Taï Chimpanzee Project

New episode!! 🎙️🎉

A chat w/ @pbrakes.bsky.social about animal cultures and animal conservation.

Culture was once thought to be uniquely human. No longer. We now know culture is found throughout the natural world. How does this complicate conservation?

Listen: disi.org/the-value-of...

New paper: The high mortality observed in juvenile Verreaux’s sifakas is likely due to their reduced vigilance, smaller body size and limited agility, rather than to deficiencies in immediate responses to predators
doi.org/10.1016/j.an...
@primatenzentrum.bsky.social
@m-schumacher.bsky.social

Photograph of the outside of the Max Planck Institute (Nijmegen, the Netherlands) and the trees of the forest around it.

Only a few weeks left to apply for our 4-year PhD position, using human brain organoids & multi-omic methods to study genes implicated in speech disorders. Application deadline 5 Jan 2026. Fellowship is embedded in the International Max Planck Research School. More info: www.mpi.nl/imprs-phd-fe...

Iain D-H in Oxford with elephant colleagues

sad news that Iain Douglas-Hamilton has died. A great and wonderful champion of elephants over a long life! He has changed the world for the better, especially how people view elephants.

course schedule as a table. Available at the link in the post.

I'm teaching Statistical Rethinking again starting Jan 2026. This time with live lectures, divided into Beginner and Experienced sections. Will be a lot more work for me, but I hope much better for students.

I will record lectures & all will be found at this link: github.com/rmcelreath/s...

Have you ever heard about Gremlin? One of chimpanzees at Gombe, she celebrated her 55th birthday recently.

Because of the ongoing research at Gombe – research that started with Dr. Jane – the Jane Goodall Institute team has known Gremlin since birth.

Photos: Michael Neugebauer / Stephano Lihedule

Super, that we had the chance to eat together, chat about the chimps and talk Science. Keep up the good work.

Leaving the forest after a couple of intense weeks and returning to desk work. During my last week, I had a meeting with all students, research assistants, and interns. Great team we have out there for the season 2025 / 2026. Together with our local field assistants, they will do amazing work.

Open postdoc position in Theoretical Evolutionary Biology at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, focusing on mathematical models of social traits. Details: https://tinyurl.com/37uhtbne #postdoc

With winged legs, orchid mantis sets gliding record Camouflaged like a flower, these predators also have a getaway trick

The record gliding isn't the most remarkable thing about this creature.

INVITED IDEA:
Integrating space, time, and culture in animal conservation practice
#AnimalBehavior #AnimalCulture #ConservationInterventions

doi.org/10.1093/behe...

⚠️ New Postdoc or PhD position open (3 years+) ⚠️

🚩Developmental milestones across cultures 🌍

Based @leuphana.bsky.social , in collaboration with @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social

Please share/apply!

Link: tinyurl.com/58dsn43u

Culture is critical in driving orangutan diet development past individual potentials - Nature Human Behaviour Howard-Spink et al. develop an empirically based model of orangutan diet development, which suggests that social learning is vital for orangutans to acquire varied diets.

In this study, Howard-Spink et al. develop an empirically based model of orangutan diet development, which suggests that social learning is vital for allowing orangutans to acquire varied diets.

Sharks, stories and stewardship: How one communicator found her calling beneath the surface | Conservation Careers Learn how Esther Jacobs, a conservation storyteller, mother and campaigner, combines emotion with science, and storytelling with advocacy.

Sharks, stories and stewardship: How one communicator found her calling beneath the surface | Conservation Careers

Graphic showing the paper title “Monk parakeets ‘test the waters’ when forming new relationships” in the journal Biology Letters. Also features photos of the co-authors (Claire, Annemarie, Gerry, and Liz) as well as the issue cover photo of two marked monk parakeets from Claire’s work grooming each other. Also shown are some of the main plots of the paper showing how the parakeets escalate their behaviors from low risk/low investment (like proximity) to higher risk/higher investment interactions (like preening/grooming)

In an increasingly divided world, how do strangers become friends? Parakeets might have something to teach us! New paper on formation of affiliative relationships, led by Dr. Claire O’Connell doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...

‘The narwhals stop calling’: how the noise from ships is silencing wildlife in the Arctic Evidence that the whales and other marine animals are particularly vulnerable to sound is driving calls for quieter vessels

‘The narwhals stop calling’: how the noise from ships is silencing wildlife in the Arctic

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Female superb fairywren in Australia.

Male superb fairywren in Australia.

📢NEW paper out NOW in @asab.org Animal Behaviour on how a novel #call changes subsequent responses to #alarms in #fairywrens

🌟CONGRATULATIONS #NatalieTegtman on #first paper from #PhD
👥With #RobMagrath

@bristolbiosci.bsky.social
#animalcommunication #birds #fieldwork #ECR

doi.org/10.1016/j.an...

🚨 Important reminder for those who have an earlier grant deadline for #ASABSpring2025 March 23-25 in Bristol 🚨

Behavioural ecology in the twenty-first century - Nature Ecology & Evolution This Perspective discusses how the field of behavioural ecology has contributed to fundamental science and tackling global challenges, ranging from understanding how natural selection leads to adaptat...

This Perspective discusses how the field of behavioural ecology has contributed to fundamental science and global challenges, ranging from understanding how natural selection leads to adaptation to optimizing biocontrol of pest species www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Free to read: rdcu.be/eRKbv

Studying for an MSc this year & looking for a #seabird research project?

We're looking for a student to help investigate the factors that influence #StormPetrel response rates during playback surveys. 🔊🐣

🔗Do get in touch if you have any Qs: www.rspb.org.uk/helping-natu... #seabirds #ornithology

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

🎉 The results are in!

Meet the 5 winners of Mongabay’s Wildlife Wonders Photo Contest: Anand G Krishnan, Tayla McCurdy, Gunjan Soni, Divyashree Ashwath & Aqil Fadhlullah.

Huge thanks to judge Alejandro Prescott-Cornejo.

See the winning photos 👉 www.instagram.com/p/DRec6sdDU6_/

What babies’ cries really tell us – and why maternal instinct is a myth Is it possible to interpret babies’ cries in order to understand their needs accurately?

theconversation.com/what-babies-...

If you care about language evolution, or are just looking for some heavy-ish weekend reading, Geurts & Moore (Eds.) Evolutionary Pragmatics is now available to order. The paper version won't be shipped until the end of August, but there's an electronic version on Oxford Academic today.

I was a reviewer on this paper. It introduces some much needed clarity into primate pragmatics debates, and will become an important touchstone in future research.

Positions available - Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

Fully funded #PhDposition in Comparative Cultural Psychology @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social.
We will use touchscreen experiments & eyetracking to study mental simulations in nonhuman apes & human children across different cultures.

All info here: www.eva.mpg.de/career/posit...
Please share / apply!🙏

Alban Lemasson et Maël Leroux étaient aux mardis de l’espace des sciences !
Quand les animaux prennent la parole !
Retrouvez leur conférence en ligne ici:
www.youtube.com/live/io6tAYL...
Et leur livre: www.editions-apogee.com/espace-des-s...
@espacedessciences.bsky.social
@maelmleroux.bsky.social

Interested in the evolution of human language? Check out our new paper in @science.org where we synthesize latest findings and outline a multifaceted, bio-cultural approach for studying how language evolved. Super proud of this work, and hoping it leads to exciting new research! tinyurl.com/ykacvanp

Seals singing in a sea cave

#Orkney 🦭🎧