regular posts about our adventures following elephants 🐘❤️

ron burgundy from parks and recreation says " you 'd be a fool not to pick me " ALT: ron burgundy from parks and recreation says " you 'd be a fool not to pick me "

Do you love research & writing & all things animal behavior? Well our journal, Animal Behavior, recruiting up to 5 (count em!) new Associate Editors!

Editors serve three-year terms beginning January 2026. If you're interested, email Exec Editor Scott Sakaluk (sksakal@ilstu.edu) by Oct 31!

We are hiring - PDRA position exploring how information access shapes social dynamics in killer whales. Collaboration with @samellisq.bsky.social @drwhale.bsky.social Prof Dan Franks (York) start 1st Nov (or ASAP) end 31st Oct 2028. Apps close on 19th Oct.

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOT336/p...

🚨 First call! 🚨

European Congress for Conservation Biology (Leiden, the Netherlands in July 6th to 10th 2026) is open for proposals: symposia, panels, workshops & training on effective biodiversity conservation.

Deadline Oct 31st 2025 👉 eccb26Leiden.eu #ECCB2026

Fragmentation increased in over half of global forests from 2000 to 2020 Habitat fragmentation, in which contiguous forests are broken into smaller, isolated patches, threatens biodiversity by disrupting species movement, shrinking populations, and altering ecosystem dynam...

Analysis of habitat connectivity and aggregation suggested that more than half of global #forests have become more fragmented over the past two decades, painting a picture of widespread forest degradation beyond the direct effects of #habitat loss

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Thank you #behaviour2025 for hosting my talk on overimitation in dogs, the topic of ManyDogs 2! 🐶
@manydogsproject.bsky.social

We are collecting data now in dog labs across the world! Email manydogsproject2@gmail.com / check out our website below to join!

manydogsproject.github.io/manydogs2.html

It's not all about size Female gorillas challenge the male power narrative

It's not all about size. New research on female #gorillas challenges the male power narrative. Study by @nikos.ecoevo.social.ap.brid.gy & Martha Robbins now out in @currentbiology.bsky.social. #primates @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social @utu.fi More: tinyurl.com/y778faw2 & www.cell.com/current-biol...

It’s time to update the language of human-wildlife interactions (commentary) Language shapes the way we view our world. In the field of wildlife conservation, even very subtle word choices drive peoples’ perceptions around individual species or situations. These word choices c...

Do the words we choose influence our relationships with other animals? 🧪 #academicsky

news.mongabay.com/2025/08/its-...

A photo of a male African elephant walking.

🐘 HAPPY WORLD ELEPHANT DAY! 🐘

If you're curious about these hugely intelligent gentle giants check out our ele ep:
open.spotify.com/episode/7kJT...

And our 'meet the hosts' ep:
open.spotify.com/episode/4piX...

Spotify or wherever you get your pods!
Photo: Rachel Dale
#elephant #SciComm

Video reveals cockatoos have 30 unique dance moves—including headbanging Researchers now know why the caged bird dances: a form of mentally enriching play

The scientists who convinced someone to pay them to study cockatoo dance moves are the true winners

"...it's possible the birds just didn’t like Avicii, the researchers suggest." 😂🧪

Do elephants make deliberate gestures to ask for things? Our study says yes Elephants were found to gesture intentionally when they wanted humans to give them apples. This trait was thought to exist mainly in primates.

Happy to share this article on @theconversation.com covering our study on elephant gestures 🐘👋 @angelastoeger.bsky.social @nakedprimate.bsky.social Lucy Bates, Josh Plotnik

theconversation.com/do-elephants...

I am advertising 2 positions in language evolution with my group at ‪‪@dondersinst.bsky.social:
📢 Fully-funded PhD position (Robotics/AI 🤖) www.ru.nl/en/working-a...
📢 Postdoc position (Virtual Reality 🎮)
www.ru.nl/en/working-a...
Deadline for applications is August 14th. Please RT! :)

Exploration Behavior Is Consistent and Associated With Foraging Behavior in Island Songbirds We tested the neophobia threshold hypothesis in six landbird species, including four Darwin's finches. Exploration behavior was consistent over time and contexts, with species exhibiting greater fora...

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

How Elephants Say They Like Them Apples

🐘 New Paper on Elephant Gestures Featured in The New York Times

📰 NYT article:
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/s...

The study is part of Vesta Eleuteri’s PhD research, supervised by me and Catherine Hobaiter, in collaboration with Josh Plotnik and Lucy Bates.

Check out our study on elephant intentional gestures covered by @science.org @angelastoeger.bsky.social @nakedprimate.bsky.social 🐘!

🆕 Just published our latest study !!!
"Investigating intentionality in elephant gestural communication" 🐘🖐️
Do elephants gesture on purpose? Our new study explores the cognitive underpinnings of their gestures.

📄 doi.org/10.1098/rsos...
Royal Society Open

Massive thanks to my main supervisor @angelastoeger.bsky.social, my co-supervisor
@nakedprimate.bsky.social, Dr Josh Plotnik, Dr Lucy Bates for all their help and input on this. Huge thanks to Anna Letrari and the awesome experimenters Yvonne and Ruben for their help in the field! 16/16

a man with a mustache has the words it 's evolution above him ALT: a man with a mustache has the words it 's evolution above him

Our study highlights that these abilities may have repeatedly evolved in distant species sharing similarly complex cognition and social lives. 15/16

a baby elephant is walking through a grassy field with birds ALT: a baby elephant is walking through a grassy field with birds

Our findings show that elephants use many different gestures to communicate intentionally to humans, and that they do so by assessing how effective their gestures are at achieving their goal. 14/16

Stewie Repetition GIF ALT: Stewie Repetition GIF

They gestured more when the experimenter gave them only half the food (persistence), while used novel gestures when the experimenter gave them the empty tray (elaboration). 13/16

a little girl is holding a toy gun and making a funny face while saying `` pay attention to me '' . ALT: a little girl is holding a toy gun and making a funny face while saying `` pay attention to me '' .

Elephants met all the criteria for intentionality using 38 different gestures! They gestured almost exclusively when there was an (attentive) experimenter (audience directedness). 12/16

purple purple right into my mouth yum yum written on a purple background ALT: purple purple right into my mouth yum yum written on a purple background

We presented semi-captive elephants with two trays, one with food and one empty, and recorded whether and how they gestured to a human experimenter to ask for the food (their goal). 11/16

back to the future movie scene with the words welcome to my latest experiment at the bottom ALT: back to the future movie scene with the words welcome to my latest experiment at the bottom

To answer this question, we built on the seminal experimental design first showing intentionality in captive chimps by @daveleavens.bsky.social
So what did we do? 10/16