Krishna Balasubramaniam

Hiring for 3 positions: Research Assistant, Field Research Coordinator, and Postdoc I am looking to hire 3 people into my lab this year. I am still doing the paperwork to get the jobs officially posted but I want to send the word out and screen potential applications right away. R…

I am hiring a research assistant (vampire bats), a Panama fieldwork coordinator (vampire bats), and also considering postdoc apps (social behavior, any species): socialbat.org/2026/02/19/h...

‼️ one week to go ‼️ please consider submitting presentations for symposia at ECBB-2026 (conference theme: 'Animal Behaviour in the Anthropocene'), which we're hosting in Cambridge this September! More details here:
www.aru.ac.uk/science-and-...

@ecbb2026.bsky.social @aru-biology.bsky.social

🎉 Celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science! Join my inaugural lecture Social by Nature — exploring how social worlds shape animal minds
11 Feb 26 • 18:00–19:00 GMT • Cambridge + Online
Register: www.aru.ac.uk/events/inaug...
#EveryVoiceInScience #WomenInSTEM #LGBTQHistoryMonth

Top left ECBB logo, yellow text with blue outline next to it reads 'Did you hear' Background image of a black British bird looking inquisitive. Bottom text, yellow with blue outline, reads 'Symposia submission extended to 15 February'.

January can be tough enough without an extra deadline looming. That's why we've extended our #ECBB2026 call for symposia to 15 February 2026!

For more information and for the submission form click the link: www.aru.ac.uk/science-and-...

We are hiring – postdoc position exploring how kinship shapes social ageing in killer whales. Collaboration with @samellisq.bsky.social @drwhale.bsky.social and Prof Rufus Johnstone (Cambridge) starts 1st April 2026 and ends 31st March 2029. Apps close 2nd Feb. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPZ788/p...

This is figure 1, which shows phylogenetic distribution of SSB across non-human primates.

Same-sex sexual behaviour in non-human primates is associated with ecological factors, life history and social structure, according to research in Nature Ecology & Evolution. go.nature.com/3LBPHD0 🧪

If you work on corvid ecology, behaviour, cognition, or conservation, this might be useful for you 👇
I’ve just published CORVIDATA in Scientific Data 🐦
doi.org/10.1038/s415... (1/4)

Right side: A group of meerkats representing the researchers that submitted a symposia proposal for ECBB 2026. Left side: The sad, lonely meerkat representing the one that forgot. All by themself. Submission deadline 31 January!

We know you don't want to start your year by forgetting to submit a symposia proposal before the 31 January deadline.

www.aru.ac.uk/science-and-...
#academicsky #ecbb2026

🚨Roll up, roll up, fully-funded #PhD deadlines approaching...

6th Jan: tinyurl.com/aja54nr6

8th Jan: tinyurl.com/4jfy47pp

Social monitoring & manipulation
#meerkats #mongooses #macaques #fieldwork #long-termdata

@patrick-kennedy.bsky.social @ljnbrent.bsky.social
@bristolbiosci.bsky.social

Join us for the @ecbb2026.bsky.social at @angliaruskin.bsky.social in September! @asab.org meeting secretary @viveknityananda.bsky.social advertising our conference at #asabwinter2025

Header: ECBB 2026 Plenary Speakers Image of Dr Christopher Schell, University of California, Berkeley Text next to photo reads: - Urban ecologist, professor, Afrofuturist, father, and writer - Combines animal behaviour, physiology, urban biodiversity conservation, environmental justice, and One Health to investigate how carnivores adapt to life in cities - transdisciplinary work to disentangle how environmental injustices have structured our urban ecosystems and how to build more just, biodiverse, and resilient cities

We've crawled, swam, hopped, flew, scuttled and run through our ECBB 2026 Plenary Speaker list to reach the final plenary announcement.
Who is rounding off our speaker list?
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It's the fantastic Dr Christopher Schell!

ECBB 2026 logo above header that reads ECBB 2026 Plenary Speakers Photo includes Prof Tim Caro, blue shape with name, and title, and University of Bristol. Text reads: -Studies evolution of coloration in mammals from several angles - Comparative methods to uncover the ecological drivers of camouflage, warning coloration, signaling and physiological factors in driving coat coloration in many mammalian orders - Community-based and government-led conservation schemes in Zanzibar 1-4 September, Anglia Ruskin University

We are delighted to announce our second ECBB 2026 Plenary Speaker!
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The amazing Professor Tim Caro!
#ecbb #ecbb2026

Header: ECBB 2026 Plenary Speakers Image of Prof Andrew Radford (right), University of Bristol with small bird on hand (left) Text next to photo reads: - Conflicts and collaborations that arise within and between groups, and how vocal communication is used to mediate these social interactions - The impact and mitigation of human activities on wildlife, particularly noise pollution, and increasingly testing potential management solutions - An award-winning lecturer and supervisor, and passionate about public engagement

We've announced half of our ECBB plenary speakers already! Are you ready to keep going with our next reveal? Who could it be???
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It's the brilliant @andyradford.bsky.social!

ECBB 2026 logo above header that reads ECBB 2026 Plenary Speakers Photo includes:Prof Mariella Herberstein, Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change Text reads: - Interested in all aspects of spider behaviour – from mating behaviour and sexual cannibalism, to web-building, mimicry and deception - Behavioural ecology of various insects, including moths, bugs, damselflies, and praying mantids - The evolution of imperfect mimicry in ant-mimicking spiders, warning signals in moths and butterflies

Ready to meet our third plenary speaker? We are delighted to announce it's....
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The extraordinary @mherberstein.bsky.social

Our call for symposia now open!

We are now accepting submissions for symposia, with submissions for oral/poster presentations invited from 31 January 2026.

For more info, or to download the proposal form, visit our conference page 👇
www.aru.ac.uk/science-and-...

Line up! Slither up! Crawl up! Climb up! No matter how you're moving or on how many legs, it's time to find out our first ECBB 2026 plenary speaker.
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It's the incredible @ljnbrent.bsky.social!

🚄✈️🐒 EFP2026 Mobility Grants are open!

Funding available for students, PhD, and postdocs to join the conference.

Deadlines:
– 15 Jan 2026: primate-range countries
– 13 Feb 2026: Europe

Apply here:
Primate-range countries: www.alphavisa.com/efp/2026/pri...
Europe:
www.alphavisa.com/efp/2026/pri...

An integrative, peer‐reviewed and open‐source cooperative‐breeding database (Co‐BreeD) Co-BreeD is the first updatable and open-source database dedicated to cooperative breeding. It enables continuous, non-binary measurement of cooperative breeding, transforming how we study breeding s...

📢Out in the NEW issue of @animalecology.bsky.social is our hugely #collaborative paper:

An integrative, peer-reviewed and open-source cooperative-breeding database (Co-BreeD)

#mammals #birds #cooperation #openscience #datasets #alloparents

Led by @benmocha.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1111/1365...

@alexvgeorgiev.bsky.social was it recorded, by any chance?

Come and join our lab! We have TWO fully funded PhD positions AND a paid field assistant opportunity in our Behavioral Ecology group @uni-goettingen.de & @primatenzentrum.bsky.social. Projects will be part of @rtg2906-curiosity.bsky.social & @sfb1528.bsky.social!!
Details in thread. Please re-post!

Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana) are endemic to east-central China. The largest of the macaques. Mostly terrestrial, they prefer to sleep in caves. Threatened by habitat loss; recent halts to deforestation may bring hope for population stability. Near Threatened.

Meerkat pups in the Kalahari, South Africa

Rhesus macaques in Cayo Santiago

Dwarf mongoose staring at a camera, South Africa.

📢Two fully-funded #PhD opportunities to work with us:

Topic: Social monitoring & manipulation

UK-domiciled black-heritage scheme: tinyurl.com/aja54nr6

NERC DLTP: tinyurl.com/4jfy47pp

Cosupervisors: #PatrickKennedy @ljnbrent.bsky.social
@bristolbiosci.bsky.social
#bioacoustics #mammals #fieldwork

New amazing open Postdoc position, w/t opportunities to 1) get closely involved in our next @themanybirds.bsky.social study on innovation and problem-solving; 2) work with @ecobird.bsky.social on avian innovation, cognition & invasiveness. Advert: www.ugent.be/en/work/scie...

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...

Human-macaque Co-construction of Behaviours: Sharing Spaces, Sharing Food, Sharing Lives - International Journal of Primatology Humans and other-than-human-animals (animals) share spaces, food, and lives. This gives rise to possibilities of interspecific learning, social facilitation and interspecific communication, and the po...

Great new paper by @mfhansen.bsky.social and Agustin Fuentes on human-macaque co-existence link.springer.com/article/10.1...

🚨Who wants to work with Kalahari meerkats? A MSc project with @mathildemartin.bsky.social at the University of Zurich.
#bioacoustics 🧪

New research shows meerkat social group membership strongly shapes gut microbiomes and beneficial bacterial co-occurrence, beyond individual health or environmental exposure. ⬇️
buff.ly/neW6LHH
@krishsubramaniam.bsky.social

Impact of animal socioecology on gut microbial communities: Insights from wild meerkats in the Kalahari Our study addresses critical gaps at the nexus of animal and microbial ecologies, adding much-needed empirical support to recent theoretical frameworks that have conceptualised gut microbiomes as bei...

‼️ Thrilled to share my first article on the Kalahari meerkats ‼️, in @animalecology.bsky.social! Group membership strongly influences gut microbiomes & especially the co-occurrence of beneficial bacteria, beyond animals' age or sex, disease status, or environmental exposure

doi.org/10.1111/1365...

Snow leopard (Panthera uncia). Stock photo.

Snow leopards have the lowest genetic diversity of all big cats due to persistently small population sizes throughout their evolutionary history, which may make recovery from human hunting and habitat loss challenging. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/HM3350XeeBY

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