Luke Rendell

So much to take away from Taylor Hersh’s keynote — taking us deep into the cultural realms of sperm whale vocal clans across the oceans. 🐋 Heartfelt thanks, @taylorhersh.bsky.social!

Amazing work from @francae.bsky.social! 🐳🦑🧪

Humpback whales cast bubble nets to catch prey. They may be learning from each other Humpback whales will sometimes use an intricate strategy to catch food called bubble-net feeding. A new study suggests they're spreading the knowledge of how to do it to each other.

🐋 Loved having a chat about bubble netting humpbacks on @npr.org's Science Desk with Nate Rott! As a *major* NPR Tiny Desk fan... can someone tell me is this the scientists' equivalent?! 🤪

www.npr.org/2026/01/28/n...

Awesome work by @izzylangley.bsky.social 🐳🦭🦑

The Importance of Biological Theory - Biological Theory Biological Theory -

I am happy to share this article, entitled "The importance of Biological Theory". It is my inaugural editorial as the new Editor-in-Chief of @biologicaltheory.bsky.social . In these complex and challenging times, theory is more important now than ever. Enjoy!

doi.org/10.1007/s137...

More coverage of ‪Éadin's paper: oceanographicmagazine.com/news/immigra... 🐳🦑

The diffusion of cooperative and solo bubble net feeding in Canadian Pacific humpback whales Abstract. Animal culture, information and behaviours acquired and shared by social learning are a form of biodiversity with intrinsic and practical value.

New paper on the social learning of bubble net feeding by humpbacks in British Columbia, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B 🐋
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

#marmam @bcwhales.bsky.social @seamammalresearch.bsky.social @lrendell.bsky.social @uniofstandrews.bsky.social [1/5]

A white beluga surfacing in greenish-brown waters. Overlaid is the title of a new review published in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology: Beluga Societies: the social and cultural lives of an enigmatic odontocete.

Our new review of beluga sociality and culture just dropped at Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology! Some of our key conclusions summarized 🧵
doi.org/10.1007/s002...
@marine-valeria.bsky.social @dmennill.bsky.social @raincoast.org

New paper!🚨 Social dynamics of group bubble net feeding in humpbacks. Congratulations Éadin for such an awesome first PhD paper!! 🐳🧪🦑

maybe the human hubris that surrounds so much of the hype yes; if 'AI' includes deep learning networks my students work on them so it's not Luddism but there work ain't clickbait bs about talking to whales...

Are we really about to talk to whales? It’s certainly an exciting time to study communication in whales and dolphins.

see also share.google/poGwdTJMChIA...

It would be, if it wasn't overhyped nonsense, at least partly inflated by those desperate for such a positive use case.... bsky.app/profile/lren...

AI Studying Whale Songs Says It Thinks Whale Language Might Have Vowels Where linguists hear “vowels,” skeptics hear “clicks,” and whales hear… absolutely none of this nonsense.

Marine biologists are locked in what observers describe as “an academic slap fight” over whether sperm whales communicate using vowel-like patterns or whether researchers just need better microphones. Read more below...

#linguistics #Research #spermwhale #vowels #whale #OddNews

and continuously reposting it doesn't change that...

Don't believe the hype - this study is egregiously oversold unfortunately... bsky.app/profile/lren...

Behavioural sciences need behavioural ecology - Nature Human Behaviour Behavioural scientists want to see more consideration of context — so why are they not using tools derived from ecology, the science of all life in context? We invite behavioural scientists to align t...

"Behavioural scientists are increasingly calling for context as a key to addressing pressing problems caused by human behaviour. However, despite its powerful ability to generate contextual hypotheses on the basis of relatively simple rules, ecological thinking is rarely applied to human behaviour"

me Eadin Oscar Gaggioti and Morton Olsen toasting in front of the SOI Xmas tree

Three people with liquorice pipes

Éadin looking happy

Eadin and I in front of the title slide of her seminar "From breath to whole genome"

So chuffed for the newly minted Dr @eadinomahony.bsky.social who crushed their viva this week at @seamammalresearch.bsky.social and gave an awesome seminar to boot! Many thanks to @tangeolsen.bsky.social for years of support! 🐳🦑🧪

Integrating space, time, and culture in animal conservation practice Recent theoretical integration of the spatiotemporal and cultural elements of animal behavior has led to increasing calls to incorporate animal culture int

What role(s) can non-human animal culture play in conservation? Much has been written on this topic in recent years, but Dawn Barlow, Taylor Hersh, & I offer some new perspectives: "Integrating space, time, and culture in animal conservation practice" @behavecol.bsky.social
tinyurl.com/bdfe9k3j

“I am so bored by AI. One of the things I love about the theatre is AI can’t do it.”

Ethan Hawke is a dude 👌🏻

🐳

Picture of front cover of Theme Issue entitled "Transforming cultural evolution research and its application to global futures." The image on the front cover is of a Yao honey hunter in Mozambique holding retrieved honeycomb.

Today sees the publication of the Theme Issue featuring the CES Transformation Fund grant scheme. Enjoy! royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/issue/3...
@durhamdcerc.bsky.social @durhamanthropology.bsky.social @cultevolfunding.bsky.social @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social

i don't agree, but it's moot because they didn't even show that, they just found spectral peaks and then made a story which is wildly inconsistent with what we know about sperm whael sound production, so.... 🤷

Physically, yes that's what it is. But many animals sounds have this feature. What makes a vowel is not the sound but the phonological role in speech as the peak of a syllable - there's no definition that doesn't include the assumption it's a part of speech - no evidence for that role in whales!

Very cool to see this out, congratulations @alecburslem.bsky.social ! 🥳🐳🦑

Time to kick Ruzzia out of our politics. F**k Putin and his puppet Farage.

Yeah they did PR when they pre-printed it too, nothing's changed, just now they finally managed to get it into an allegedly peer reviewed journal - RIP that journal's reputation 🤣

Nice! I think it's always interesting to get a broader community response, thanks for sharing that...

Make Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence Again!

(Just a thought for journal editors, peer reviewers, journalists... 😉)

Don't just take my word for it ... @stephanielking.bsky.social and Denise Herzing provide insightful comments in this piece: www.sciencenews.org/article/ai-n...

No, they really haven't. Calling spectral peaks vowels is as inane as saying that because my washing up gloves are also yellow, they have the same nutritional content as a banana. Zero evidence of vowel-like function. It's pure clickbait, and a new low in irresponsible claims from this group 🙄🐳🦑🧪