An excellent first day with our first ever joint group, we welcomed both staff and MSc students from ARU and the University of Lincoln. Looking forward to some interesting discussions as our conference-style week progresses. @aru-biology.bsky.social @g-iossa.bsky.social @hannah-wht-eco.bsky.social

🌱 Exciting times in the lab! Last week, our students joined @euphrasiologist.bsky.social for our annual extra-curricular course on plant identification. 🔬 Students sharpened identification skills using a diverse range of specimens gathered right from the wilder areas of our Cambridge campus! 🌿

🚨Last chance to submit an abstract for ECBB!!🚨 Deadline 30th April..... Come and join us in Cambridge! For more information about topics, and how to submit, visit our Call for Abstracts page 👇👇 www.aru.ac.uk/events/confe... @ecbb2026.bsky.social

Call for symposia/papers - ECBB 2026 - ARU

Find out how to propose a symposium, paper, or poster for the European Congress for Behavioural Biology (ECBB) at ARU in Cambridge, 1-4 September 2026.

aru.ac.uk

European Conference on Behavioural Biology@ecbb2026.bsky.social · 4mo ago

#ECBB2026 Abstracts will close this week! For more information about topics, and how to submit, visit our Call for Abstracts page 👇👇 www.aru.ac.uk/events/confe...

We are delighted to announce that the 2026 Tinbergen Prize Winner (@ethoges.bsky.social) @ahanaaurora.bsky.social is joining our list of plenary speakers for #ECBB2026.

European Conference on Behavioural Biology@ecbb2026.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Missed our #ECBB2026 Plenary Speaker reveals? Not to worry! Here is a quick recap of all the excellent speakers we'll be welcoming at September's meeting!

Missed our #ECBB2026 Plenary Speaker reveals? Not to worry! Here is a quick recap of all the excellent speakers we'll be welcoming at September's meeting!

This week, our first year students took a trip down to explore Therfield Heath Nature Reserve - a 420 acre chalk grassland habitat famed for its population of rare and colourful pasqueflowers! #ARUProud #botany

Very happy to share this one: Dogs in UK schools – An evaluation of the status quo We highlight the urgent need for clearer national guidance on minimum standards for training, welfare assessment, and risk management to safeguard both children and animals #AnimalAssistedEducation #AnimalWelfare

Dogs in UK schools – An evaluation of the status quo

Animal-assisted education describes activities with non-human animals in the education process, such as school and university environments, and has ga…

sciencedirect.com

Our second years braved the cold weather to visit Wicken Fen and start putting together their plan for surveying key species at this globally important SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest)

Our students had an inspiring visit to @redwingsuk.bsky.social Sanctuary where they learned firsthand about equid welfare and welfare‑friendly firework practices. A huge thank‑you to the wonderful Redwings team for hosting and educating the next generation! 🙌 #EquidWelfare #AnimalWelfare

Taking place on Anglia Ruskin Uni’s Chelmsford campus, our 2026 conference is just a few minutes’ walk from the train & bus station, & also has convenient free parking. Finding out about Essex’s key birds couldn’t be easier! More info & book your place at ebws.org.uk/2026conference #essexbirding

Tonight's online talk is going to be a cracker, as Dr Rob Williams talks about Hummingbirds of the World! With lots of superb photographs and interesting information it's definitely worth tuning in to watch at youtube.com/live/g9ioCPr...

🎉 Celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science! Join the inaugural lecture by Prof @wascherclaudia.bsky.social — exploring how social worlds shape animal minds 11 Feb 26 • 18:00–19:00 GMT • Cambridge+Online Register: www.aru.ac.uk/events/inaug... #EveryVoiceInScience #WomenInSTEM

New paper led by former PhD student Fiene Steinbrecher investigating how zoo-housed pied tamarins respond to different combinations of human-generated sound and visible scenes. #AnimalWelfare #Primates #Conservation #AnthropogenicEffects www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Disentangling anthropogenic stimuli: Visual and acoustic components differentially impact captive pied tamarin behaviour

Anthropogenic activity is increasingly disturbing wildlife, leading to negative impacts on species welfare and conservation. Despite this, very few st…

sciencedirect.com

January can be tough enough without an extra deadline looming. That's why we've extended our #ECBB2026 call for symposia to 15 February 2026! For more information and for the submission form click the link: www.aru.ac.uk/science-and-...

If you are organising a symposium related to animal cognition for #ECBB2026, and would like to develop/guest edit a special collection in the journal Animal Cognition to accompany it, please get in touch with us at ecbb2026@aru.ac.uk #academicconference #academicsky #animalbehaviour

With ten days to go to submit your symposia proposal, we're here to answer your most burning question: What is the registration cost? #AcademicTwitter #Conferencechatter #ECBB2026

Our lecturer, Dannielle Green, on leading research into how plastics affect ecosystems and wildlife. Danni's work shows recovery is still possible & we can make a real difference for our planet 🌏. Read more here 👇 www.aru.ac.uk/research/our... www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWXF...

ARU Connecting Worlds - Cleaner Environments

YouTube video by Anglia Ruskin University

youtube.com

Check out this fantastic #ornithology conference at ARU Chelmsford campus!

Essex Birdwatching Society@essexbirdnews.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Our 2026 Conference is on Saturday 28th March and it's going to be a superb day! With six talks on the status of key species & habitat in Essex, lots of display stands, plenty of delicious food, & a prize raffle it's not to be missed! Book your place at ebws.org.uk/conference/r... #essexbirding

📣 Delighted to share that my inaugural lecture, Social by nature, from animal social minds to inclusive science cultures, is coming up. 📅 11 Feb 2026, 18:00 GMT | 💻 Online & Cambridge (www.aru.ac.uk/events/inaug...). A fitting way to mark the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

Social by nature: from animal minds to inclusive Science communities - ARU

Inaugural lecture at ARU, Professor Claudia Wascher, explores what it means to be social in the animal kingdom and in the scientific community.

aru.ac.uk

If you work on corvid ecology, behaviour, cognition, or conservation, this might be useful for you 👇 I’ve just published CORVIDATA in Scientific Data 🐦 doi.org/10.1038/s415... (1/4)

🚨 New paper alert! "Honestly exaggerated: howler monkey roars are reliable signals of body size and behaviourally relevant to listeners" www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... We show that formants advertise body size and mediate social interactions in black and gold howler monkeys.

This week our students braved the autumnal weather to head out to the woods to undertake some hands-on woodland management work - an important way to link theory to practice! This year the travel was kindly subsidised by the Ginpat Charitable Trust – it was a great day out in the fresh air!

Field trip season is in full swing! This week our Level 7 students visited a local RSPB nature reserve to explore landscape-scale conservation, habitat connectivity, and taxon-specific identification,...

new preprint led by @alperyelimlies.bsky.social: Flexibility of territorial aggression in urban and rural Chaffinches www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #ornithology

‼️ Thrilled to share my first article on the Kalahari meerkats ‼️, in @animalecology.bsky.social! Group membership strongly influences gut microbiomes & especially the co-occurrence of beneficial bacteria, beyond animals' age or sex, disease status, or environmental exposure doi.org/10.1111/1365...

Impact of animal socioecology on gut microbial communities: Insights from wild meerkats in the Kalahari

Our study addresses critical gaps at the nexus of animal and microbial ecologies, adding much-needed empirical support to recent theoretical frameworks that have conceptualised gut microbiomes as bei...

doi.org

Check out our new database (catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/documents/18...) and data paper (www.nature.com/articles/s41...) for the traits of UK ladybirds 🐞 Great to see this out, a really fun team to work with expertly led by @charlieouthwaite.bsky.social @ukladybirds.bsky.social @aru-biology.bsky.social

Open Day at Home Farm - shout out to our fantastic Zoology BSc and Ecology and Conservation BSc students Katy Mae Cockburn, Patrick Silvester, Christian Upham, Caitlin Faber and Ella Burbridge for showcasing some biology related activities on the day

Day two with aru and we’ve been exploring the limestone landscapes of the garrigue. Highlights of this nutrient poor environment were orchids and Gladioli, as well as many butterflies. We even saw a Spanish Festoon butterfly ovipositing on its larval foodplant, 𝘈𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘢. @aru-biology.bsky.social

We spent a great day exploring the Camargue with our visitors from aru. In the northern reedbeds, we saw European Bee-eaters, treefrogs, and seven species of heron including this Squacco Heron that flew right over. Then on to the southern salt marshes for Greater Flamingos. @aru-biology.bsky.social

Yesterday our visitors from aru focussed on insect surveys. We set a moth trap over night and identified our species in the morning, then spent the afternoon surveying the meadows. We even fitted in a trip to the maquis to look at this acidic scrubland habitat. @aru-biology.bsky.social