Nick Jones

These beautiful aliens are really helpful for understanding the role of behaviour in biological invasions and responses to climate change. So happy about our work on distinct strategies for coping with thermal stress in native and non-native nudibranchs, just published here doi.org/10.1007/s105...

Zebra finches produce soft laryngeal whistles during thermal panting that are not adaptive vocal signals Zebra finch heat calls are suggested to have close-range communicative relevance in the global temperature rise context. Anttonen et al. identify the biophysical mechanism underlying these vocalizatio...

www.cell.com/current-biol...

Yo #teamfish, major dream job alert!

New study in #JFB shows that small temperature increases can profoundly alter the growth rates and influence the shape of our temperate freshwater species. Read more, here: doi.org/10.1111/jfb.70066 #FishSci

ASAB Autumn Newsletter 2025 We’ve got updates from the exciting summer conference in Kolkata, call for nominations for the Christopher Barnard award & ASAB Medal 2026, news from the ASAB Grants & Education Committees and the Animal Behaviour Journal. And if that wasn’t enough there’s also a ‘Meet ASAB’ piece on our former Meetings Secretary: Joah Madden. You can also find infomation on our upcoming confrences!!

Our autumn newsletter is OUT! 🍁 🍃 🍂

Don’t forget to sign up at asab.org to have it sent directly to your inbox tri-annually 💌

www.asab.org/campaigns/vi...

The American Society of Naturalists is looking for a new Editor-In-Chief to begin Jan 2027. Info here:
www.amnat.org/announcement...

ASAB @asab.org conference grants for the Winter meeting in Edinburgh, up to £500, close 1st October!

@asab-meetings.bsky.social #ASABWinter2025

All the details needed are here:
www.asab.org/conference-g...
Don't forget I also need a referee statement emailed direct by the same deadline!

Near complete local extinction of iconic anemonefish and their anemone hosts following a heat stress event - npj Biodiversity npj Biodiversity - Near complete local extinction of iconic anemonefish and their anemone hosts following a heat stress event

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

YouTube video by Selection shapes diverse animal minds The fish challenge to vertebrate cognitive evolution

Selection Shapes Animal Minds: More completely free videos of talks from our Royal Society Discussion meeting last year. Today's highlighted talk: Dr Zegni Triki (Neuchatel) @zegnitriki.bsky.social @royalsocietypublishing.org @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social youtu.be/WQLjnfhSyD4?...

We're looking for a new postdoc on our new BBSCR grant (Graham Taylor/Tim Guilford/Cait Newport). See link below!

my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Tool use by New World Halichoeres wrasses - Coral Reefs A diverse array of animals has evolved the ability to use tools (e.g., primates, parrots, octopus, crabs, and wasps), but the factors leading to tool use evolution are poorly understood. Fishes could provide insight into these factors via comparison of ecological and morphological differences between tool-using and non-tool-using species. Anvil use is one example of tool use by fish: the fish holds a hard-shelled prey item in its mouth and strikes it onto a hard surface (anvil) to open it. To date, anvil use has been described in 26 of the > 550 described wrasse/Labridae species. Through a community science program called Fish Tool Use, 16 new observations of anvil use were collected in five species of a monophyletic group of wrasses called the New World Halichoeres. These new observations provide the first evidence of anvil use by Halichoeres brasiliensis, H. poeyi and H. radiatus, and the first video evidence of anvil use by H. garnoti and H. bivittatus. They extend the geographic range of known anvil use by wrasses to a new region, the western Atlantic, making this behaviour even more widespread than previously reported. Video analysis revealed that wrasses are flexible in their anvil use: They did not have a preferred side of their body, they cracked open a diverse array of prey on a variety of anvil types, and often used many anvils and striking points for the same prey item. More observations are needed to determine the evolutionary origin of anvil use behaviour, its ecological drivers, costs, and benefits.

For a long time tool use was thought to be exclusive to #primates and #birds, but #wrasses use hard surfaces to crack open hard-shelled prey. Research using #CitizenScience, and supported by #FSBISmallResearchGrant, provides the first documented evidence of anvil use in several sps: bit.ly/4m6JKdx

As the global need for sustainable food intensifies, regenerative agriculture as a concept has become politically and economically loaded.

We look at the evidence in our report 👇

🧪🌎🌿 @wildsummituk.bsky.social #wildsummitUK #naturefriendlyfarming

www.britishecologicalsociety.org/content/is-r...

Who Is Likely to Cheat? Linking Personality to Worthless Gift Production in a Spider Male spiders of Pisaura mirabilis use two strategies to court females: offering either nutritious gifts or worthless ones. Our study shows that aggressive and larger males are more likely to use wort....

🧪 ETHOLOGY: Which males cheat with worthless gifts? 🎁🕷️
Beydizada et al. link spider personality to cheating tactics in tent spiders. Exploration & aggressiveness shape responses to worthless prey, but not gift production itself. It's #OpenAccess: 🔗 doi.org/10.1111/eth.... #BehaviouralNote

Happy to share our new paper on the impacts of corporate capture strategies on human and ecosystem health 🌍

Available Open Access at 👉 pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

@dralexford.bsky.social @ipcp.bsky.social @acs.org

Behavioral strategies and neural mechanisms underlying short-range navigation in teleost fish Studies of spatial cognition in teleosts have uncovered a remarkable array of behavioral strategies and neural mechanisms. While there is compelling e…

New paper alert! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

British Ecological Society BES Grants reminder: 4 days left to submit applications. Deadline: 8 September.

⏰Applications for BES grants close on 8 September. 

If you haven't yet, send us your applications and let us help you fund your project. 

Find out more about our grants and how you can apply👇

https://f.mtr.cool/yrxwplgwwo

Great to see our paper on the importance of experimental approaches in movement ecology out in an issue today! @camphilsoc.bsky.social

Conceived at a Gordon Research Conference and led by the fantastic Whitney Hansen www.kwhitneyhansen.com

👉 dx.doi.org/10.1111/brv....

@jack-brand.bsky.social

Our new paper shows how arena size can bias sociability estimates in sticklebacks: bigger tanks = lower sociability, even after adjusting for tank size. Repeatability highest at intermediate size. #methodsmatter! Great work from @mgmci13.bsky.social! Read it here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

In our new correspondence, we discuss how light-based methods of sleep disruption may generate confounds that complicate interpretation of results. Light affects hormones, circadian rhythms & stress responses beyond just sleep! @helenanorman.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Fantastic new job, advert now live - Associate Professor in Animal Behaviour, Dept Biology, Oxford. Closing date 8th Oct. Come and join us!
my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

An Overview of Tuna and its Sustainability in 2025 - Sustainable Fisheries UW Is tuna sustainable in 2025? Learn how to make informed seafood choices with this comprehensive guide to tuna sustainability.

What tuna is sustainable for consumers? A guide: sustainablefisheries-uw.org/tuna-sustain...

Guidelines for experimental design for ecology and evolution

A piece I wrote on our recent #JFB paper looking at the impacts of #hatchery techniques on a critically endangered population of landlocked #salmon! You can read the full paper, here: doi.org/10.1111/jfb.... #FishSci #Aquaculture #Conservation

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...

Applications for Winter 2025 conference attendance grants are trickling in, awarding up to £500 with a high success rate (if eligible).
Deadline isn't until 1st October, but don't forget to get referee statements in by then too!
All the info you need is here:
www.asab.org/conference-g...
@asab.org

Turns out it's very unlikely Nemo and Marlin lived in the same anemone.. Just out in Behavioral Ecology! with Pete Buston, Steve Bogdanowicz, Tina Barbasch
@behavecol.bsky.social @newcastleuni.bsky.social @bostonu.bsky.social

Fish are just the ancient ancestors of all terrestrial tetrapods. For whom we owe fealty and thanks for life on land. Some tie themselves in knots. Some are fully transparent. Some eat birds and mammals. They smile politely at the crushing pressure at the depths of the earth and our souls.

After many attempts to get Beauveria fungi to actually harm and infect Nicrophorus beetles in order to test the beetle's social immunity mettle against such a threat we found that I was probably barking up the wrong tree. Check out Leon's paper to find out why!

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/

📣 Check out the latest preprints related to Tokay gecko welfare!

1. Is physical closeness a good measure for pair bond strength? doi.org/10.32942/X2F...

2. How do incubation environment and social rearing influence development?
doi.org/10.32942/X2T...

Stay tuned for more coming soon!