Josh Arbon
@josharbon.bsky.social
Animal behaviour, social and cognitive evolution. Jackdaws, mongooses, now wagtails. Herchel Smith Research Fellow, University of Cambridge.
Reposted by Josh Arbon
New blog post!!🚨
Michael Chimento gives an overview of the new R package STbayes, designed for creating, fitting and understanding Bayesian models of social transmission 🌍 🧪
Read the blog here 👇
Michael Chimento gives an overview of the new R package STbayes, designed for creating, fitting and understanding Bayesian models of social transmission 🌍 🧪
Read the blog here 👇
Studying social transmission using STbayes
Post provided by Michael Chimento. When studying animal culture, it’s important to establish whether novel behaviours or information have spread through social contact, or are rather innovated or p…
buff.ly
January 29, 2026 at 12:02 PM
New blog post!!🚨
Michael Chimento gives an overview of the new R package STbayes, designed for creating, fitting and understanding Bayesian models of social transmission 🌍 🧪
Read the blog here 👇
Michael Chimento gives an overview of the new R package STbayes, designed for creating, fitting and understanding Bayesian models of social transmission 🌍 🧪
Read the blog here 👇
Reposted by Josh Arbon
Just as a counterpoint to general mood: inspirational pair and a much more honest reflection of the UK population in the response they experienced
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
‘It has been overwhelming’: Sudanese friends complete 900-mile UK walk
Giel Malual and John Kuei trekked from Dungeness to John o’Groats to raise funds for new schools in Sudan
www.theguardian.com
January 22, 2026 at 8:57 PM
Just as a counterpoint to general mood: inspirational pair and a much more honest reflection of the UK population in the response they experienced
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
Found it! Apologies to Schiller, it was Kluver in the 30s. Worth a few minutes of anyone's time: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Help me out. I'm looking for a paper I think I saw on bluesky from ~1950s about experiments where chimps were given rats on strings to use as living tools to access out of reach food. I think it might have been Schiller but I can't find it anywhere! Have I gone mad?
January 22, 2026 at 6:46 PM
Found it! Apologies to Schiller, it was Kluver in the 30s. Worth a few minutes of anyone's time: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Help me out. I'm looking for a paper I think I saw on bluesky from ~1950s about experiments where chimps were given rats on strings to use as living tools to access out of reach food. I think it might have been Schiller but I can't find it anywhere! Have I gone mad?
January 22, 2026 at 4:02 PM
Help me out. I'm looking for a paper I think I saw on bluesky from ~1950s about experiments where chimps were given rats on strings to use as living tools to access out of reach food. I think it might have been Schiller but I can't find it anywhere! Have I gone mad?
Reposted by Josh Arbon
Paper out today on @royalsocietypublishing.org:
"Alerting and orienting attention in anti-predator vigilance: neurocognitive modelling and behavioural evidence"
royalsocietypublishing.org/rsif/article...
🧪🌎🪶 #corvids #OpenAccess
"Alerting and orienting attention in anti-predator vigilance: neurocognitive modelling and behavioural evidence"
royalsocietypublishing.org/rsif/article...
🧪🌎🪶 #corvids #OpenAccess
January 21, 2026 at 9:18 AM
Paper out today on @royalsocietypublishing.org:
"Alerting and orienting attention in anti-predator vigilance: neurocognitive modelling and behavioural evidence"
royalsocietypublishing.org/rsif/article...
🧪🌎🪶 #corvids #OpenAccess
"Alerting and orienting attention in anti-predator vigilance: neurocognitive modelling and behavioural evidence"
royalsocietypublishing.org/rsif/article...
🧪🌎🪶 #corvids #OpenAccess
I was always intrigued in how cultural conformity forms and erodes, so much so I would get up before sunrise to dye cheese different colours. This fab new paper shows how competition and ease of learning can produce a spectrum of conformist outcomes in the same system: www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...
January 21, 2026 at 9:15 AM
I was always intrigued in how cultural conformity forms and erodes, so much so I would get up before sunrise to dye cheese different colours. This fab new paper shows how competition and ease of learning can produce a spectrum of conformist outcomes in the same system: www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...
Reposted by Josh Arbon
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
January 15, 2026 at 3:13 PM
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
Reposted by Josh Arbon
Internships are now available with the Cornish Jackdaw Project! 🐦⬛
Duties will include assisting with nest monitoring, bird ringing, data entry, and the potential to help with ongoing research projects.
Duties will include assisting with nest monitoring, bird ringing, data entry, and the potential to help with ongoing research projects.
January 15, 2026 at 8:27 AM
Internships are now available with the Cornish Jackdaw Project! 🐦⬛
Duties will include assisting with nest monitoring, bird ringing, data entry, and the potential to help with ongoing research projects.
Duties will include assisting with nest monitoring, bird ringing, data entry, and the potential to help with ongoing research projects.
Reposted by Josh Arbon
It's easier to tear down than build up, and in science we have a bad case of that. So: how to lead a journal club that actually finds value in what you read. scientistseessquirre... 🧪
How to lead a journal club you won’t be embarrassed by later
One of the jobs facing an early-career scientist, and a developing writer, is to learn what their field’s literature looks like. One of the best tools to that end is the journal club. If you’ve nev…
scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com
January 13, 2026 at 2:08 PM
It's easier to tear down than build up, and in science we have a bad case of that. So: how to lead a journal club that actually finds value in what you read. scientistseessquirre... 🧪
Reposted by Josh Arbon
Paper alert ⚠️⚠️⚠️. Check out our last preprint on bird gestures. Great work By Mylene and collegue and my first empirical paper on non-primates :-). Not only do we confirm that the "after-you" gesture is indeed symbolic in tits but we also found that nestlings use this gesture for another function.
New preprint on visual communication!
Ontogenic shift in the usage and function of a symbolic bird gesture.
With my student Valentine Ouvry and colleagues Thierry Lengagne & @tozbu.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Ontogenic shift in the usage and function of a symbolic bird gesture.
With my student Valentine Ouvry and colleagues Thierry Lengagne & @tozbu.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
January 9, 2026 at 8:41 PM
Paper alert ⚠️⚠️⚠️. Check out our last preprint on bird gestures. Great work By Mylene and collegue and my first empirical paper on non-primates :-). Not only do we confirm that the "after-you" gesture is indeed symbolic in tits but we also found that nestlings use this gesture for another function.
Reposted by Josh Arbon
Proc B with @sampassmore.bsky.social! We used simulations to explore the innovation strategies of speed climbers 🧗♀️ Innovation is higher among slower athletes and lower when the population size is larger, and the overall balance of innovation and copying appears to be suboptimal 🔗 bit.ly/499QjZM
Simulation-based inference with deep learning suggests speed climbers combine innovation and copying to improve performance
Abstract. In the Olympic sport of speed climbing, athletes compete to reach the top of a 15 m wall as quickly as possible. Since the standardization of the
bit.ly
January 8, 2026 at 2:00 PM
Proc B with @sampassmore.bsky.social! We used simulations to explore the innovation strategies of speed climbers 🧗♀️ Innovation is higher among slower athletes and lower when the population size is larger, and the overall balance of innovation and copying appears to be suboptimal 🔗 bit.ly/499QjZM
Reposted by Josh Arbon
Jellyfish sleep, which is already bizarre given they have no brains. DNA damage accumulates in their neurons when jellyfish are awake, and it gets repaired when they sleep. This might be something fundamental, evolutionarily, to the role of sleep. 🧪🌊
Link: nature.com/articles/s41...
Link: nature.com/articles/s41...
January 8, 2026 at 6:54 AM
Jellyfish sleep, which is already bizarre given they have no brains. DNA damage accumulates in their neurons when jellyfish are awake, and it gets repaired when they sleep. This might be something fundamental, evolutionarily, to the role of sleep. 🧪🌊
Link: nature.com/articles/s41...
Link: nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Josh Arbon
Tired: Everything evolves to be a crab.
Wired: Everything evolves to eat ants.
Wired: Everything evolves to eat ants.
Mammals have evolved into ant eaters 12 times since the dinosaur age, study finds
Mammals have developed some unusual eating habits over the past 100 million years, but a new study has uncovered the surprising lengths to which some have gone to satisfy one of the more peculiar—a ta...
phys.org
January 7, 2026 at 1:13 AM
Tired: Everything evolves to be a crab.
Wired: Everything evolves to eat ants.
Wired: Everything evolves to eat ants.
Reposted by Josh Arbon
📢📢PhD opportunity!
We are looking for enthusiastic researchers to develop a project looking at the ontogeny of migratory behaviour!
Deadline for expression of interest: 8 February 2026
👉Check details here: drive.google.com/file/d/1wow2...
#migration #ornithology #GPStracking
We are looking for enthusiastic researchers to develop a project looking at the ontogeny of migratory behaviour!
Deadline for expression of interest: 8 February 2026
👉Check details here: drive.google.com/file/d/1wow2...
#migration #ornithology #GPStracking
January 6, 2026 at 11:32 AM
📢📢PhD opportunity!
We are looking for enthusiastic researchers to develop a project looking at the ontogeny of migratory behaviour!
Deadline for expression of interest: 8 February 2026
👉Check details here: drive.google.com/file/d/1wow2...
#migration #ornithology #GPStracking
We are looking for enthusiastic researchers to develop a project looking at the ontogeny of migratory behaviour!
Deadline for expression of interest: 8 February 2026
👉Check details here: drive.google.com/file/d/1wow2...
#migration #ornithology #GPStracking
Reposted by Josh Arbon
Winter means.. communal roosts! 🦅🐦🦜
But why do birds form such roosts? In red kites, young single males are the most frequent visitors. Once paired, birds roost more solitarily, often together as a pair.
📢 Now online: tinyurl.tools/98e9279e
@animalecology.bsky.social
@vogelwarte.bsky.social
But why do birds form such roosts? In red kites, young single males are the most frequent visitors. Once paired, birds roost more solitarily, often together as a pair.
📢 Now online: tinyurl.tools/98e9279e
@animalecology.bsky.social
@vogelwarte.bsky.social
December 11, 2025 at 9:57 AM
Winter means.. communal roosts! 🦅🐦🦜
But why do birds form such roosts? In red kites, young single males are the most frequent visitors. Once paired, birds roost more solitarily, often together as a pair.
📢 Now online: tinyurl.tools/98e9279e
@animalecology.bsky.social
@vogelwarte.bsky.social
But why do birds form such roosts? In red kites, young single males are the most frequent visitors. Once paired, birds roost more solitarily, often together as a pair.
📢 Now online: tinyurl.tools/98e9279e
@animalecology.bsky.social
@vogelwarte.bsky.social
Reposted by Josh Arbon
Multiple anthropogenic stressors can negatively impact species but can a single stressor also have multiple, concurrent impacts? Here we show that light pollution creates several simultaneous impacts to the nocturnal movement ecology of a moth and a spider: tinyurl.com/5eku5bff (1/5)
December 17, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Multiple anthropogenic stressors can negatively impact species but can a single stressor also have multiple, concurrent impacts? Here we show that light pollution creates several simultaneous impacts to the nocturnal movement ecology of a moth and a spider: tinyurl.com/5eku5bff (1/5)
Reposted by Josh Arbon
If you’re sad #ASABWinter2025 is over, have no fear! #ASABSpring2025 🌼 is coming soon, from March 23-25 at Bristol University. It’s an especially fantastic meeting for students and ECRs 🤠
Don’t forget travel grants are due Feb 1!
www.asab.org/conferences-...
Don’t forget travel grants are due Feb 1!
www.asab.org/conferences-...
December 16, 2025 at 5:08 PM
If you’re sad #ASABWinter2025 is over, have no fear! #ASABSpring2025 🌼 is coming soon, from March 23-25 at Bristol University. It’s an especially fantastic meeting for students and ECRs 🤠
Don’t forget travel grants are due Feb 1!
www.asab.org/conferences-...
Don’t forget travel grants are due Feb 1!
www.asab.org/conferences-...
Reposted by Josh Arbon
Beyond proud to be recognised for my poster. Huge thanks to the organisers for such an interesting and inspiring event!
Congratulations to #ASABWinter2025 best talk winner Jonah Walker (“Multimodal signalling and mate choice across peacock spider species“) and poster winners Helena Norman, Joey Baxter and James Robertshaw 🙌🎨🏆
December 17, 2025 at 12:21 AM
Beyond proud to be recognised for my poster. Huge thanks to the organisers for such an interesting and inspiring event!
Reposted by Josh Arbon
Congratulations to #ASABWinter2025 best talk winner Jonah Walker (“Multimodal signalling and mate choice across peacock spider species“) and poster winners Helena Norman, Joey Baxter and James Robertshaw 🙌🎨🏆
December 16, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Congratulations to #ASABWinter2025 best talk winner Jonah Walker (“Multimodal signalling and mate choice across peacock spider species“) and poster winners Helena Norman, Joey Baxter and James Robertshaw 🙌🎨🏆
Reposted by Josh Arbon
Delighted to have presented my work on meerkat inter-group conflict at my first conference! If you didn’t get the chance today, come and say hi tomorrow 👋 #ASABWinter2025
December 15, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Delighted to have presented my work on meerkat inter-group conflict at my first conference! If you didn’t get the chance today, come and say hi tomorrow 👋 #ASABWinter2025
Reposted by Josh Arbon
Very happy to have presented my poster today on vocal regulation of cooperation in meerkats at #ASABWinter2025 come chat to me tomorrow if you’re interested! 🤓
December 15, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Very happy to have presented my poster today on vocal regulation of cooperation in meerkats at #ASABWinter2025 come chat to me tomorrow if you’re interested! 🤓
Reposted by Josh Arbon
Sad to be missing the #ASABWinter2025
@asab-meetings.bsky.social conference this week, but two postdocs that may interest ASAB members:
@asab-meetings.bsky.social conference this week, but two postdocs that may interest ASAB members:
POSTDOC ALERT🚨
Two exciting social evolution postdoc positions live today!
We're looking for two excellent field biologists. Join us to explore the evolution of sociality in wasps across Africa. Apply by 11th January.
Collaboration with
@dustinrubenstein.com
@bristolbiosci.bsky.social
Two exciting social evolution postdoc positions live today!
We're looking for two excellent field biologists. Join us to explore the evolution of sociality in wasps across Africa. Apply by 11th January.
Collaboration with
@dustinrubenstein.com
@bristolbiosci.bsky.social
December 15, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Sad to be missing the #ASABWinter2025
@asab-meetings.bsky.social conference this week, but two postdocs that may interest ASAB members:
@asab-meetings.bsky.social conference this week, but two postdocs that may interest ASAB members:
Andy has been such a fantastic mentor to so many this is the least recognition he deserves. I can’t put into words the transformative effect Andy’s guidance has had on how I conduct both my science and myself. Get yourself a mentor like Andy.
Honoured & humbled to receive a #Nature #Award for #Mentoring in #Science yesterday. ☺️
Testament to the wonderful #ECRs I've been privileged to work with. THANK YOU to all who nominated me. 🙏
#proud #support
@natureportfolio.nature.com @bristolbiosci.bsky.social
www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2025/de...
Testament to the wonderful #ECRs I've been privileged to work with. THANK YOU to all who nominated me. 🙏
#proud #support
@natureportfolio.nature.com @bristolbiosci.bsky.social
www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2025/de...
December 14, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Andy has been such a fantastic mentor to so many this is the least recognition he deserves. I can’t put into words the transformative effect Andy’s guidance has had on how I conduct both my science and myself. Get yourself a mentor like Andy.
Reposted by Josh Arbon
Very grateful for such a warm, fun research group made up of some truly brilliant scientists!
A brilliant afternoon #symposium and evening of #fun with the best #researchgroup in the world (I may be slightly biased!). Fantastic talks from everyone; interesting discussions; great food; laughter throughout. What more could you want?
@bristolbiosci.bsky.social
@profstevesimpson.bsky.social
@bristolbiosci.bsky.social
@profstevesimpson.bsky.social
December 4, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Very grateful for such a warm, fun research group made up of some truly brilliant scientists!
Reposted by Josh Arbon
Heading to #Edinburgh for @asab.org Winter Conference. Can't wait to hear about exciting research, meet new folk & catch up with old friends.
Seek me out to talk about #AnimalBehaviour journal or these #PhD #opportunities:
tinyurl.com/aja54nr6
tinyurl.com/4jfy47pp
@asab-meetings.bsky.social
Seek me out to talk about #AnimalBehaviour journal or these #PhD #opportunities:
tinyurl.com/aja54nr6
tinyurl.com/4jfy47pp
@asab-meetings.bsky.social
Funded PhD open to UK-domiciled, home fee applicants of Black African, Black Caribbean or other Black or mixed Black heritage - Biological market monitoring and manipulation in social animals at Unive...
PhD Project - Funded PhD open to UK-domiciled, home fee applicants of Black African, Black Caribbean or other Black or mixed Black heritage - Biological market monitoring and manipulation in social an...
tinyurl.com
December 13, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Heading to #Edinburgh for @asab.org Winter Conference. Can't wait to hear about exciting research, meet new folk & catch up with old friends.
Seek me out to talk about #AnimalBehaviour journal or these #PhD #opportunities:
tinyurl.com/aja54nr6
tinyurl.com/4jfy47pp
@asab-meetings.bsky.social
Seek me out to talk about #AnimalBehaviour journal or these #PhD #opportunities:
tinyurl.com/aja54nr6
tinyurl.com/4jfy47pp
@asab-meetings.bsky.social