This fall, the Dept of Ecology and Evolution @ the Univ of Lausanne will be looking for an associate professor in behavioral ecology and cultural evolution. If that sounds like you, please apply. CH is an outstanding place to live and work. ⛰️🚄🔥 wwwfbm.unil.ch/releve/appli...

Stare them down 😂

Stephen Collins@stephencollins.bsky.social · 4w ago

From 2019, when the news was telling us that staring seagulls out had been proven to stop them eating your chips

Sexier in the city? Urban male great bowerbirds decorate bowers with human-made objects, creating brighter and more varied displays than rural males. Males strongly prefer human-made objects over natural ones, possibly boosting their appeal to females! shorturl.at/lcNY2 @royalsocietypublishing.org

I am hiring a postdoc for scRNA-seq research in Lund, Sweden on the visual systems of non-model inverts as part of an ERC project on the evolution and ecology of advanced color and polarization vision. Apply here or share the link with someone who may be interested! 🧪 lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

Congratulations to Caitlin - the first paper from her PhD! 🥳

ASAB@asab.org · 5mo ago

🐦‍⬛Bowerbirds!🕺Sexual signals!🪹Bower construction!🚨Disruptions! Our #EditorsChoice for the #AnimalBehaviourJournal: “Male great bowerbirds upregulate multiple sexual signals following bower wall removal” Read here: doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2026.123480

What an excellent topic for a study - who makes jokes during talks? 'Jokes eliciting whole-room laughter were rare (9%), while the majority fell flat or landed mildly, earning mostly quiet chuckles (67%)' Ouch!

Stefano Mammola@stefanomammola.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Who is making jokes at scientific conferences? Which type of joke land? To find out, we collected quantitative data on jokes at 14 scientific conferences – now published OA in @royalsociety.org ProcB: doi.org/10.1098/rspb... w/ @rcorreia.bsky.social @andreasantangeli.bsky.social and more

New research shows that displaying a pair of eyes on food packaging can be enough to stop some gulls pinching your food.

Why drawing eyes on food packaging could stop seagulls stealing your chips

New research shows that displaying a pair of eyes on food packaging can be enough to stop some gulls pinching your food.

tcnv.link

Can we stop gulls from pinching food by sticking eyes 👀 on takeaway boxes? New paper in @ecol-evol.bsky.social suggests it is an effective solution for deterring some gulls from food sources, but not all! tinyurl.com/gulleyes Read a summary in @uk.theconversation.com tinyurl.com/gulleyes2

Nice article by the wonderful Marlene Zuk in National Geographic, featuring my and @neeltjeboogert.bsky.social research on Cornish herring gulls, and how kids got us into gulls 😊 @neeltjeboogert.bsky.social @uniexecec.bsky.social www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...

Why do gulls steal our food? Scientists experimented with French fries to find out.

Gulls are often seen as intruders in our daily lives. But researchers are discovering what really motivates them—and strategies to keep them away from your lunch.

nationalgeographic.com

Another stick in the wall: we removed part of male great bowerbird bower walls to test effect on courtship displays. Males didn’t just focus on rebuilding the wall, they stepped up effort across all aspects of their display, showing they flexibly invest in multiple signals tinyurl.com/4ujmkw95

Interested in the interface of evolution 🧬 and ecology 🌳? Then you cannot miss #ExE2026! Hosted by @uniexecec.bsky.social in beautiful #Cornwall, this #conference has a stellar line-up of speakers and lots of pre-and post-conference workshops. Space is limited, so register now at evoxeco.uk!

Lectureships available with priorities in evolutionary biology, behavioural and sensory ecology, ecology and plants!

Maria Sachkova@mariasachkova.bsky.social · 6mo ago

3 lecturer jobs at School of Biological sciences at Bristol! Apply by March 8! www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...

New bowerbird paper out, we asked whether male great bowerbirds care about the light environment around the bower where they display to females. Short answer: not really. What they do care about is having a display arena with strong visual contrast on the ground. 🐦 tinyurl.com/2v7rycdz

🚨 Postdoctoral Opportunity for Female Scientists🚨 The University of Vienna is awarding at least 20 fully funded 4 year postdoctoral positions to outstanding female scientists Interested? Get in touch via direct message careers.univie.ac.at/en/postdoc/e... #MicroSky 🧪 #PostDoc @univie.ac.at

We're open for abstract submission, and look forward to welcoming you all to Bristol in March! asab-spring-conference2026.github.io @asab-meetings.bsky.social #ASABSpring2026

Thank you so much to everyone who came, it was lovely to catch up with old friends, meet new ones and hear about a lot of amazing sensory science!

ASAB Spring 2026@asab-meetings.bsky.social · 8mo ago

This has been a wonderful conference, a huge thank you to all of the volunteers and especially the organizers of #ASABWinter2025 : Jolyon Troscianko, Innes Cuthill and Laura Kelley 👏🏻

And we're off! Innes Cuthill giving the public lecture on concealment in the animal kingdom #asabwinter2025

PhD scholarship alert! Are you interested in cognitive evolution? Do you want to know how development influences cognitive traits? Do you love hanging out with birds in the forest? If the answer to these questions is yes, please apply to work with us! 1/2 🧪 www.wgtn.ac.nz/scholarships...

Turns out gulls don't like being shouted at (or stared at!) New paper led by excellent masters students @uniexecec.bsky.social with @neeltjeboogert.bsky.social royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 9mo ago

Worth a shout? Yelling is best way to deter gulls, UK study suggests

Key info 🗝️ 💶Fees and stipend included! 🌍Open to students worldwide! 👥 Fabulous co-supervisors @ecologyofvision.bsky.social and @mcgregorlab.bsky.social 📆Start Sept 2026 👩🏽‍💻Online info event 24th Nov ⏰Deadline December 15th Spread the word! 🗣️ Have Qs? Contact me! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Funded PhD - The impacts of light pollution on plasticity and evolution in spider visual systems at University of Bristol on FindAPhD.com

PhD Project - Funded PhD - The impacts of light pollution on plasticity and evolution in spider visual systems at University of Bristol, listed on FindAPhD.com

findaphd.com

📣 @asab.org grants BOOSTED! 📣 We've increased most of our research-related grants by 50%, effective from the next deadline of 1st Feb 2026. Check out what we offer here: www.asab.org/grant-overview

🚨🔊 Fully funded PhD!! 🚨🔊 Are you interested in wildlife gut microbiomes? Love birds, fieldwork and bioinformatics? Want to join a collaborative and supportive team? Looking for training to become an independent scientist? Please apply! Informal enquiries welcome! www.uea.ac.uk/course/phd-d...

Also managed to track down some immature male great bowerbirds today, they were displaying at trees to get some practice in (paper on this shorturl.at/jqOQt). Found these two sites due to the birds making a right racket!

One of the risks of bowerbirds sharing space with a university - sometimes scientific equipment (and samples) get pinched! Soy sauce containers also seem to be popular

Back in the land of bowers this week! Investigating how male courtship signals are affected by urbanisation #greatbowerbirds @uniexecec.bsky.social

For those that have registered for #ASABWinter2025, you should have received an email last week asking you to confirm your attendance. If you haven't, please check your spam folders! And don't forget, only one week left until the conference grant deadline (Oct 1) www.asab.org/conference-g...

Conference Attendance Grants — ASAB

Conference Attendance Grants help PhD students and others with limited funds to attend ASAB conferences and workshops

asab.org

Deadline for submitting an abstract to give a talk or poster is this Friday!

ASAB Spring 2026@asab-meetings.bsky.social · last yr.

ICYMI : #ASABWinter2025 will take place from December 15-16, once again in lovely Edinburgh! Registration is now open 🎉 Abstract submission deadline for posters and talks is August 29 🏃‍♀️🏃🏃‍♂️ More information here: asabwinter.github.io/2025/

We are looking for a Postdoc (up to 5 years) who wants to study neural mechanisms of spatial memory in honeybees. This includes tetrode recordings in behaving honeybees. Application Deadline is 1st of October 2025. More details: www.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/services/...

‪Come join us at the @asab.org Winter Conference 2025: how sensory info affects behaviour. 15th & 16th Dec, abstracts due end Aug. More info and registration asabwinter.github.io/2025 Co-hosted with @jtroscianko.bsky.social and Innes Cuthill