Eamonn Wooster

Super cool Bob!!

Game over for Science of the Total Environment?

The journal “was placed ‘On Hold’ in Oct 2024 and more recently had its coverage in the Web of Science Core Collection discontinued

Any content published after Volume 954 (2024) is not currently indexed”

www.sciencedirect.com/journal/scie...

There is STILL TIME to register for the 2026 Predator-Prey Gordon Conference. It's happening in late January in Tuscany. The meeting has a single session attended by everyone, poster sessions, and encourages finding new collaborations. See the program and register below.

www.grc.org/predator-pre...

POSITIONS default description

I am looking for a postdoc to work in our long-term system of food-caching mountain chickadees in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The expected start is April 2026. Please see details here: chickadeecognition.com/positions
If interested and qualified, please contact me directly (email on the website).

From rivals to partners: adversarial collaboration in ecology and evolution Since their inception, ecology and evolutionary biology have been filled with controversies. While controversies are generally beneficial, they can sometimes hinder meaningful communication and, ultimately, decelerate scientific advancement. A clear example is when scientific rivals enter a point-scoring mode in which proving the opponent wrong sidelines objective assessments. To counter this, we introduce to the ecology and evolutionary biology audiences the adversarial collaboration approach, where opponents cooperatively address their disagreements to advance their field. We describe the logic of adversarial collaboration, examine a series of potential challenges to its successful adoption in these disciplines, and show how they can be overcome. Adversarial collaboration is an invitation to align controversies with the scientific ethos of collectively seeking empirical truths.

Online now: From rivals to partners: adversarial collaboration in ecology and evolution

The role of AI in ecology’s computational carbon footprint Click on the article title to read more.

Should ecologists be worried about the carbon footprint of their own use of “AI” and LLMs?

esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Infographic with AI slop published in Nature Scientific Reports

"Runctitiononal features"? "Medical fymblal"? "1 Tol Line storee"? This gets worse the longer you look at it. But it's got to be good, because it was published in Nature Scientific Reports last week: www.nature.com/articles/s41... h/t @asa.tsbalans.se

A massive thank you to @ecolsocaus.bsky.social for the "Next Generation Ecologist" Award and for having me give a plenary (😵‍💫). A whirlwind of a week

Thanks Holly!!

Thank you!

Eamonn on stage, giving his talk, with an dingo plus prey on the slide behind him

Congrats to @predator-smarts.bsky.social on winning the @ecolsocaus.bsky.social Next Gen award!
#ESA2025 🌏

Exploring landscape of fear, Eamonn looked at fox, dingo & human interaction.

Humans + dingos = terrified foxes

Levels of human disturbance change predator-prey interactions & animal traits!

Thank you!

Rather excited to share that i've been awarded an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award!! Time to start working on uncovering how predation shaped the evolution of intelligence and how we can use that knowledge for conservation.

There are 3 exciting postdoctoral openings to work on biodiversity research, monitoring and conservation with us at UBC - check them out!

2 positions: biodiversity.ubc.ca/training-and...

1 position: science-bcbiodiversitynetwork-2025.sites.olt.ubc.ca/opportunities/

Anyone looking for a Australia-based postdoc? Like animal behaviour / coding / birds? My fantastic collaborator, Iliana Medina, is advertising a position researching bird nests:

unimelb.wd105.myworkdayjobs.com/en-GB/UoM_Ex...

Honoring the life of James A. Estes, a pioneering ecologist.

Honoring James A. Estes, a pioneering ecologist whose research on sea otters in Alaska revealed how predators shape entire ecosystems. His work helped define the concept of trophic cascades and inspired generations of ecologists. Read the PNAS Retrospective: https://ow.ly/leKs50XrKBH

3 year postdoc funded by @ukri.org NERC on between-group cooperation in the Shark Bay dolphins is now live - please share widely 🙏 www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...

Playing dice with behavior: drivers of stochastic individuality Animal behavior is often viewed as stemming from predictable genetic and environmental factors. However, despite our best attempts to control genetic …

Our new paper offers an explanation for the universal law that "under carefully controlled conditions.... an animal behaves as it damn well pleases." We explore how stochastic mechanisms may play an underappreciated role in generating individuality. (1/7 🧵)

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

AI image too

I haven't posted here for awhile but we've had several papers come out that I'm excited about, so check out this #WildCo roundup of recent publications! @wildco.bsky.social @forestry.ubc.ca (thread: 1/6)

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

The functional adaptations of mammalian brain structures through a behavioural ecology lens Nature Reviews Biodiversity, Published online: 15 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s44358-025-00095-0Palaeontologists and comparative neurobiologists share a common interest in the evolution of the mammalian brain, but often fail to realize the benefits of this shared interest. This Review draws these fields together, demonstrating the utility of a cross-disciplinary, synergistic approach.

New online! The functional adaptations of mammalian brain structures through a behavioural ecology lens

Call for Submissions for the Frans de Waal PhD Dissertation prize 2026

📣 Honouring Frans de Waal’s spirit of curiosity & empathy 🧠🐒
The Frans de Waal PhD Dissertation Prize 2026 is now open for submissions. Celebrating #Primatology, #Ethology & the evolution of social behaviour.
🏆 Announced at #CBEN2026 (Leiden, Apr 14)
⏰ Apply by Jan 15, 2026!
@ehbea2026.bsky.social

YouTube video by EcolClips Bergmann’s & Allen‘s rule | EcolClips

Why are polar animals compact, while tropical ones are lean with long limbs and ears?

Bergmann’s rule and Allen’s rule explained in our new #EcolClips

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKG6...

#Ecology #biodiversity #climatechange #teaching #theory #species #animals

These songbirds learn more from siblings than from parents Siblings are special. Whether a sibling serves as protector or tormentor, friend or foe, the relationship between siblings is like no other.

Juvenile songbirds acquire key life skills primarily from siblings and non-parent adults, with sibling influence surpassing that of parents in species with limited parental care. doi.org/g9578b

Congrats mate!!

🏝️4-year funded PhD opportunity to study biodiversity change on islands

Work with datasets of mammals, birds & plants 🐦‍⬛🦌🌳

Supervisors: @sandranogue.bsky.social & myself

👉 Apply by 27 Oct 2025

More info:
🔗 creaf.factorialhr.com/job_posting/...

#PhD #Ecology #Palaeoecology #Biodiversity

Come join us in Italy in January for the Predator-Prey Interactions GRC— full program is now up! And we have some funding to support ECRs! www.grc.org/predator-pre...

🚨PhD offer 👩‍🎓:
Fascinated by island biodiversity, palaeoecology & human impacts on ecosystems? 🌴🦜🌍 Join @creaf.cat to explore how island life changed over the last 11,700 years.
Deadline: 27 Oct 2025
Selection: ~November
Starting: ~January 2026
Supervision: @sandranogue.bsky.social & me
More info👇

Excited to share our latest paper from our on-going #BritishCarnivoreProject, showing that encounters with wild red #foxes could be an important gateway to broader #nature connectedness in people, particularly in cities. 🦊🍃🏙️ Link here: doi.org/10.1080/1087...