Luca Hahn
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lucahahn.bsky.social
Luca Hahn
@lucahahn.bsky.social
Fascinated by (social) minds - cognition, sociality, culture. PhD student at University of Exeter, Cornwall, UK @uniexecec.bsky.social. Investigating social relationships/networks and social information use in wild jackdaws @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social.
Pinned
In our new paper we discuss the coevolution of cognition and sociality (link: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...). It was a pleasure to work on this project with Andoni Sergiou, @josharbon.bsky.social, @inesfuertbauer.bsky.social, @shoalgroup.bsky.social, and @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social!
Reposted by Luca Hahn
Excited to introduce the Latent Layers Framework – now out in @behavecol.bsky.social – to help think through when and why network differences confound inference in (comparative) social network analysis! 🧵

tinyurl.com/3k3yahwy
November 24, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Reposted by Luca Hahn
Complex dynamics of social learning in groups of wild Arabian babblers
#Bird #SocialCognition

doi.org/10.1093/behe...
November 21, 2025 at 6:46 AM
Reposted by Luca Hahn
Reposted by Luca Hahn
In an increasingly divided world, how do strangers become friends? Parakeets might have something to teach us! New paper on formation of affiliative relationships, led by Dr. Claire O’Connell doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...
November 12, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Reposted by Luca Hahn
Exciting PhD opportunity to develop tech and software to record and understand wild animal behaviour. Fully funded by EPSRC DLA. Based at @uniexecec.bsky.social; co-supervised by Alex Thornton (@cornishjackdaws.bsky.social), @kjhockings.bsky.social and collaborators. Apply: tinyurl.com/5fr73snt
November 14, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Reposted by Luca Hahn
The final chapter of my thesis has just been published in Ecology and Evolution! @ecol-evol.bsky.social

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Here we find that the social environment, notably vocal and aggressive interactions, are linked to cognitive development in magpie fledglings.
November 14, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Reposted by Luca Hahn
New paper!

We propose a framework to empirically study animal social relationships by modelling social network (SN) data as time-series—that is, without the need to aggregate them over time.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
November 12, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Reposted by Luca Hahn
I am looking for a postdoc to work in our long-term system of food-caching mountain chickadees in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The expected start is April 2026. Please see details here: chickadeecognition.com/positions
If interested and qualified, please contact me directly (email on the website).
POSITIONS
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chickadeecognition.com
October 28, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Reposted by Luca Hahn
Very happy to see this collaboration with @babeheim.bsky.social published in Animal Cognition: 'Vocal mimicry in corvids'. Since posting the first preprint, we have identified evidence for vocal mimicry in 8 more species, thanks to the community highlighting additional sources #communityscience
October 30, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Reposted by Luca Hahn
Primate Society of Great Britain (PSGB) Meeting
National Museum Cardiff, 27-28 November

www.psgb.org/pages/14-mee...
Registration and abstract submission coming soon! Please share!

@mckinneymonkey.bsky.social @inesfuertbauer.bsky.social @willallennz.bsky.social @primatesocietygb.bsky.social
September 3, 2025 at 11:44 AM
Reposted by Luca Hahn
Now that we're properly moved in & set up in the new Life & Mind Building, we're pleased to restart our tradition of Friday afternoon seminar speakers, kicking off with Alex Thornton of @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social at 3.30pm on 31 Oct. Also live streamed: see below for details. Corvid-themed for 🎃
October 27, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Reposted by Luca Hahn
Social relationships are powerful predictors of fitness across social animals. But *why*?

In our new @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social paper, we outline testable predictions for why relationship quality and quantity adaptively vary across socio-ecological contexts.

tinyurl.com/55dnkeh7
October 16, 2025 at 7:07 AM
Reposted by Luca Hahn
Out today in @plosbiology.org (1/5)

Siblings and non-parental adults provide alternative pathways to cultural inheritance in juvenile great tits 🐦🧩

Link to study:
10.0.5.91/journal.pbio...

Co-authors:
@lucymaplin.bsky.social
@galarconnieto.bsky.social
October 9, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Reposted by Luca Hahn
📢🚀 Are you an early-career researcher working on anything related to culture, behaviour or learning? 🧠🌍 Join ESLR, an interdisciplinary research community! We have a NEW website and our membership is now FREE. 👉 Sign up here to get updates and become a member: www.eslrsociety.com/membership
ESLR | Membership
www.eslrsociety.com
October 2, 2025 at 7:43 AM
Reposted by Luca Hahn
Are you studying animal sociality?

My (now published) first PhD chapter proposes a Bayesian + causal framework to infer the factors shaping the social relationships that animals form with one another.

journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
A causal framework for the drivers of animal social network structure
Author summary Behavioural ecologists ask mechanistic questions about behaviour—causal questions. When studying animal societies, these questions often concern the drivers of social network structure....
journals.plos.org
September 30, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Reposted by Luca Hahn
Selection Shapes Animal Minds: More completely free videos of talks from our Royal Society Discussion meeting last year. Today's highlighted talk: Dr Zegni Triki (Neuchatel) @zegnitriki.bsky.social @royalsocietypublishing.org @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social youtu.be/WQLjnfhSyD4?...
The fish challenge to vertebrate cognitive evolution
YouTube video by Selection shapes diverse animal minds
youtu.be
September 22, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Reposted by Luca Hahn
**PhD POSITIONS** I am recruiting 1-2 PhD students to work on sociality and cognition in Monk Parakeets, starting Fall 2026. Full ad is here: hobsonresearch.com/index.php/20... (please help spread the word!)
September 23, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Reposted by Luca Hahn
We are hiring - PDRA position exploring how information access shapes social dynamics in killer whales. Collaboration with @samellisq.bsky.social @drwhale.bsky.social Prof Dan Franks (York) start 1st Nov (or ASAP) end 31st Oct 2028. Apps close on 19th Oct.

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOT336/p...
September 23, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Reposted by Luca Hahn
Please share!🙏
🚨 PhD Oportunity in Avian Behavioural Ecology in Spain
The BirdBond Project (MNCN & IREC) studies how pair bonds form, change & affect reproduction/survival in the spotless starling 🐦
September 19, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Luca Hahn
New paper led by @josharbon.bsky.social. Adults jackdaws often bully youngsters, but we show they can learn to be tolerant and attend to juveniles as sources of information. @uniexecec.bsky.social. Funded by @leverhulme.ac.uk & @swbiodtp.bsky.social

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
August 20, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Reposted by Luca Hahn
New @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social paper out today in @royalsociety.org Biology Letters. We found adult jackdaws can learn to tolerate usually bullied or ignored juveniles when they provided information about a new foraging resource.

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
Wild jackdaws learn to tolerate juveniles to exploit new foraging opportunities | Biology Letters
Social tolerance can enhance access to resources and is thought to be crucial in facilitating the evolution of cooperation, social cognition and culture, but it is unknown whether animals can optimize...
royalsocietypublishing.org
August 20, 2025 at 3:59 AM
Reposted by Luca Hahn
ESLR is currently undergoing a transition, and a new committee (@alexschakowski.bsky.social, @ahnisnaahsi.bsky.social, @katebonner.bsky.social, @lucahahn.bsky.social, @mariapykala.bsky.social) is working on reinstating its presence and shaping its future. Please feel free to get in touch!
August 18, 2025 at 6:46 AM
Reposted by Luca Hahn
The first papers from our special collection on vocal communication in corvids are now live. Most are still under review, stay tuned for more updates as they’re published! link.springer.com/collections/...
Vocal communication in corvids
In the field of vocal communication, research has mostly focussed on birds because of their vocal learning capacity and non-human primates due to their ...
link.springer.com
July 18, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Reposted by Luca Hahn
Late to the party but the last paper of my PhD was published earlier this year!
Pinyon jays (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) and Clark’s nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana) can discriminate between pilfering and non-pilfering conspecifics, but not between heterospecifics link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Pinyon Jays (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) and Clark’s nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana) can discriminate between pilfering and non-pilfering conspecifics, but not between heterospecifics - Animal Cogni...
When foraging, individuals often need to assess potential risk from competitors. Within many food-caching (food-storing) species, individuals can modify their caching behavior depending on whether oth...
link.springer.com
July 10, 2025 at 10:19 AM