Alex Georgiev

Look what the dog fetched up! @matthewcobb.bsky.social’s new biography of Francis Crick.

Folks, it’s like no other Crick biog. Full of new research, fresh insights, juicy stories, & it’s a romp.

Having watched this develop from the larval stage, it’s a thrill to hear it thunk! on my table

Registration is open, and the programme is shaping up!

A cartoon lizard celebrating

A big week for our research group! The first paper from @miaryras.bsky.social's PhD thesis has been accepted. Looking forward to sharing some nice results about the effects of winter warming on wall lizard behaviour and physiology very soon. Well done Miary! 🤩

Student presenting their work

Student presenting their work

Student presenting their work

Student presenting their work

We had a great session today led by our new MscRes students who introduced the work they plan to do over the next year+. Brilliant to hear about their research plans! Exciting stuff to come! (Didn’t manage to get a pic of everyone)

Very happy to share that our paper presenting a framework for optimal movement decisions in complex landscapes has just been published in TREE @stephharris.bsky.social @jacobnabe.bsky.social tinyurl.com/d45s36y5

Camera-traps work best for surveying wildlife when site-level covariates are considered. Owain Barton led our study showing more cameras reduce error, longer deployments help only if occupancy varies, & ignoring key covariates can skews results
zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

“Jane Goodall was an amazing scientist who inspired people to see the natural world in a new way. She helped us to look at the animal kingdom with fresh eyes and with greater respect.

Still processing it. RIP Jane. Ugh.

Improving university policies and risk assessment to support inclusive fieldwork in environmental sciences Among 90 UK higher education institutions, there was patchy mention of protected and other identity-related characteristics in fieldwork policy and risk assessments, and very limited consideration of....

🏞️𝐅𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐝𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡?
Our new study looked at fieldwork policies and risk assessments from 90 UK universities offering environmental science courses.
The results are eye-opening:
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

The perineal organ of male red colobus: its structure and possible social function as a mimic of female genitalia - Primates The perineal organ of male red colobus monkeys (Piliocolobus tephrosceles) is illustrated with photographs. I discuss its possible role as a mimic of female genitalia and how thereby it may play a rol...

Pseudo-penis who?? Elongated clitorises are out (sorry spider monkeys), male genitalia resembling vaginas are in! Yet another reason why colobus are the coolest primates.
Also, Tom Struhsaker is continuing to publishing iconic articles.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Back in the lab with these two @owenstorer.bsky.social @hannahfrog.bsky.social

Many congratulations to Molly Allum! She studied the crop foraging behaviour of the Zanzibar red colobus here in Jozani last year for her third year dissertation at @bangoruniversity.bsky.social @beps-bangor.bsky.social ! Great dissertation - currently working on making it into a journal article!

Blaise Metreweli appointed as MI6's first female chief Blaise Metreweli joined the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in 1999 and will become its 18th chief.

Anthropology graduate becomes the first female head of MI6 in its 116 year history! Can’t decide whether the ‘anthropology’ or the ‘female’ is the more exciting bit of this story.

New account! Check it out.

🎉Welcome to the official Bluesky account for EFP 2026 !!! 🎉

Join us in sunny Montpellier from 29 June to 3 July 2026 for an unforgettable conference.

Follow us for updates, sneak peeks, and all things EFP! ☀️📅🌿

Baboons walk in line for friendship, not survival, new study finds Researchers at Swansea University have discovered that baboons walk in lines, not for safety or strategy, but simply to stay close to their friends.

New paper in @behavecol.bsky.social (link: academic.oup.com/beheco/advan...)
led by PhD student @marcofele.bsky.social using hard-won data from our amazing baboon team. Our @swanseauni.bsky.social press release:
www.swansea.ac.uk/press-office...
We introduce the idea of a "social spandrel".....

Check sheet for sample collection. Female profiles with ID photos and characteristics shown

A female Zanzibar red colobus and an infant sat on a roof made of wood

Hannah’s study will track 5-6 females across 6 different colobus groups to understand how anthropogenic disturbance affects their energetics, ovarian function, immunocompetence and parasite infection status.

Hannah and Mwinyi going over the plans for sampling. Discussing.

Hannah and Mwinyi going over the plans for sampling. Discussing.

PhD student @hannahfrog.bsky.social and ZRCP field assistant Mwinyi Abdallah getting ready to go collect some urine and faecal samples from females in South Road Group this morning.

If you win a fight, you're more likely to win the next one. But why? We show that using Bayesian updating to update your assessment of your own fighting abilities does a pretty good job of reflecting how animals typically behave in real life social contest!

In Kibale NP, they sometimes copulate and make red-tail monkey / blue monkey hybrids that can later have higher reproductive success because red-tail monkey females can prefer the rare face colour patterns of hybrid males!

Zanzibar red colobus sometimes nurse their offspring for much longer than other primates of similar body size. This ‘baby’ is clearly large and looks like a subadult. Yet the presumed mother still allows it to suckle. Lots of investment in the offspring! #primatology

"Thinking time —the time needed to concentrate without interruptions has always been central to scholarly work. It is essential to designing experiments, compiling data, assessing results, reviewing literature and, of course, writing. Yet, [it] is often undervalued."
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Also: I assume Harvard will try to sue fast and fix things, but the cruelty this letter unleashes *today* will induce lasting fear and panic not just on the 6800 international students at Harvard, but also on all international students in this country, even if there is a swift TRO. Why stay here?

That was fast.

@nbcnews.com
www.nbcnews.com/politics/imm...

Trump Administration Halts Harvard’s Ability to Enroll International Students

Now this www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/u...

View of Zanzibar from the plane window - island and ocean with corrals

View of Zanzibar town on the descent to landing

Sunset view over the ocean from Stone Town in Zanzibar.

Coffee mug with Zanzibar written on it on the table on the porch of the research house at Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park. Tree in background are the edge of jozani forest.

First full day in Zanzibar this year! Monkey research here we go! [but first- got to finish a pile of marking 🥹]

PhD students in STEM: Nature wants to hear from you Buried in lab work or drowning in data? Take a break and help shape the future of PhD education.

📢 Calling PhD students 📢 we want to hear from you!

Help shape the future of PhD education. Take our survey to tell us all about your experiences

https://go.nature.com/43iJAsi

Feeding station and breeding monitoring assistant applications arE OPEN estimated closing date : 2025-06-08 The Sociable Weaver Project uses several automatic feeding stations to collect data on social network associations. These feeding stations …

🚨Field assistant job in South Africa working with sociable weavers 🚨

🔌Experienced in electronics?
🏷️Enjoy working with RFID technology?
🪶Like working with birds?

Find more information below!
Applications close on 08/06/2025

sociableweaverproject.com/recruitment/...

#fieldwork #ornithology

Chimpanzee drumming shows rhythmicity and subspecies variation Chimpanzees drum on the buttress roots of trees for communication. Eleuteri et al. investigate the presence of key elements of musical rhythm and of regional variation in chimpanzee buttress drumming....

TLDR: new paper headed up by @vestaeleuteri.bsky.social
& with an awesome team, incl @andrearavignani.bsky.social , showing chimps have rhythm in their drumming & differences b/w east & west drum rhythms!

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

But didn’t we know this already you ask? Well… 🧵1/16

Want to come to Bangor and work in Zanzibar on a study of the Zanzibar red colobus for a postdoc? Get in touch to explore ideas for an application! Potential topics around the effects of anthropogenic change on primate behaviour, health, physiology + other fundamental science Qs about monkeys!