I have had the privilege to read a full draft of @kristinandrews.bsky.social’s new book on animal cultures and BOY are you all in for a TREAT!!

Join us in Vienna! We are looking for a #PhD student and a #Postdoc to investigate #innovation in great #apes: PhD ad: share.eva.mpg.de/index.php/s/... Postdoc ad: share.eva.mpg.de/index.php/s/... Application deadline: August 17th. Please share widely!

Hiding from LA heat with @susanamonso.com’s fascinating book PLAYING POSSUM. (Research for novel 4) Highly recommend! Very accessible to the general reader.

A new paper reports orca using high speed ramming to smash up prey. Perhaps for fun 🧪🫍 www.frontiersin.org/journals/eth...

Would chimpanzees or bonobos huddle before a penalty shootout in the World Cup? 🐵⚽ In both species, reassuring body contact promotes social tolerance, read more in our new study led by Jake Brooker out now in @royalsociety.org Proc B. (doi.org/10.1098/rspb...) A thread of the main findings 🧵 (1/10)

The Cognition Group in the Psychology dept at Exeter are at risk of redundancy because "basic cognitive psychology research does not align with the current priorities of funding bodies" If you think this is overtly wrong and misguided, please sign this open letter docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Open Letter in Support of the Cognition Group, University of Exeter

To Executive members of the University of Exeter, including Vice Chancellor Prof. Lisa Roberts, Senior Vice-President and Provost Prof. Dan Charman, Pro Vice Chancellor and Executive Dean Prof. Sallie...

docs.google.com

Every kind of crappy reasoning in just one (free!) clickbait article. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Could AI be conscious?

Experts believe it’s at least possible. We urgently need a plan to navigate the ethical implications

theguardian.com

My book Playing Possum has been nominated for the German Wissensbuch des Jahres (non-fiction book of the year) award! If you think it deserves to win, you can vote for it here under the category Überraschung. Thank you kindly 😇

Delighted to learn that our project 'Ecological validity in comparative cognitive science' (co-led by @segundo-ortin.bsky.social and yours truly) has been funded! 👇

What a magnificient topic! And delightful book. Best use of conceptual analysis I have seen in years. Thank you @susanamonso.com

Welp. It finally happened. Found a reference to a non-existent paper of mine in a manuscript I was reviewing.

We have an exciting new position in our group for a PhD on parrot innovation !!! The position will be part of our new @fwf-at.bsky.social Emerging Fields project with @barbaraklump.bsky.social , @mohara.bsky.social , @christophvoelter.bsky.social and Justus Piater. Apply & share!!

Loving the cover of the Polish edition of my book Playing Possum. Out soon!

Totally unexpected but the author of this article has now read my book and written a positive review on it.

Ik krabbel schielijk terug: ook dieren zijn bezig met de dood

trouw.nl

Susana Monsó@susanamonso.com · 3mo ago

The Dutch newspaper Trouw publishes a “review” of my book by a guy who admits to not having read it, calls me a biologist, uses “counterarguments” that I refute in my book, and shows absolutely zero understanding of animal behaviour. The audacity.

Once upon a time, I approached biologists @biotay.bsky.social and @auersperga.bsky.social with some crazy ideas on how to test for animals’ concept of death. Many years later, our first study with the stellar cockatoos from the Goffin Lab is finally out! (More to come)

Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró)@biotay.bsky.social · 2mo ago

1/16 Do other species understand death? In this study with cockatoos, we approach this question from its foundation, by studying one of its central components: sensitivity to the permanent loss of a function. I will explain it in this thread (with videos) (paper) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Do we perceive animacy itself, beyond its lower-level visual correlates? In @elife.bsky.social, @chazfirestone.bsky.social and I leverage “visual anagrams” — images whose interpretations change with orientation — to suggest the answer is: yes! elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...

Thanks reviewer two, I respond in a footnote, Like shoots under snow.

Feeling some sympathy for this author as I read the abstract for their paper. The fact/fart distinction does seem important though.

👋Hi! 📥The latest issue (Vol.41, No. 1. 2026) of our international open access journal is available at: 🔗https://ojs.ehu.eus/index.php/THEORIA/issue/view/2181 🙂One retweet?

Proudest day for a mentor? When your former trainee is a Jeopardy clue! @susanamonso.com

My book was a clue on Jeopardy!! Wtf this is too cool I think I’m ready to die now

Now in #paperback, @susanamonso.com's Playing Possum explores how animals conceive of death and dying—and what it can teach us about our own relationships with mortality. Read a free preview of this fascinating book: press.princeton.edu/books/paperb... #Philosophy

The Dutch newspaper Trouw publishes a “review” of my book by a guy who admits to not having read it, calls me a biologist, uses “counterarguments” that I refute in my book, and shows absolutely zero understanding of animal behaviour. The audacity.

Wat er ook in dieren omgaat: ze rouwen niet om hun dode kinderen

trouw.nl

Brilliant news to share! Just heard from OUP that our proposal has been accepted to co-edit an "Oxford Handbook of Animal Politics" featuring over 40 commissioned chapters surveying the field. Co-editors @drsvg.bsky.social, @stevecooke.org, @joshmilburn.bsky.social, Alasdair Cochrane & Angie Pepper

Day 3 and final day of the Embodied Cognition and Comparative Psychology Conference with @susanamonso.com, @miguelborrajo.bsky.social and myself presenting. It has been a wonderful (and exhausting) experience. @isanchezmoreno.bsky.social and Gabriel Corda in the last photo too! ✨🐾

My favourite souvenir from last week’s conference: me looking back at my PhD student, @miguelborrajo.bsky.social, whose work criticises AI animal translation projects, as Louise Barrett sarcastically comments on anthropocentric animal cognition.

Day 1 at the Embodied Cognition And Comparative Psychology Conference at the Universidad de Murcia with keynote speakers Louise Barrett and Lucia F. Jacobs. What a fantastic opportunity to be here! 🐙🦇🐬

Miguel Segundo Ortin@segundo-ortin.bsky.social · 4mo ago

[CONFERENCE ALERT] May 5-7, EMBODIED COGNITION AND COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY Universidad de Murcia (Spain) Invited speakers: Louise Barrett, Lucia Jacobs, Susana Monsó, Paco Calvo, Matt Sims & Aditya Ponkshe. Check out the full program here: embodiedcomparativepsychology.square.site/program

Delighted to wake up to an extremely generous review of my book in @thebjps.bsky.social by Tiffani Thomason and @wileyprof.bsky.social. “Playing Possum is detailed, funny, and probably the closest a dense philosophical work can get to being called a page turner.”

Susana Monsó, Playing Possum | BJPS Review of Books

Tiffani Thomason & Colin Allen review Playing Possum, by Susana Monsó

thebsps.org

Wondering when the next Philosophy of Animal Minds and Behavior Association meeting will be? PAMBA 2027 will be at the University of Warwick on April 27-29, 2027. Confirmed keynotes: Steve Butterfill, Marta Halina, Susana Monsó @martahalina.bsky.social @susanamonso.com Stay tuned for CFP!