On Saturday, the Modi government pulled out all stops to protect #GyaneshKumar, India’s Chief Election Commissioner. scroll.in/article/1096... The police pulled every trick in the book to prevent protests. Detentions were arbitrary to the point of being illegal. Shoaib Daniyal reports.

We are offering 3 #PhD positions in our Ecology of Animal Societies Department @livingingroups.bsky.social at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior - check them out! imprs-qbee.mpg.de/66685/current

Current

imprs-qbee.mpg.de

Are you interested in supporting scientific research and teaching focused on living things and the natural world? My department, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology is hiring two full-time Lab Coordinators (faculty assistants). Union jobs with good benefits. careers.harvard.edu/job/laborato...

‘Navi’ Pillay dedicates Nobel Prize to ‘survivors of international crimes’

‘Navi’ Pillay dedicates Nobel Prize to ‘survivors of international crimes’

thehindu.com

"The last thing I did is the report on Gaza naming what is happening there as genocide. One of the main reactions to that report [was] paying tribute to me for my courage.. why would you need courage to speak the truth?" Navi Pillay upon winning the 2026 Nobel peace prize

BREAKING NEWS The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to Navanethem “Navi” Pillay for her efforts to promote peace and international law.

Large declines in South Sandwich Island populations of Chinstrap penguins likely caused by reductions in krill availability associated with regional warming. Authors call for reconsideration of the IUCN Red List status for the species. @currentbiology.bsky.social

World’s largest penguin colony suffers ‘enormous population crash’

Chinstrap penguins on Zavodovski Island in Antarctica down by two-thirds since 2011, probably due to climate crisis

theguardian.com

In the peat swamp forests surrounding the Tuanan Orangutan Research Station, where this research is based, a major wildfire emergency is currently unfolding. Please consider reading about or donating to support firefighting efforts in the area. coreborneo.com/wildfire-app...

Wildfire Appeal

Emergency Appeal: Help Save the Tuanan Orangutan Research Station and Surrounding Peatland Forest defaultdefaultdefaultdefault The Fires Have Returned to Tuanan A major wildfire…

coreborneo.com

Reminder that we are offering this really cool opportunity. The deadline for expressions of interest is October 31!

Susana Monsó@susanamonso.com · last mo.

Interested in doing a PhD in philosophy of animal minds in lovely Murcia? We have just published a call for expressions of interest to do a PhD as part of our research project on ecological validity in comparative cognitive science. Please consider applying if this is up your street!

Our paper on how orangutan mothers plan and alter their space use at personal costs so their offspring may play with similarly aged offspring (independent of kinship and fruit productivity) has transitioned from preprint to peer reviewed publication doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Maternal ranging strategies facilitate offspring social play at energetic cost in the most solitary ape | PNAS

In most vertebrates, social play among peers is considered essential for behavioral development. Yet in solitary species bearing single offspring, ...

doi.org

Hand-colored engravings of insects from ‘Der monathlich-herausgegebenen Insecten-Belustigung’ by August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof. Published in Nuremberg, 1746-1761. University of Wisconsin-Madison Special Collections. #insectart #sciart

I am recruiting a PhD student to work with our group at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior! Learn more & apply here: tinyurl.com/kd4xx4ku Deadline: 15 Nov 2026 Start date: Flexible (summer-fall 2027) @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @livingingroups.bsky.social @carlzeissstiftung.bsky.social

Evolution and adaptation are frequently used interchangeably when describing trait change. Does it really matter? Our new paper in PLOS Biology shows that yes, it really does. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... Buckle up, we're going for a ride...

Gene flow drives periods of both evolutionary stasis and change in a wild bird population

Why do we not see evolutionary change in heritable, fitness-related traits of free-living populations? This multi-decade study of the evolution of clutch size in populations of great tits before, duri...

journals.plos.org

We have put in a bid to hold the next @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social conference in Auckland 🇳🇿 from Feb 17-19 2028! We could really use your input in this survey to help us plan for if/how this conference is held (particularly re: in-person vs online participation): us.list-manage.com/xEOnWEahXJf?...

Your favorite website for illustrations of almost all organisms is looking for donations to help cover its running costs! Please consider donating to help keep this open-source platform running: www.phylopic.org/images

All Silhouette Images on PhyloPic

Browse all the free silhouette images in PhyloPic.

phylopic.org

🦋 Butterfly wing patterns create motion illusions that protect them from predators! Our new study (8 years in the making) is out in Nature today doi.org/10.1038/s415... @grahancock.bsky.social @esbriolat.bsky.social @scienceanna.bsky.social @lauraakelley.bsky.social @uniexecec.bsky.social

Hey fieldworkers! Do you need documentation (health & safety protocols, codes of conduct, feedback forms)? Do you have documentation that you think could help others do better fieldwork, but don’t know where to share it? We’ve got you covered in our new Fieldwork Repo! osf.io/4h7bu/overview

9. Benefits and potential issues associated with efforts to mobilize data from multiple generations of researchers on hundreds of primate species, both in the wild and in captivity

6. The digitization process: development and testing of manual and/or automated protocols 7. Database creation, curation, standards, licensing, and accessibility 8. Handling uncertainty and validation in reconstructed historical data

3. Integrating historical datasets with modern technology (remote sensing, camera traps, biologging) 4. Tracking demographic and life-history changes from past to present 5. Descriptions of valuable, under-used paper datasets (even if not yet digitized)

1. New analyses with old data: using recently digitized historical datasets to address fundamental questions in primatology 2.Using the past to predict the future: evaluating primate responses to climate change & anthropogenic impacts over the past 50 years to inform future research & conservation

I am part of a team guest editing a special issue of the American Journal of Primatology on "Digitization and use of legacy datasets in primatology” and we are seeking out submissions due on 1 September 2027. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal...

🚨 Our new lab paper, led by @amandinevisine.bsky.social, examines exploration, group composition, and play activities among BaYaka children and teens living in a village context! Amandine is currently on fieldwork following up on this for her PhD 🎯 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Congolese BaYaka children's learning and exploring in a village context

Childhood is a key period for acquiring and transmitting cultural knowledge and skill. Hunter-gatherer children, such as the Congolese BaYaka, learn a…

sciencedirect.com

The findings of @revathe.bsky.social et al., who analyzed ~7,000 behavioral data points of wild orangutans over 8 years, contribute to the science of cultural evolution by demonstrating how multi-year social and individual learning collaborate to shape the broad ecological competence of great apes.

How 8 years of social and individual learning interact to shape ecological competence in orangutans

Cultural learning permeates human skill and knowledge acquisition. To understand its importance for nonhuman apes, we analyzed just under 7000 records of behavioral bouts of social and individual lear...

science.org

Sumatran orangutans have a long, long childhood (8 yrs!) but there's a lot to learn. This week on the @science.org podcast, we hear about how social and individual learning interact to shape ecological competence in orangutans w/ Elah Feder & Revathe Thillaikumar www.science.org/content/podc...

To fare well as independent orangutans, infants need to learn many survival skills, arguably the most important of which are feeding skills. phys.org/news/2026-09...

Learning style predicts survival skills in young orangutans

Orangutan infants spend their first eight years with their mothers, and throughout this time, they can draw on their knowledge. After that, however, orangutans are entirely on their own. To fare well ...

phys.org

https://scholarpeer.com/dogs-and-orangutans-hint-human-skills-rest-on-older-learning/ Dogs and Orangutans Hint Human Skills Rest on Older Learning

Dogs and Orangutans Hint Human Skills Rest on Older Learning

Dog brains favor consonants when tracking words in speech, as people's do, and wild orangutan infants that watched and tried more ended up with broader diets. Two Science papers, one shared idea about learning.

scholarpeer.com

Learning style predicts survival skills in young #orangutans: how much knowledge a wild orangutan acquires over its long development depends on its tendencies for #learning socially and individually www.mpg.de/26983581/lea...

Adult #orangutans feed on 250 distinct food items, which they choose from thousands of options in the wide maze of the rainforest. Infants must learn this complex curriculum before they reach independence at the age of eight. How do they do this? www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzFH... #animalbehavior

How orangutans learn skills to survive

YouTube video by Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior

youtube.com

Does my Speak-n-Spell feel pain when I type O-U-C-H? The jury is out. Philosophers and neuroscientists say that's fucking stupid, but I called a guy from the Center for Pretending that Household Electronics Are Sentient and he said there's no way to know for sure.