Matthew Silk

Just over a week left to apply for this PhD project (unfortunately UK students only). If you're interested then please get in touch!

Not your private tête-à-tête: leveraging the power of higher-order networks to study animal communication Abstract. Animal communication is frequently studied with conventional network representations that link pairs of individuals who interact, for example, th

Very happy to chat with anyone who might be interested. The broader ideas we'd like to explore are introduced here:
doi.org/10.1098/rstb...

New (competition funded) PhD opportunity with me,
@iaciac.bsky.social and @dralgernon.bsky.social
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Higher-order networks and animal communication. Suited to someone keen on network science theory/computational modeling and keen to adapt this to ecology & evolution.

Huge thanks to Anna, Nina and Nakeya for a truly interdisciplinary team effort. And to the editors and reviewers for helping to make a tricky paper better (a very reassuring #PeerReview experience)!

There are lots of aspects of this paper that I think are very cool (of course!) but a sneaky contribution to the age old debate on how to eat a #CreamTea has to be my favourite! A nod to my time in Cornwall @uniexecec.bsky.social. [photo borrowed from Rodda's dairy who I'm hoping won't mind!]

A typology of rules for knowledge exchange in higher-order interactions Author summary Learning from each other is important to humans and other animals as it provides safe or quick ways to gather information about the world around you. Because of this ‘social learning’, ...

A new paper in @plos.org Complex Systems from my time at @nimbios.bsky.social with Nina Fefferman.
We set out some ways of classifying rules for social learning and knowledge exchange in higher-order networks.
doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Really great to see this paper out. A fun chance to play with some higher-order network approaches for animal spatial data! Great to make the most of @grf.bsky.social dropping by @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social on sabbatical, and very proud of Ross on his first published paper!!

Male Ring Ouzel near Porlock Weir/Marsh early this afternoon was a fun surprise! Showed super well feeding out in the open from the coast path - much better than this terrible photo suggests! @somersetbirds.bsky.social #UKbirding

⭐New paper!⭐

About generative network modelling - a key approach for understanding network structures.

First half:
We give a general introduction to generative network models

Second half:
We consider their use in animal behaviour research

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A Farewell to Arms: The Trade-off Between Growth and Defence in Bacteria (York YBDTP Project) at University of York on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - A Farewell to Arms: The Trade-off Between Growth and Defence in Bacteria (York YBDTP Project) at University of York, listed on FindAPhD.com

Two fully-funded PhD openings in my research group at the University of York.
If you’re excited about viromes, phage biology, Nanopore sequencing, soils and the odd bit of alpine or agricultural field sampling, we’d love to hear from you!
🌱🦠🏔️

tiny.cc/c4pv001
tiny.cc/e4pv001

🌍📢 Postdoc alert | 3-yr starting early 2026

Please 🔁!

Understand how ecosystem stability is changing across space and through time using niche modelling, pinpoint at-risk species/regions, and build tools that drive conservation action🌿🧭📈

👉 tinyurl.com/2mafwru3

#Ecology #Jobs #Biodiversity

Another new animal social network paper just out in @asab.org Animal Behaviour: How can we make the most of generative network models in behavioural ecology research?
doi.org/10.1016/j.an...
A lot of fun to help @jbbrask.bsky.social and @drwhale.bsky.social put this together!
doi.org/10.1016/j.an...

And these considerations really do that lie at the heart of making the most huge amount of diverse social network data we now have in wild populations.

Its very exciting to see this paper out in @behavecol.bsky.social. These conversations, expertly led by @delphinedemoor.bsky.social, have really shaped how I now think about working with social network data. Check out Delphine's thread to learn more!

Interested in how life history may shape the gut microbiome of a wild mammal? Keen on getting to work with an iconic long-term study system in Scotland?

Check out this PhD opportunity with me, Josephine Pemberton and @gfalbery.bsky.social

Reach out to chat more!

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Fully funded NERC GW4+ PhD Opportunity - *Understanding The Spread of Antimicrobial Resistance by Migratory Birds*

Supervised by me, @stubearhop.bsky.social (Exeter) & Patricia Brekke (ZSL). Application deadline 8th January. Please get in touch for more info

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

My lab at Indiana University is searching for a *postdoc* and *technician* to contribute to our work studying the evolution of social behavior using fruit flies as a model system. Details below, feel free to email me with any questions! More info on our research: saltzlab.com

alt="Schematic of a graph of a population trajectory for blue tits that is known for half of the x-axis (time) and then forecasted with uncertainty. Above the population trajectory are some weather images (a sun and some rain) they have connections to the population size but the path is unknown. "

PhD advert alert!

Come work with me at Edinburgh.

I'm advertising a PhD on: "Predicting responses of birds to climate change", competition funded through the E5 DTP. Would suit those with an interest in predicting responses to climate change, birds, or both.

e5-dtp.ed.ac.uk/project?item...

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

I'm v excited to be recruiting a PhD student to work on badger behaviour and ecology! Starting date is March 2026; see the ad here, or message me for more details: www.gregalbery.me/s/March-2026...

Interested in simulating the kind of data that you might commonly find in evolutionary and ecological studies?

Then we have the R package for you - squidSim!!

Check our new preprint:
ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

Torness this morning 06:07-09:21:
1 arctic skua, 29 manxies, 82 sandwich, 8 arctic, 6 common and 7 commic terns, 59 fulmar, 27 common scoter, 1 velvet scoter, barwit and 3 whimbrel.
Then found this beaut of a house martin expertly photographed by @jarrodhadfield.bsky.social later on.
#BirdingLothian

Looks same as bird in Firth of Forth a few days ago
bsky.app/profile/norm...

Opportunities — ASAB

🚨JOB alert🚨 Full-time Managing Editor role for @asab.org journal Animal Behaviour. Applicants must have animal #behaviour background; previous editorial experience would be ideal.
Apply by 31st July 2025.
#publishing #editor #job

More details: www.asab.org/opportunities

PLEASE share widely.

been a long time coming, there's now a preprint along with Will Hoppitt describing our new R package for creating, fitting and interpreting bayesian NBDA models (STBayes). www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1.... Documentation is here michaelchimento.github.io/STbayes/inde...

Disentangling non-random assortment, indirect effects, and joint plasticity as causes of phenotypic (dis)similarity between social partners Abstract. Social partners frequently resemble each other. These correlations between the phenotypes of interacting individuals (e.g. social partners, group

Our paper on disentangling assortative mating and indirect genetic effects in empirical datasets has just been accepted in @jevbio.bsky.social ! It has been a long process (5 years in the making!) and I am very proud of the result 🥳
academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...

mpmsim: An R package for simulating matrix population models Matrix population models (MPMs) are widely used in ecology and evolution to explore population dynamics, including assessing management impacts and extinction risk. In comparative studies, MPMs ca...

New paper! I introduce mpmsim, an R package for simulating matrix population models (MPMs). Great for exploring life history, sampling error, and teaching population dynamics. Full docs + vignettes to get you started! doi.org/10.1111/2041...

Image showing the Hobson Lab logo (monk parakeets flying into a social network diagram with R code in the background), pictures of natural-colored green and gray monk parakeets, and head shots of our individually-marked birds showing their color combos and "names" (Blue-Orange-Blue has those colors on the head, cheek, and neck, and is "BOB"). Text says "Postbac position: parakeet sociality & cognition"

I am recruiting 1-2 postbacs for my parakeet sociality & cognition project! This position is for people finished with undergrad but who have not yet started grad school. Must be totally fascinated by parakeet social drama (there's a lot of it!)🪶🧪 Job ad here: ornithologyexchange.org/jobs/board/s...

Visual representation of common garden procedure.

Our common garden experiment with urban and forest great tits is out early view in Evolution! doi.org/10.1093/evol... @denisreale.bsky.social @annecharmantier.bsky.social

MacaqueNet: Advancing comparative behavioural research through large‐scale collaboration We present MacaqueNet, a global community of macaque researchers who developed the first publicly searchable, standardised database on affiliative and agonistic behaviour. This cross-species database...

So exciting to see MacaqueNet out into the world! 🤩

Learn about our global community & database centralizing standardized affiliative & agonistic data from 61 populations across 14 macaque species: doi/10.1111/1365...

Explore >600 networks & request data: macaquenet.github.io/database/