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Stuart K Watson @chimpsahoi.bsky.social · 9h

A very insightful account of some of the issues with existing frameworks for applying notions of semantics to animal communication by Gasparri. Critical but even-handed, lots of food for thought here:

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Animal metasemantics - Biology & Philosophy

Multiple scholars in animal communication research have proposed that models of animal signals should appropriate theoretical terminology and concepts from natural language semantics. However, the application of semantic descriptors to nonhuman communication is a delicate undertaking. The goal of this paper is to consider whether there are any basic methodological principles that can help us determine whether the appropriation of a semantic descriptor by an animal model is justified or unwarranted. I begin by drawing a parallel between types of theories of meaning and types of theories of signal content, and propose to categorize the metatheoretical issues surrounding the application of semantic descriptors to animal signals under the banner of an animal metasemantics. I then develop three simple conditions on the operation: a condition of epistemic fertility, one of intensional depth, and one of grammatical congruity. Finally, I showcase how these heuristics can assist theory production and help identify strengths and opportunities for improvement in emerging projects in animal linguistics.

link.springer.com

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Stuart K Watson @chimpsahoi.bsky.social · 8d

It's hard to overstate the impact Jane Goodall had on my life, both in terms of essentially birthing my field, but also her deeply, contagiously humanist (for want of a better word) spirit.

I've never been starstruck in my life except for the two occasions I met Jane, where I could barely talk.

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Reposted by Stuart K Watson

Ernesto Priego @ernestopriego.com · 23d

Simply astonishing. Maybe Lecturer A should not have to mark over 100 essays in a two-week window in the first place? Invest in qualified staff and reduce impossible workloads FFS www.kcl.ac.uk/about/strate...

Screenshot. King's College London page. Examples of effective practice

The following scenarios follow the above guidelines and offer insights into ways that academic staff can use AI transparently and in an assistive capacity, always ensuring human oversight and judgment remain central.
Scenario A – Scaling feedback while maintaining quality

Lecturer A is responsible for marking over 100 essays within a two-week window.

Conscious of the limitations this workload places on the depth of individual feedback, they adopt a hybrid approach using their university’s approved or supported LLM tool, Copilot.

Without ever uploading student work directly, Lecturer A composes an anonymised summary for each student, noting which marking criteria were met and the approximate percentage achieved for each. They input this summary alongside the official rubric into Copilot, prompting it to generate supportive, criterion-referenced feedback. This feedback is then carefully reviewed, adapted, and personalised before being uploaded to the marking platform.

Students are made aware of this process in advance and shown a demonstration, reinforcing transparency and trust.

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Stuart K Watson @chimpsahoi.bsky.social · 21d

Very cool new study finding third-party imitation in blue-throated macaws by
@esha-haldar2025.bsky.social et al. in Sci. Reports.

doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Third-party imitation is not restricted to humans - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - Third-party imitation is not restricted to humans

doi.org

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Reposted by Stuart K Watson

Sheina Lew-Levy @sheinalew.bsky.social · 29d

@durhampsych.bsky.social current has 5 (FIVE!!) PhD studentships being advertised!

3 to work with me on children as agents of cultural evolution

2 to work with @drboothroyd.bsky.social on examining school-based body image interventions.

Please share and apply!

www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...

Fees and Funding - Durham University

www.durham.ac.uk

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Stuart K Watson @chimpsahoi.bsky.social · Sep 4

Feeling seen by the Oxford Uni job portal

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Stuart K Watson @chimpsahoi.bsky.social · Jul 14

Important new work (from Elisa Bandini,
@ctennie.bsky.social, @sofiaforss.bsky.social et al.) addressing an elephant in the room - how weird are our weirdest apes, and how is that skewing research efforts?

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The Biases in Captive Chimpanzee Cognitive Research: First Insights From the Ape Research Index (ARI) Database

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Reposted by Stuart K Watson

Kaja Wierucka @kajawierucka.bsky.social · Jul 10

📢 Our new paper is out in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social!

A step toward more comparable approaches in bioacoustics! We tested how different acoustic feature extraction and classification methods affect caller ID classification accuracy.

Read about it here: 🔗 shorturl.at/F31Pb

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Reposted by Stuart K Watson

Kathelijne Koops @kathelijnekoops.bsky.social · Jul 3

Join us!!! 2 (!) PhD positions on wild chimpanzees and bonobos in the Ape Behaviour & Ecology Group and Wildminds Lab!!! 🤩🤩🤩

Cat Hobaiter @nakedprimate.bsky.social · Jul 2

📣 Join the K/Creative Ape Team 🤓 2 PhDs on Creativity in Wild Chimpanzees & Bonobos; w myself & the v awesome @kathelijnekoops.bsky.social

@snf-fns.ch Uni Zurich @uniofstandrews.bsky.social @efp2026.bsky.social @ips-primatenews.bsky.social @primatesocietygb.bsky.social @primbehavecol.bsky.social 🐵🧪

two 4-year PhD positions in the Ape Behaviour & Ecology Group of the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Zurich, and the Wild Minds Lab of the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St Andrews, to study wild chimpanzees and bonobos.
The PhD candidates will work within the Creative Ape Project. The overall goal of the project is to enhance our understanding of the evolution of creativity, and to shed light on whether humans are a uniquely 'creative ape'. To do so we will apply a comparative approach, quantifying the creative capacities of wild non-human apes to investigate the underlying drivers that shape creative expression across species. The project explores four interconnected topics: i) Making mavericks, ii) Funny guys and arty-types, iii) Lone ape geniuses, and iv) Creative ape economies. We employ a comprehensive approach that leverages long-term datasets, new field data, detailed manual video-coding, bespoke automated deep-learning models, and advanced modelling, to extract rich information on the ways in which apes solve problems in their daily lives.

Excellent collaborative, independent working and time management skills are essential. Previous field experience (incl. behavioural data collection) is required, and experience working in remote places under difficult living conditions is highly recommended. The project will require strong data management and data analysis skills, and 12-18 months of field work split into 2-3 periods.

Please submit your application in a single PDF to kathelijne.koops@iea.uzh.ch and clh42@st-andrews.ac.uk – by 4th of August 2025. Feel free to get in touch if you have any inquiries about the positions. Applications should include: 1) cover letter stating your motivation and how your expertise fits the project (max. 1 page), 2) Curriculum Vitae, 3) copy of the highest degree obtained, 4) names and contact details of two referees, and 5) reprints of 1-2 selected publications

A tiny chimpfant looks at the camera with surprise

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Stuart K Watson @chimpsahoi.bsky.social · Jul 3

Amazing sounding project and a real dream team of supervisors - share widely and/or apply!

Cat Hobaiter @nakedprimate.bsky.social · Jul 2

📣 Join the K/Creative Ape Team 🤓 2 PhDs on Creativity in Wild Chimpanzees & Bonobos; w myself & the v awesome @kathelijnekoops.bsky.social

@snf-fns.ch Uni Zurich @uniofstandrews.bsky.social @efp2026.bsky.social @ips-primatenews.bsky.social @primatesocietygb.bsky.social @primbehavecol.bsky.social 🐵🧪

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Caroline Rowland @carorowland.bsky.social · Jun 27

Children are incredible language learning machines. But how do they do it? Our latest paper, just published in TICS, synthesizes decades of evidence to propose four components that must be built into any theory of how children learn language. 1/
www.cell.com/trends/cogni... @mpi-nl.bsky.social

Constructing language: a framework for explaining acquisition

Explaining how children build a language system is a central goal of research in language acquisition, with broad implications for language evolution, adult language processing, and artificial intelli...

www.cell.com

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Reposted by Stuart K Watson

ips-primatenews.bsky.social @ips-primatenews.bsky.social · Jun 25

The IPS EDEI committee has put together Conference tips for first timers with loads of great guidance on how to navigate your 1st conference. Available in English, en Français, & en Español Please share widely! Feedback welcome!

internationalprimatologicalsociety.org/ips-conferen...

🧪🐒 #IPS2025

a lemur with orange eyes is standing in front of a tree with a blue sky in the background

Alt: a lemur with orange eyes is standing in front of a tree with a blue sky in the background looking confused

media.tenor.com

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Reposted by Stuart K Watson

Mélissa Berthet @berthetmelissa.bsky.social · May 29

It's out! 🎉
Together with @maelmleroux.bsky.social , @chimpsahoi.bsky.social, and S. Townsend, we wrote a chapter on methods for studying animal sequences.

Huge thanks to @limorraviv.bsky.social and @cedricboeckx.bsky.social for editing this amazing volume!

academic.oup.com/edited-volum...

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Reposted by Stuart K Watson

Ecology of Animal Societies @livingingroups.bsky.social · May 19

Humans have many unusual traditions. But did you know animals’ strange behaviors can become culture too? Out now in Current Biology (doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...) we show the rise and spread of a surprising tradition: interspecies infant abduction. Interactive timeline (www.ab.mpg.de/671374) 🧵 (1/12)

An illustration of a white-faced capuchin monkey carrying a howler infant on their back while cracking nuts with a stone

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Zoë Goldsborough @zoegoldsborough.bsky.social · May 19

Hot off the press 📣: one of the most surprising and unsettling findings of my PhD. A novel social tradition emerged in the tool-using white-faced capuchins of Jicarón island… abducting and carrying the infants of another species. Thread with gifs, videos, and all the bizarre details 👇

Ecology of Animal Societies @livingingroups.bsky.social · May 19

Humans have many unusual traditions. But did you know animals’ strange behaviors can become culture too? Out now in Current Biology (doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...) we show the rise and spread of a surprising tradition: interspecies infant abduction. Interactive timeline (www.ab.mpg.de/671374) 🧵 (1/12)

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Sociable Weaver Project @sociableweaver.bsky.social · May 16

🚨Field assistant job in South Africa working with sociable weavers 🚨

🔌Experienced in electronics?
🏷️Enjoy working with RFID technology?
🪶Like working with birds?

Find more information below!
Applications close on 08/06/2025

sociableweaverproject.com/recruitment/...

#fieldwork #ornithology

Feeding station and breeding monitoring assistant

applications arE OPEN estimated closing date : 2025-06-08 The Sociable Weaver Project uses several automatic feeding stations to collect data on social network associations. These feeding stations …

sociableweaverproject.com

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Reposted by Stuart K Watson

Raphaela Heesen @heesenr.bsky.social · May 17

Interested in biology and comparative psychology, and working in an interdisciplinary project and research team? I’m advertising two PhD positions on the evolutionary origins of cooperative sociality and communication (start 1.10.) at the University of Konstanz👇 links below!

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Alex Mesoudi @alexmesoudi.com · May 15

Do you teach cultural evolution? Then take a look at this opportunity to get money to release it open source for others to teach it, plus some additional funds for your research

Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social · May 14

📢 CES launches Advancing Cultural Evolution (ACE) Course Design Awards! 🎉 $4000 award + global impact for your cultural evolution course materials. Course must be college/grad level with 10+ hrs content.

Application link: vuw.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_... #CulturalEvolution #Education #Grants

Qualtrics Survey | Qualtrics Experience Management

The most powerful, simple and trusted way to gather experience data. Start your journey to experience management and try a free account today.

vuw.qualtrics.com

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Reposted by Stuart K Watson

Paolo Crosetto @paolocrosetto.bsky.social · May 7

Yep, that's because we are churning out more papers per scientist than ever -- evidence here, among other metrics about the publication market and it's unsustainable practices

direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

The strain on scientific publishing

Abstract. Scientists are increasingly overwhelmed by the volume of articles being published. The total number of articles indexed in Scopus and Web of Science has grown exponentially in recent years; ...

direct.mit.edu

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Reposted by Stuart K Watson

Ian Betteridge @ianbetteridge.com · May 15

I was sceptical this was real. It’s real.

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · May 15

1/5 Chimpanzees take care of themselves and others.

Cases in which chimpanzees have treated their own and other people's wounds (from cleaning them to applying medicinal plants). They also clean themselves after having sex or relieving themselves.

(paper) www.frontiersin.org/journals/eco...

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Reposted by Stuart K Watson

Luca Pedruzzi (he/him) @lucapedruzzi.bsky.social · May 15

It’s finally out!! Our new study shows that wild geladas seem to recognize prosocial vocal affiliation to victims of aggression! A key insight into the evolution of empathy in primates 🔊🐒 @geladasbridges.bsky.social @ethos-research.bsky.social
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Wild gelada monkeys detect emotional and prosocial cues in vocal exchanges during aggression

Recognizing vocal behaviours intended to benefit others is a crucial yet understudied social skill. Primates with rich vocal repertoires and complex societies are excellent models to track the evoluti...

journals.plos.org

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Maël Leroux @maelmleroux.bsky.social · May 13

Only two weeks left to apply!

Come and join me, Alban Lemasson, Katie Slocombe and Simon Townsend!

And spread the word to whoever might be interested!

@efp2024.bsky.social @lasfdp.bsky.social @ips-primatenews.bsky.social

Maël Leroux @maelmleroux.bsky.social · Mar 26

🚨 Job opportunity 🚨
A 3-year post doc position is opening as part of my #APELANG project funded by the @agencerecherche.bsky.social

It’s about multimodal combinatorial communication in wild #chimpanzees 🐵

Job ad here: maelleroux-research.weebly.com/apelang.html
And here 👇🏻

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Reposted by Stuart K Watson

Cat Hobaiter @nakedprimate.bsky.social · May 9

TLDR: new paper headed up by @vestaeleuteri.bsky.social
& with an awesome team, incl @andrearavignani.bsky.social , showing chimps have rhythm in their drumming & differences b/w east & west drum rhythms!

www.cell.com/current-biol...

But didn’t we know this already you ask? Well… 🧵1/16

Chimpanzee drumming shows rhythmicity and subspecies variation

Chimpanzees drum on the buttress roots of trees for communication. Eleuteri et al. investigate the presence of key elements of musical rhythm and of regional variation in chimpanzee buttress drumming....

www.cell.com

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Kathelijne Koops @kathelijnekoops.bsky.social · May 11

Tune into this awesome new chimp drumming study!!! 🧵 🥁 Featuring the fabulous Nimba chimps!

Cat Hobaiter @nakedprimate.bsky.social · May 9

TLDR: new paper headed up by @vestaeleuteri.bsky.social
& with an awesome team, incl @andrearavignani.bsky.social , showing chimps have rhythm in their drumming & differences b/w east & west drum rhythms!

www.cell.com/current-biol...

But didn’t we know this already you ask? Well… 🧵1/16

Chimpanzee drumming shows rhythmicity and subspecies variation

Chimpanzees drum on the buttress roots of trees for communication. Eleuteri et al. investigate the presence of key elements of musical rhythm and of regional variation in chimpanzee buttress drumming....

www.cell.com

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