Animals Doing Stuff in Groups

Humans perceive but animals don’t: pitfalls in using plasticine models for assessing biotic interactions buff.ly/7hcLYXx | #ProcB #Ecology

26.10.2025 15:01 — 👍 17    🔁 7    💬 0    📌 0

Check out this fascinating special edition of the Journal of Fish Biology @thefsbi.bsky.social focussed on how we study cognition in fishes- led by lab alumnus @nickarjones.bsky.social

21.10.2025 17:48 — 👍 6    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0

City lizards are more social. In a new paper in #BiologyLetters, social network analysis revealed that urban lizards have more social connections and stronger bonds than their non-urban counterparts. buff.ly/kqf2YfZ | #Behaviour #UrbanEcology

26.09.2025 09:01 — 👍 13    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 2

Multi-generational vulture nests hold 700 years of human artifacts Crossbow bolts, sandals, slingshots, and more.

super cool study found human artifacts in Bearded vulture nests, incl. "weaponry like a crossbow bolt and wooden lance, decorated sheep leather, and parts of a slingshot....a shoe made from twigs and grass is ~675-years-old." link to paper: doi.org/10.1002/ecy..... www.popsci.com/environment/... 🧪🌍🦉

03.10.2025 13:06 — 👍 2046    🔁 888    💬 27    📌 118

CrowdScience - Why are some animals black and white? - BBC Sounds Why are zebras so stripy? Why do penguins wear tuxedos?

In a world bursting with colour, why go monochrome? I joined Tim Caro & Martin How on the BBC World Service’s Crowdscience to explore why some animals stand out in stark contrast. From 🦓🐼🐧 it turns out the answers aren’t always so black & white 😉

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

03.10.2025 20:22 — 👍 7    🔁 3    💬 1    📌 0

Antagonistic interactions between fish (Ophidiiformes) and one of the isocrinid individuals (Endoxocrinus parrae). Initially the fish is on the aboral side of the crinoid's strongly, flexed arms (A). The fish moving to the crinoid's adoral side and making quick strikes directed at the tips of the arms (B, C). Arm-flailing by the crinoid pushes the fish away from the crown (D).

🆕 in the ESA Bulletin's Photo Gallery: A deep-sea fight between a fish & a sea lily, previously speculated but not actually observed, caught on camera and described in @ESAEcology's #TheScientificNaturalist series

See more 📸: doi.org/10.1002/bes2...
Read the study: doi.org/10.1002/ecy....

16.05.2025 17:09 — 👍 13    🔁 7    💬 0    📌 0

Animal brains don’t think in a vacuum, they think in heatwaves & hypoxia, and around predators, parasites, and social groups. Our new review maps mechanisms, timescales, and gaps for understanding animal cognition in changing environments: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lau5Esvgs...

12.08.2025 09:06 — 👍 25    🔁 8    💬 1    📌 0

Winter ASAB 2025 December 15th-16th Edinburgh ASABwinter.github.io/2025/ How sensory information affects behaviour Logo of a moth

Join us for #ASABWinter2025 in Edinburgh Dec 15-16 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Abstracts for posters/talks due Aug 29

More details here: asabwinter.github.io/2025/

29.07.2025 17:06 — 👍 42    🔁 26    💬 0    📌 1

Gloger's Rule or Historical Conjecture? Tests in Mammals Ecogeographical rules for animal coloration include Gloger's rule, which states that homeotherms are darker at lower latitudes; however, 19th-century naturalists observed that animals are more colour...

Interesting new paper on color "rules" in terrestrial mammals, suggesting that Gloger's rule actually holds:

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

31.07.2025 19:20 — 👍 5    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

Antagonistic effects of predator color morph abundance and saliency on prey anti-predator responses Predators can have different color morphs, but whether morph abundance or saliency is more influential in shaping antipredator behavior in prey remains unc

🔴New #trumpetfish content!🔴 This species is colour #polymorphic so we dove (pun intended) into how the relative abundance and saliency of each morph influences the #behaviour of their prey. Find out more via the link below! 🎺🐠
🔗 tinyurl.com/39vn5skp #behavioralecology

23.07.2025 14:11 — 👍 19    🔁 7    💬 1    📌 1

🐚🦀

22.07.2025 03:16 — 👍 291    🔁 75    💬 2    📌 3

Mapping nonhuman cultures with the Animal Culture Database - Scientific Data Scientific Data - Mapping nonhuman cultures with the Animal Culture Database

Happy to share our new paper introducing the Animal Culture Database in Scientific Data: We’re putting together a resource consolidating primary research on cultural behaviors in wild animal populations and how they’re affected by human activity (1/5) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

22.06.2025 23:16 — 👍 193    🔁 84    💬 3    📌 2

This is how it looks when a Sea Anemone runs away from a Starfish.

19.07.2025 15:51 — 👍 6694    🔁 1071    💬 279    📌 183

Vocal communication in corvids In the field of vocal communication, research has mostly focussed on birds because of their vocal learning capacity and non-human primates due to their ...

The first papers from our special collection on vocal communication in corvids are now live. Most are still under review, stay tuned for more updates as they’re published! link.springer.com/collections/...

18.07.2025 08:47 — 👍 33    🔁 16    💬 1    📌 1

A little moon jelly at the rockpools today🪼 @animalsdoingstuff.bsky.social

16.07.2025 17:40 — 👍 7    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Fish Are Smarter Than You Think Researchers developed a way to run tests on fish learning and memory in the animals' natural environments. The results may reveal that fish are smarter than previously assumed.

Fish are smarter than you think! They can distinguish and remember individuals, navigate with mental maps, cooperate and communicate with one another, build complex structures, use tools, and keep track of quantities.

10.07.2025 12:08 — 👍 6    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

Perfect, thanks very much!

22.06.2025 14:25 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Hi, can we be added please?

19.06.2025 17:40 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

A picture of me standing in front of my slide showing preliminary results from my first PhD studies.

I really enjoyed presenting some preliminary results from my PhD work at the St Andrews Biology PGR conference today! It was great to see all the cool work coming out of our community as well 🦀🐟🔊 (thanks to @mikemwebster.bsky.social and @lrendell.bsky.social as always)

11.06.2025 18:14 — 👍 15    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0

Rocky shore with members of our research group searching in the rockpools and a clear blue sky above.

A yellow-tipped red starfish.

A nudibranch in the rockpool.

Another bright morning at the rocky shore with some members of 'Team Fish'🐟🦀☀️🌊 @animalsdoingstuff.bsky.social

14.05.2025 21:31 — 👍 15    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

A very eventful five seconds 🦀🐟🫧

05.06.2025 17:47 — 👍 49    🔁 12    💬 1    📌 0