Hansraj Gautam

Age- and sex-dependent associations between the number of older siblings and early-life survival in pre-industrial humans | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Siblings are an important part of an individual’s early-life environment and may therefore play an important role in shaping an individual’s survival. The quantification of sibling effects on survival is challenging, however, especially in long-lived ...

1. My first ever paper is out! With
@euantheyoung.bsky.social
@lummaalab.bsky.social
@erikpostma.bsky.social
@hannahdugdale.bsky.social
How do older siblings, and their sex and age, affect the survival of younger siblings? Find out by checking below.

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....

We have several open MSc thesis projects!

Here is one of those:

Change in distribution and abundance of southern right whales. (A) Shows historical and contemporary wintering distributions (Figure 1 from Carroll et al., 2018), and (B) shows decline in abundance and subsequent recovery (solid line is the mean, dashed line shows upper and lower 95% CI). Modified Figure 1 from Jackson et al. (2008). Contemporary sightings are divided into regions where large aggregations are seen during winter: Argentina (ARG), Brazil (BZL), South Africa (SAF), southwest Australia (SWA), south central Australia (SCA), and New Zealand sub-Antarctic (NZSA) and regions where sightings are typically of small numbers of individuals per year. The large aggregations are IWC management units and correspond to historical whaling grounds, although another 5 whaling grounds show little sign of recovery. Summer feeding areas are poorly described and so not shown.

The global whaling industry experienced a boom c. 1840-1950 as technology allowed whalers to hunt the Southern Ocean around Antarctica.

Under standard models, we would have expected krill populations to have *exploded*.

Instead, they DROPPED exponentially.

Let's talk about the KRILL PARADOX.

A figure from the cited paper, showing how whale poop floats and that makes all the difference in how nutrients cycle in marine environments. "Figure 1. A conceptual model of the whale pump. In the common concept of the biological pump, zooplankton feed in the euphotic zone and export nutrients via sinking fecal pellets, and vertical migration. Fish typically release nutrients at the same depth at which they feed. Excretion for marine mammals, tethered to the surface for respiration, is expected to be shallower in the water column than where they feed."

Whales feed on deep-living krill, but their POOP is 'flocculent' (fluffy?) & floats to the surface.

The nutrients they obtain from eating krill are cycled UPWARDS.

When a krill dies 'naturally' or is eaten by a fish, that poop forms "marine snow" and SINKS where it no longer cycles.

45 ships of the Global Sumud Flotilla are approaching Gaza ... "We need your eyes & your pressure on international institutions to keep everyone safe and to help us achieve our goal of breaking the siege and opening a humanitarian corridor." globalsumudflotilla.org @freedomflotilla.bsky.social

This is absolutely amazing. Congratulations to the whole team! 👏

To all researchers out there: if you haven’t yet, I highly recommend checking out @peercommunityin.bsky.social
and @peercomjournal.bsky.social. They’re outstanding venues for open and community-driven publishing.

Career Development Fellowship | Royal Society This scheme provides the most talented early career scientists from underrepresented groups in STEM with research funding and high-quality training opportunities to build a strong base for a successfu...

Fancy joining us?
Check out this excellent @royalsociety.org Career Development Fellowship:
royalsociety.org/grants/caree...
If you're eligible & are interested in social behaviour, vocal communication or anthropogenic impacts on wildlife, feel free to DM or email me.
@bristolbiosci.bsky.social

Rachel Carson photo credit: Science History Images / Alamy

63 years ago, on the 27th of September 1962, Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring was published. It handled the environmental harm caused by the pesticide DDT and the disinformation spread by the chemical industry. Carson managed to sway public opinion and even policy. #otd #history 🗃️

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...

We are hiring - PDRA position exploring how information access shapes social dynamics in killer whales. Collaboration with @samellisq.bsky.social @drwhale.bsky.social Prof Dan Franks (York) start 1st Nov (or ASAP) end 31st Oct 2028. Apps close on 19th Oct.

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOT336/p...

Hahaha... #botanists

Difficult to judge. From author's pov, i guess it should be okay if such rejection comes soon rather than months of waiting. Understandable from the editor's pov, but maybe also have a set timepoint when authors are told about this possible rejection - if no reviewers agree in the next few weeks.

The Captive Breeding Myth: Why Zoo-Based “Conservation” Fails Elephants Captive breeding programs for elephants are often sold to the public as essential to conservation. But peel back the glossy marketing, and you’ll find a contradictory and broken system that prioritize...

www.nonhumanrights.org/blog/the-cap...
Good clear analysis

Less than a week left to apply for this PhD position.

If interested, email me by 27 July (5 PM, Melbourne time). Please review the application requirements carefully before submitting your application. See more about our research here shawanchowdhurylab.com.

Similarly, in 2021 ⬇️ #mdpi

🚨🚨🚨!Post doc opportunity! 🚨🚨🚨
35 month post doc on niche modelling of migratory whales in my lab with Katrina Jones. Job advert below:
my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...
Please get in touch with questions!

Dear colleagues,

There is an open postdoctoral position to work with the SeedArc seed germination database: doi.org/10.1111/nph.....

All the details are in the attached image. Please share this with your networks—someone might be interested in applying.

For more info: www.unioviedo.es/seedarc/

Systemic territoriality in academia: The Gollum effect’s impact on scientific research and careers Addressing environmental challenges requires scientific collaboration, access to resources, and open knowledge exchange. However, possessive behaviors…

Here's and interesting Friday read:
Scientific progress thrives on collaboration & knowledge sharing, yet territorial behaviors in academia, which the authors call the Gollum Effect, threaten this foundation

Open access link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Exciting news at Cambridge! We are launching the Darwin-Hamied Centre to promote research at the intersection of biodiversity and economics christs.cam.ac.uk/news/darwin-.... We are advertising two 5-year Senior Research Fellowships—application deadline 22nd June! christs.cam.ac.uk/vacancies-ch...

WTAF!

We have a few open slots in the one-day symposium

Plant–Microbe Biodiversity under Global Change

on 12 June 2025 at the University of Helsinki 🌱🦠🌍!

For more info, please visit
lainelab.net/news/

Just got news that @hhmi.org decided to not review Hanna Gray fellowship applications. I am sorry but that’s fucked up. People spent months working in those. So now you disadvantaged these candidates even more. They could have used the time to advance their research instead.

🚨 Out this week in @pnas.org 🚨
The flagship paper from my PhD @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @livingingroups.bsky.social - We show surprising statistical similarities in animal behaviour across states, individuals, and even species.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
(🧵 1/10)

Nice! Congratulations, Revathe.

Sumatran orangutan mothers differ in the extent and trajectory of their expression of maternal behaviour | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Mothers play a crucial role in the early development and survival of mammalian offspring, and differences in maternal care may affect offspring’s development. Whereas previous research has primarily focused on biological and socioecological factors to ...

New paper alert! Our study on consistent individual variation in Sumatran orangutan maternal behaviour is out today in @royalsocietypublishing.org! Using ~6000h of observation, we show that mothers are not all the same when it comes to parenting. (1/n)
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Young Asian elephant calves show differentiated social relationships with conspecifics Social relationships may increase longevity and reproductive success of individuals, thereby providing crucial benefits in social species. Adults of many social species have differentiated social rela...

New preprint from our study on Asian elephant calves of the Kabini population, India. This work was done as part of my PhD with TNC Vidya, where we investigated calf social relationships. More info below.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1....

Calves interacted similarly with their mothers & escorts under different contexts & almost never interacted with other females. Remarkable similarities existed bw mothers' & escorts' behaviors towards calves. These results suggest that calves form differentiated relationships from a young age.

Join the MacaqueNet family!

We’re looking for a postdoc to study the link between social structure and lifespan across species, using MacaqueNet data and a new life-history database.

Feel free to reach out—I'm happy to chat about MacaqueNet, CRAB, or living in Exeter.

shorturl.at/xyNsL

Flower to pleased leaf: Oh leaf, thank you for making me food. I am nothing without you. Root to flower: Boss, we're out of water. Flower chucks away sad leaf.

Aren't plants wonderful.
By @thesquarecomics.bsky.social
🌹🍃