We though we had finished catching calves for this year, but this is Jah's day old calf, a 7.0kg female. Gotta keep vigilant 👀

This is Turritella26, a female calf caught a couple of days ago.

Summing up what has been a wet and murky calving season. Heatwave? What heatwave!

Think this is cool? @sarah-dobson.bsky.social is soon to finish her PhD and looking for a post-doc, so don't miss out on a chance to recruit her!

What kind of data do you need for this? If you have traits repeatedly measured across individuals, and ideally across spatial or temporal contexts (e.g. over years) then you can apply this approach. Finally, we show a nice worked example from the Rum Red Deer project @rumdeerresearch.bsky.social.

New preprint from the fantastic @sarah-dobson.bsky.social !! Worried about assuming causality when estimating selection? Confused about knowing whether selection is hard or soft? We have the solution for you!

EcoEvoRxiv@ecoevorxiv.bsky.social · 5mo ago

The use of multi-response models to improve inferences about natural selection doi.org/10.32942/X27...

This week's EGI seminar in @biology.ox.ac.uk will be given by Dr Kirsty MacPhie from @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social on the contrasting insights to be drawn from studies of phenology in @phenoweb.bsky.social and @rumdeerresearch.bsky.social. Usual time and place - details below with streaming info ⬇️

Class day at the @soaysheep.bsky.social and @rumdeerresearch.bsky.social joint annual project meeting- loads of great talks and a chance to catch up with some of the loveliest folks.

@soaysheep.bsky.social

ZSL@zslofficial.bsky.social · 9mo ago

The Frink Award, ZSL’s lifetime achievement award goes to Professor Josephine Pemberton, @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social, for contributions to behavioural ecology, evolutionary genetics, and long-term field research that have transformed our understanding of wild animal populations 🏆

The Frink Award, ZSL’s lifetime achievement award goes to Professor Josephine Pemberton, @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social, for contributions to behavioural ecology, evolutionary genetics, and long-term field research that have transformed our understanding of wild animal populations 🏆

Beautiful day for our last vegetation sampling round of 2025, although cold on the fingertips as we have had a light frost overnight

nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... 🧪

Addressing biases in sliding window analysis gives new insight into the response of parturition date to weather in a wild mammal

Animal breeding phenology in temperate and high latitude regions is often predicted by weather variables, such as temperature. Much work on this topic has focused on taxonomic groups that employ adap...

nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

... the flashes are painted brown to be less intrusive for the mum when she comes back to the calf. It soon washes off, or is licked off to reveal the vibrant colours beneath

We are also going through all the flashes we have in stock. These sit behind the tag at the back of the ears of the deers.

With fieldwork mostly finished for the year we are getting ready for calving 2026 by making some new darvic collars for female calves

Currently we are faecal sampling and I like to get close to the animals. Bauple, however, doesn't care to follow the rules and we are still waiting for her to perform.

And finally... Coypu19, on the left earlier seen in the year still in velvet was in the study area during the rut. His father is Longbeys is on the right. Their antlers are very similar in shape.

2 of 2. Eddy 16 and Lalo are evenly matched and after two minutes agree to disagree, moving cautiously away from one another.

1 of 2. Eddy16, left and Lalo right (in both pictures) fight. Eddy16 seems to have the upper hand as he pushes Lalo back, one tip of an antler tine so very close to Lalo's eye.

This is a young incoming stag that we have not seen before, so he has been named Herbert and we estimate him to be about 5 years old. He has been very enthusiastic around the hinds.

Hodges, another incoming rutter, did very well early on in the rut. The nicks in his ears show where he has been injured in previous battles, and are also great for identification.

Here is another set of brothers, Gorgonzola19, left and Gorgonzola20. These boys, along with their brother from 2022, are all that remain of our once illustrious Cheese family.

Scottie has been coming back to the study area to rut for 5 years now. As an incoming rutter, we don't know where he lives for the rest of the year. He is very distinctive with his wide antlers and pale eyes. Saba is ruminating behind him.

It can get confusing when brothers are both rutting, but at least Eddy15, left, and Eddy16 were in different parts of the study area!

We were amazed when 15 year old Sitar10 returned. He was blinded in his right eye a good few years ago in a fight. After this was taken, he must have fought as part of his broken right antler was found!

Sepal09 on the left, our favourite hummel, unfortunately didn't return this rut, so must have died last winter. His son Reggae19 has been in with a group of hinds just recently. We hope he will do well in coming years.

For a number of reasons we have not been posting this rut, but now we're back. Here is Tokay13 looking like he means business. He was in the Glen early on in the season.

New paper alert! In my second first-author paper from my work on the Isle of Rum Red Deer Project @rumdeerresearch.bsky.social we show, for only the second time in a wild population, that parasites mediate inbreeding depression. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Parasite-mediated inbreeding depression in wild red deer

Heredity - Parasite-mediated inbreeding depression in wild red deer

nature.com

Hodges has two oestrus hinds today, Baru and Squilla #mammals #deer #science #evobio

Hannah Lemon gave a very clear and interesting talk about social inheritance of social relationships from mothers to their daughters and sons (to a lesser extent) in the Rum red deer @rumdeerresearch.bsky.social. @behaviour2025.bsky.social @asab.org