Wolfgang Goymann
@dudumizi.bsky.social
Interested in animal behaviour, biodiversity, ecology, evolution, conservation and physiology; studying sex roles and evolutionary ecology of coucals and conservation of grassland birds such as whinchats; based at the Max Planck Institute in Seewiesen
Female ruffs grow faster and fledge earlier, shifting the sex ratio from hatching to fledging: Read the new paper from the Küpper & Kempenaers groups!
Evolution Letters@evolletters.bsky.social · 2w agoWhy do sex ratios become biased before adulthood? In ruffs, slower male development delays fledging and increases exposure to predators, shifting the sex ratio even before sexual maturity. academic.oup.com/evlett/advan... @chorlnev.bsky.social Image credit: T. R. Shankar Raman
New year, new conference! Registration for the next Annual Meeting of the Ethological Society is officially open! 🤩 Save the date, sign up, and join us in beautiful Konstanz 24–27 February, 2027 @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social www.ab.mpg.de/etho-2027
Graceful Deer Hopping at Sunset
ALT: Graceful Deer Hopping at Sunset
static.klipy.com
Exciting conference coming up in Vienna this August!! Safe the date 🦉🎡
Behaviour 2027@behaviour2027.bsky.social · 2w agoSpread the word! Behaviour 2027 will be taking place in Vienna, Austria, from August 23-27.
On September 16, 1958, the first Max Planck Institute in Seewiesen was officially inaugurated in the presence of Otto Hahn, then President of the @maxplanck.de. Over the following decades, Seewiesen became a famous location for behavioral research. ➡️ www.bi.mpg.de/mpio-history
New #ornithology paper out in @royalsocietypublishing.org! We show that female dotterels can move across large distances within a single breeding season in search of mating opportunities, visiting up to five different sites (median: 3) and travelling up to 1000 km between sites (median: 71 km). 1/n
Träumen Sepien von elektrischen Garnelen? 🦑💤⚡🦐 Cooke beobachtetet strukturierten Ruhephasen bei Sepien, mit gehäufte Armbewegungen und Wechsel zwischen verschiedenen Verhaltens- und Farbmusterzuständen. Ein Einblick in schlafähnliches Verhalten in freier Wildbahn! #Verhaltensbiologie #Schlaf
🧪 ETHOLOGY: Do cuttlefish dream of electric shrimp? 🦑💤⚡🦐 Cooke observed European cuttlefish showing quiescent states, including arm twitches and transitions between distinct behavioural and colour states. A glimpse into sleep-like behaviour in the wild! #OpenAccess: doi.org/10.1111/eth.70102
Do Cuttlefish Dream of Electric Shrimp? A Natural History Note on Behavioral Quiescence Strategies in Wild European Cuttlefish (<fi>Sepia officinalis</fi>)
Continuous video stills documenting an unprovoked alert-to-quiescent-to-alert transition sequence in an individual wild Sepia officinalis. Panels (A–B) show the individual exhibiting localized arm L1...
doi.org
Reptilian soundscapes 🦎💬 You can find out more about the vocalization of geckos in the study by Henrik Brumm and Sue Ann Zollinger. Here is the press release: www.bi.mpg.de/1502636/news...
Knowable Magazine@knowablemag.bsky.social · 2mo agoEver heard an alligator roar? 💬 Scientists are discovering that reptiles can be quite chatty, and may in face be more like birds and mammals than once thought. ✍️ Rohini Subrahmanyam: knowmag.org/3SbjDti
🧪 ETHOLOGY: Do animals align with Earth's magnetic field? 🧲🐆🌍 Landler et al. use leopard data to highlight pitfalls in magnetic alignment studies. Their guide includes R scripts to detect spatial autocorrelation, helping researchers make studies more robust. #OpenAccess: doi.org/10.1111/eth.70094
A Practical Guide to Studying Magnetic Alignment of Free‐Living Animals: Lessons From Leopards
We show that spatial autocorrelation in circular data can be detected and provide guidelines how to avoid such issues in magnetic alignment field studies.
doi.org
🧪 ETHOLOGY: What keeps animal societies together? 🐘🐒🐺🦜 Kappeler reviews how animal groups form, stay cohesive, and maintain social order. Beyond the benefits of group living, behavioral mechanisms may reduce conflict and promote stable, cooperative societies. #OpenAccess doi.org/10.1111/eth....
From Cohesion to Norms: How Animal Groups Come, Stay, and Function Together
The present review underscores two salient points: In the context of evolutionary transitions to pair- and group living, it is imperative to acknowledge the distinction between selective forces that ...
doi.org
Interested in having a symposium at #Behaviour2027 ? We are officially open to proposals! Please carefully follow the guidelines below:
Entlasten Helfer die Eltern? 🐦🤝 Koenig & Walters zeigen: Die Antwort hängt von der Analyse ab. Eichelspechte füttern über die gesamte Brutzeit weniger in größeren Gruppen, gleichen ihre Fütterungsrate in kurzen Beobachtungen aber an andere Gruppenmitglieder an.
🧪 ETHOLOGY: Do helpers reduce parental workload? 🐦🤝 Koenig & Walters show that the answer depends on the analysis. Acorn woodpeckers feed less overall in larger groups, but during short observations they match the feeding rates of others. Scale matters! #OpenAccess: doi.org/10.1111/eth.70087
Load Lightening in the Cooperatively Breeding Acorn Woodpecker Depends on the Analysis
An illustration of load lightening, additive, and compensatory care. The cooperatively breeding acorn woodpecker exhibits load lightening when analyzed by group size over the course of a breeding eff...
doi.org
Exciting opportunity to share your wildlife photography with the world - the Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition! 📸🐊🐎🐞 Deadline is 14 August 2026! royalsociety.org/journals/publishing-activities/photo-competition/
Cristiano Ronaldo with Camera and Coffee
ALT: Cristiano Ronaldo with Camera and Coffee
static.klipy.com
Royal Society Publishing@royalsocietypublishing.org · 4mo agoAre you a scientist with an interest in photography? We're delighted to announce that the Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition is now open for entries until 14 August 2026! 🎉 Find out more: royalsociety.org/journals/pub... #RSPphotocomp
In a new #Viewpoint we argue that the binary definition of #BiologicalSex based on gamete size is a scientifically robust framework that is entirely compatible with the diversity of sexual phenotypes and human gender identities. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Biological Sex Is Binary and Rooted in Anisogamy
Drawing on empirical evidence and evolutionary theory, we argue that biological sex is most coherently defined as a binary classification of reproductive strategies rooted in anisogamy (the productio....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Weibliche Skorpione verteidigen sich lauter! 🦂🔊 Dionisio-da-Silva et al. zeigen, dass weibliche Skorpione lautere Stridulationssignale erzeugen als Männchen. Geschlechtsspezifische Unterschiede der Lauterzeugungsstrukturen prägen die Signale und stützen ihre Funktion als Abwehr gegen Fressfeinde.
🧪 ETHOLOGY: Female scorpions are the louder defenders! 🦂🔊 Dionisio-da-Silva et al. show that female scorpions produce longer and louder stridulatory signals than males. Sex-specific differences shape these signals, supporting stridulation as antipredator defense. #OpenAccess doi.org/10.1111/eth....
She Doesn't Whisper: Female‐Prominent Stridulation Shaped by Morphology in a Buthid Scorpion and Insights on Its Function
Sexual dimorphism and stress-induced stridulatory responses in Jaguajir rochae (Borelli, 1910). Females exhibited greater absolute pectinal size and higher sound pressure levels, whereas males showed...
doi.org
Worth reading in full.
Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 3mo agoSpringer Nature retracted two studies by Max Planck. In response to a question from @samkean.bsky.social, they issued this statement: "Detailed information about specific retractions is usually confidential and can only be shared with the relevant authors.”
Don't forget to re-subscribe to EvolDir to continue receiving emails! EvolDir is such a great thing for the Evolutionary Biology community, great to hear that it will continue in good hands :) @eseb.bsky.social
EvolDir@evoldir.bsky.social · 6mo ago📣 EvolDir is now managed by @eseb.bsky.social! We are delighted to be taking the reins and express our gratitude to both Brian Golding who began this service to the community in the mid-1980s and to @rdmpage.bsky.social who ran this account until now 👏 You can now find evoldir here: evoldir.net
New for @undark.org: "What I Learned from Teaching Darwin" "For Darwin at least, science was a conversation between humans and nature, more than it was an industry. I wish that were true today, for all of us." undark.org/2026/04/23/o...
What I Learned from Teaching Darwin
Opinion | Charles Darwin’s books offer lessons for how to grapple with the current state of science and its complicated future.
undark.org
We’ve been talking in our lab meetings about sexual conflict and sexual dimorphism, and have some thoughts. What if animal genomes are far more sex-specific and less cosntrained than we assume? @linley-sherin.bsky.social pulled it all together here www.zoology.ubc.ca/mank-lab/pdf... 1/n
Looking for lesser coucal nests on Pongso no Tao and guess who is inside the nest? ...and feeling quite comfortable, obviously!
This work was led by freshly celebrated PhD Hanna Algora with vital contributions from @koivulakari.bsky.social @vmpakanen.bsky.social @jellybb.bsky.social, Kriszti Kupán and others
Nest failure in threatened #shorebirds has many reasons. Replacing eggs of vulnerable clutches with dummy eggs boosts nest survival of #Ruffs in grazed coastal meadows. New paper out 🎉 dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3... in @ecol-evol.bsky.social #conservation #ornithology
Congratulations to our Research Group leader @susannehoffmann.bsky.social on receiving a Human Frontier Science Program (@hfspo.bsky.social) Research Grant! 👏 🎉 Together with her Colombian collaborator, she will investigate how birds navigate using echolocation. 📸 phototrip.cz – stock.adobe.com
A Look Back: from February 18–21, 2026, Grünau was the hub of behavioral biology as the @ethoges.bsky.social held its annual conference—featuring exciting research insights, lively discussions, and plenty of space for emerging scientists. @univie.ac.at 📸: Archiv KLF, M. Klymenko, D. Matejschek
Registration and abstract submission for the ECBB in Cambridge are open - yay, don't miss it! 🦩🤩
European Conference on Behavioural Biology@ecbb2026.bsky.social · 7mo agoWe are delighted to announce #ECBB2026 registration and abstract submission are now open! Conference Attendance Grant are also available, thanks to @asab.org and @ethoges.bsky.social support! www.aru.ac.uk/events/confe...
Visuelle Signale verändern die Reaktion von Libellenlarven auf Gefahr 👀❗ Tóth et al. zeigen, dass Libellenlarven ihre Aktivität reduzieren, wenn sie chemische Alarmstoffe verletzter Artgenossen wahrnehmen. Können sie jedoch andere Larven sehen, verändert sich diese Reaktion!
