Kirsty MacLeod

A fake snail with a skull for a shell and bony body

Happy Anatomically Incorrect Invertebrate season to all who celebrate

@romanzug.bsky.social and @socialinsectlab.bsky.social thinking about colony dynamics! Resource variation can mask tradeoffs, but here we show that even if that *doesn't* vary, lucky starts in colony life can lead to better trajectories and if so, a tradeoff is often undetectable despite being real.

"Jane Goodall showed us what a life in science could look like: rigorous discovery paired with fierce advocacy for what you study. She gave the world six decades of groundbreaking research on chimpanzees and their habitats, then turned that knowledge into a global movement for conservation." (1/2)

New from me and wonderful collabs!

This is why we fund scientists to study things like oyster slobber even if you don’t think it sounds important

Watch #BiologyLetters author Avery Maune talk about new research revealing that urbanization can reshape social behaviour in the common wall lizard (Podarcis muralis): cassyni.com/events/3Hp2U... #AnimalBehaviour #ethology

How do insects respond to changing climates? Our new review and analysis in @annualreviews.bsky.social suggests that phenological adaptation trumps thermal adaptation.

www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

I'm not comparing myself to Darwin "But I am very poorly today & very stupid & hate everybody & everything."

Stolen from a NatGeo article: dark eyes on the rump of a frog look remarkably like big black eyes on a snake. The rest of the animal is mottled brown, almost wood-like in texture, and it's on a red sand bed with blades of grass visible. "A Cuyaba dwarf frog bloats its rump to frighten predators with false eyes." Photograph by George Grall, Nat Geo Image Collection

Here's an image that requires a second look.

It looks like a creature with big dark eyes is peering at you: it's not. You're looking at a FROG'S BUTT (you pervert).

Let's meet the Cuyaba dwarf frog (Physalaemus nattereri). Maybe we should start with seeing the front of it?

(📷: George Grall)

A submerged water anole (Anolis aquaticus) with a bubble of air held on its head. Photo credit: Lindsey Swierk.

Water anoles take a bubble of air down when they submerge, which they breathe like a tiny scuba tank, and now @lindseyswierk.bsky.social & co reveal that the reptiles may also be using the bubble like a gill, to breathe oxygen directly from the water

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

We are seeking an ornithologist/modeller for a 2-year POST-DOC in Turin. Using archaeological remains, we will reconstruct past avian communities to understand the impacts of climate change and human pressure on birds through time. For details see cutt.ly/irN76QDZ PLEASE RT. #ornithology #AviArch

This only happens to you once

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!

🚀 Calling early-career biologists!

The @biologists.bsky.social Travel Grant gives you up to £800 to attend conferences, workshops, or lab visits.

🗓️ This round closes 30 September — don’t miss it!

✅ Apply here:
www.sebiology.org/grants/grant...

#ScienceFunding #TravelGrant #Biology

Looking for examples of a very simple mathematical model interactive exercise to help students understand reproductive trade offs, e.g. using offspring number vs survival, working through a basic equation. Has anyone done anything like this in a workshop that they'd be willing to share?

🌍🦋 Across 6 continents, 21 sites & 15,000 paper moths, we joined a worldwide experiment led by @wlallen.bsky.social & Iliana Medina, showing how ecological context shapes the evolution of animal colouration.

Proud to be part of this global team effort: doi.org/10.1126/scie...

Vacancy — Postdoc Position in Decision Making in Birds Are you an expert in animal behavior? Do you have experience working with birds? The Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) is looking for a motivated researcher to investigate the ro...

I have a job opening in my lab. If you are interested in bird behaviour and predator prey interactions please take a look! werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...

Looking for examples of a very simple mathematical model interactive exercise to help students understand reproductive trade offs, e.g. using offspring number vs survival, working through a basic equation. Has anyone done anything like this in a workshop that they'd be willing to share?

Very happy to see our new study on the evolution of eusociality come out in Evolution Letters! Our study is the first to experimentally manipulate the proportion of females that stay and help to simulate incipient sociality & assess fitness impact of helping. 🧵

Image showing Hobson Lab logo (with parakeets, a social network, and R code), two Monk Parakeets, and several individually-marked parakeets with the text "Now recruiting PhD students!!"

**PhD POSITIONS** I am recruiting 1-2 PhD students to work on sociality and cognition in Monk Parakeets, starting Fall 2026. Full ad is here: hobsonresearch.com/index.php/20... (please help spread the word!)

This is a great seminar series - highly recommend following the programme!

Ultrasonic signals support a large-scale communication landscape in wild mice Perrier et al. show that wild African striped mice (R. pumilio) use short-range ultrasonic signals for large-scale communication. By vocalizing at key territorial locations, they extend the functional...

Ultrasonic signals support a large-scale communication landscape in wild mice: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

New out in Molecular Ecology! In which we show that small males try harder when it comes to seminal fluid proteins. w/ @ju-morimoto.bsky.social @iremsepil.bsky.social @becks-seascience.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Why do queen bumblebees emerge from hibernation during weekends? - Apidologie Climate-driven shifts in bumblebee emergence and flowering time can disrupt plant reproduction and affect pollinator health. To study such mismatches, accurate phenological data is crucial but challen...

"Why do queen bumblebees emerge from hibernation during weekends?"

I love this framing about bias in hobbyist-collected data.

Farage vows to scrap indefinite leave to remain, placing thousands at risk of deportation Reform UK plans to force non-citizens to apply for visas with high salary thresholds and no access to NHS services

If this happens, it will tear apart families, and destroy the UK.

Immigration is fundamental to our existence, our universities, health care system, creative arts & more would be destroyed.

Reform are the biggest danger this country has faced in my lifetime

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

New study sheds light on impact of stress on baby lizards Research led by Dr Kirsty Macleod from its School of Environmental and Natural Sciences, found that lizards whose mothers experienced stress during pregnancy grew more slowly and behaved differently.

Nice write up of our paper on the Bangor Uni news website! @bangoruniversity.bsky.social @beps-bangor.bsky.social www.bangor.ac.uk/news/2025-09...

Listers is SO good

Come & work with us - fully funded 4 year PhD on Social Ageing: Social environment effects on senescence, using an epigenetic clock www.rug.nl/about-ug/wor... @rug.nl @david-s-richardson.bsky.social @keesvanoers.bsky.social @seychelleswarbler.bsky.social photo: @charlisdavies.bsky.social

New study sheds light on impact of stress on baby lizards Research led by Dr Kirsty Macleod from its School of Environmental and Natural Sciences, found that lizards whose mothers experienced stress during pregnancy grew more slowly and behaved differently.

Nice write up of our paper on the Bangor Uni news website! @bangoruniversity.bsky.social @beps-bangor.bsky.social www.bangor.ac.uk/news/2025-09...

ORCAS!!! A few clips of the '65s' Northern Isles community Orcas - including 'Busta' the huge adult bull - hunting close inshore here in Shetland this summer. Enjoying life as nature intended - in the ocean and not in a swimming pool.

#MarineLife #MarineMammals #CetaceansUK #UKWildlife