Katy Willcox

I am looking for a PhD student to join my new Socio-Eco-Evo group, hosted in Katie Peichel's Evolutionary Ecology Division @ University of Bern. We're offering a fully funded 4-year position, studying social plasticity and behavioral adaptation among stickleback in Greenland. Please share around!

Round 1 of our training and travel grant is open!

Grants up to £500 are available to support the training and development of PhD students and postgraduate research assistants.

Send us your application by 25 January ⏰

🐶❄️☀️

We’re studying how dogs are affected by cold and heat stress. If you have a dog, please consider completing our anonymous online questionnaire (15–30 min) or sharing it with others who might be interested.

👉 survey.vetmeduni.ac.at/index.php/83...

#DogWelfare #CitizenScience

Perhaps the question is not whether cows can use tools,
but why it took us so long to notice.

Maybe because we continue to underestimate the minds of the animals we eat.

Veronika is here to remind us of our biases

There is still some time to submit for our Special Collection on social cognition and anthropogenic environments! We are looking forward to hear from you! link.springer.com/collections/... Please do get in touch if you have any questions.
#openaccess #socialcognition

Cow Tools!

We have lived alongside cows for nearly 10,000 years.
We breed them and exploit them

It is now, only now, that we have discovered THEY CAN USE TOOLS

Here I describe our study

(paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... in @currentbiology.bsky.social
with @auersperga.bsky.social

Very grateful to co-authors @vernouilleta.bsky.social @birgitszabo.bsky.social An Martel, Luc Lens & @fredverb.bsky.social, & other members of @ecobird.bsky.social for their support! Also pleased for this paper to be part of an exciting collection in acta ethologica link.springer.com/collections/...

New paper out!

Early-life social instability increases aggression in chickens, but does not affect response inhibition 🐤
We discuss what this means for developmental links between social environments, cognition, and social behaviour, highlighting strong context dependence

Full text: rdcu.be/eYOzC

New pre print out!
Last chapter of my PhD looking at nightjar movement with environmental conditions.
Super proud of this one, I love the interactions and thinking about what else we could do.

www.authorea.com/users/101810...

Simulation-based inference with deep learning suggests speed climbers combine innovation and copying to improve performance Abstract. In the Olympic sport of speed climbing, athletes compete to reach the top of a 15 m wall as quickly as possible. Since the standardization of the

Proc B with @sampassmore.bsky.social! We used simulations to explore the innovation strategies of speed climbers 🧗‍♀️ Innovation is higher among slower athletes and lower when the population size is larger, and the overall balance of innovation and copying appears to be suboptimal 🔗 bit.ly/499QjZM

✨New paper✨
How do juvenile ravens find social groups?

We describe how juvenile common ravens, who have left their natal territories seeking to join non-breeder flocks, use space with respect to other birds, and discuss what this means for social integration.

www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

Had a nice break seeing friends, family, and (most importantly) Tabitha

📢📢PhD opportunity!
We are looking for enthusiastic researchers to develop a project looking at the ontogeny of migratory behaviour!
Deadline for expression of interest: 8 February 2026
👉Check details here: drive.google.com/file/d/1wow2...
#migration #ornithology #GPStracking

A male rock ptarmigan (Lagopus muta) in winter plumage.

Ptarmigan is from Gaelic 'tarmachan' meaning "croaker". The p- was added when people mistakenly assumed it was a Greek word.

A bird forever warning people: "A werewolf!" (just in case of werewolves).

Hope 😍

Christmas came early, my "big chicken paper" has been accepted 🎉 very grateful to everyone involved and looking forward to sharing it soon

Tighter visa rules will cost UK up to £10.8bn giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

JOB ALERT! 🦜🔭🌿
Are you passionate about #Birds, #Ecology, #Fieldwork, #Research?
The University of Salford is looking for a #ResearchTechnician to assist with ecological monitoring of #Ringneckedparakeets in Manchester, UK.
More info & how to apply 👇
Hurry! Closes 15 Dec
@salforduni.bsky.social

Today in end-of-phd-brain: had a hyper-realistic dream where I came up with some great research ideas for an animal that, unfortunately, only existed in that dream

Relatable Corvid

I'm finding it a great excuse to use all the stickers I've been hoarding!

Love looking through all the submissions on the Gulls Eating Stuff project website. Getting pretty good coverage of the UK too!

If you have photos of gulls eating stuff, you can submit them at citsci.org/projects/gul.... Thanks to @scistarter.bsky.social for promoting the project too :).

This #GivingTuesday please consider donating to @abcmicrogrants.bsky.social to support undergraduate students globally!! 🫶🗺️
Help us make #animalbehaviourresearch more inclusive 🐝🐝🐝
Sign up to be a monthly donor, or make a one time contribution using this link
opencollective.com/animal-behav...

Beautiful! Considerably better weather than Gent atm ;) enjoy!!

A huge congrats to Dr Jai Lake! Jai just gave his exit seminar at Macquarie on why lizards are social. To be slightly more precise, his PhD was about the mechanisms underlying sociality. Papers are submitted and in prep! Watch this space. Jai was cosupervised by Geoff While at Univ. Tasmania.

A male Anna’s hummingbird at the door. So nosy! 🤣

Earlier today, I was notified that someone was at my door.

This is who it was:

New results means new punny titles

New study on the way 📣
I am currently raising cute quails 🐥 to study the effects of enrichment on the development of the brain, cognition, behaviour, and health! I am learning loads of new skills @ecobird.bsky.social

Postdoctoral fellow

🐦 EcoBird is hiring a Postdoc in animal cognition!

Join us + @themanybirds.bsky.social to investigate innovation & problem-solving in birds.

📅 Start: as early as Jan 2026
🌍 Funded through UGent’s international mobility scheme

More info & how to apply ↓
www.ugent.be/en/work/scie...