Lucy Aplin
@lucymaplin.bsky.social
Certified bird brain, researching cognitive and social ecology of parrots and parids. Currently holding down a dual position at the Australian National University and the University of Zurich
Reposted by Lucy Aplin
Our new review of beluga sociality and culture just dropped at Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology! Some of our key conclusions summarized 🧵
doi.org/10.1007/s002...
@marine-valeria.bsky.social @dmennill.bsky.social @raincoast.org
doi.org/10.1007/s002...
@marine-valeria.bsky.social @dmennill.bsky.social @raincoast.org
January 21, 2026 at 8:05 PM
Our new review of beluga sociality and culture just dropped at Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology! Some of our key conclusions summarized 🧵
doi.org/10.1007/s002...
@marine-valeria.bsky.social @dmennill.bsky.social @raincoast.org
doi.org/10.1007/s002...
@marine-valeria.bsky.social @dmennill.bsky.social @raincoast.org
Reposted by Lucy Aplin
Cats and foxes are indisputable major causes of extinction and decline of Australian native mammals academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...
Investigating the Causes of an Extinction Catastrophe: Controlling Introduced Predators Remains Essential for Conserving Australia’s Mammals
Abstract. At least 40 Australian mammal spcies have been driven to extinction since European colonization in 1788. For conservation management to be effect
academic.oup.com
January 22, 2026 at 12:10 AM
Cats and foxes are indisputable major causes of extinction and decline of Australian native mammals academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...
Reposted by Lucy Aplin
We are hiring! We have an open position for a new lab coordinator in #primate #cognition and #behavior in the Cognitive Evolution Group at University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. Find out more at: sites.lsa.umich.edu/cognitive-ev...
January 20, 2026 at 3:36 PM
We are hiring! We have an open position for a new lab coordinator in #primate #cognition and #behavior in the Cognitive Evolution Group at University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. Find out more at: sites.lsa.umich.edu/cognitive-ev...
Reposted by Lucy Aplin
We are hiring at the Wytham Woods for the upcoming field season. 4 roles available. Please share with anyone who might be interested. #UKbirds #birdringing
January 16, 2026 at 1:35 PM
We are hiring at the Wytham Woods for the upcoming field season. 4 roles available. Please share with anyone who might be interested. #UKbirds #birdringing
Enjoying some possum ASMR this evening [email protected]. You can see her young moving in the pouch.
January 19, 2026 at 10:43 AM
Enjoying some possum ASMR this evening [email protected]. You can see her young moving in the pouch.
A trio of tawny frogmouths. This pair (here with this year‘s fledgie) have slept in our (their) garden as long as we’ve been here, and I love them to bits ❤️
January 15, 2026 at 9:17 AM
A trio of tawny frogmouths. This pair (here with this year‘s fledgie) have slept in our (their) garden as long as we’ve been here, and I love them to bits ❤️
Reposted by Lucy Aplin
We are hiring – postdoc position exploring how kinship shapes social ageing in killer whales. Collaboration with @samellisq.bsky.social @drwhale.bsky.social and Prof Rufus Johnstone (Cambridge) starts 1st April 2026 and ends 31st March 2029. Apps close 2nd Feb. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPZ788/p...
January 13, 2026 at 2:42 PM
We are hiring – postdoc position exploring how kinship shapes social ageing in killer whales. Collaboration with @samellisq.bsky.social @drwhale.bsky.social and Prof Rufus Johnstone (Cambridge) starts 1st April 2026 and ends 31st March 2029. Apps close 2nd Feb. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPZ788/p...
An insightful and engaging conversation with @pbrakes.bsky.social on how and why to conserve animal cultures
To survive and flourish, many animal species rely on ecological knowledge. But this knowledge is not always spread across the group—it's often held by certain "keystone individuals."
Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ @pbrakes.bsky.social!
Listen: disi.org/the-value-of...
Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ @pbrakes.bsky.social!
Listen: disi.org/the-value-of...
January 12, 2026 at 1:36 AM
An insightful and engaging conversation with @pbrakes.bsky.social on how and why to conserve animal cultures
Congratulations, what fantastic news! 🥂
January 11, 2026 at 8:45 PM
Congratulations, what fantastic news! 🥂
Reposted by Lucy Aplin
Happy 2026 ASSABers!
We hope you had a stunning holiday break and a very happy New Year.
A reminder that our conference is a little over 5 months away!
We hope you had a stunning holiday break and a very happy New Year.
A reminder that our conference is a little over 5 months away!
January 8, 2026 at 8:41 PM
Happy 2026 ASSABers!
We hope you had a stunning holiday break and a very happy New Year.
A reminder that our conference is a little over 5 months away!
We hope you had a stunning holiday break and a very happy New Year.
A reminder that our conference is a little over 5 months away!
Reposted by Lucy Aplin
Counting down our most popular papers of the year.. in at no. 6 is a #BiologyLetters study showing sulphur-crested #cockatoos in Sydney learned to operate public drinking fountains, using their beaks and feet to turn taps and access water: doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...
December 26, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Counting down our most popular papers of the year.. in at no. 6 is a #BiologyLetters study showing sulphur-crested #cockatoos in Sydney learned to operate public drinking fountains, using their beaks and feet to turn taps and access water: doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...
What a lovely start to the year! Paddled from ANU campus to an island on the lake, had a BBQ in glorious weather, found a dusky woodswallow colony and a washed up ironbark offcut, which @damienfarine.bsky.social has made into a cheeseboard (🧀 for scale).
January 2, 2026 at 1:15 AM
What a lovely start to the year! Paddled from ANU campus to an island on the lake, had a BBQ in glorious weather, found a dusky woodswallow colony and a washed up ironbark offcut, which @damienfarine.bsky.social has made into a cheeseboard (🧀 for scale).
Reposted by Lucy Aplin
Do you love quantifying animal behavior as much as we do? We have just the tool for you! Presenting #OCTRON - a pipeline that helps you create rich annotation data and enables training of custom segmentation models. Have a look, particularly if you work with non-model / invertebrate organisms!
December 23, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Do you love quantifying animal behavior as much as we do? We have just the tool for you! Presenting #OCTRON - a pipeline that helps you create rich annotation data and enables training of custom segmentation models. Have a look, particularly if you work with non-model / invertebrate organisms!
A big step forward in how we model NBDA, with a great step-by-step user guide. Check it out!
🎉🍾 very excited to see this out before 2025 ends doi.org/10.1111/2041... with Will Hoppitt in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social. This paper is an overview of our new R package STbayes, a user-friendly toolkit for performing Bayesian NBDA analyses. @cbehav.bsky.social @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social
STbayes: An R package for creating, fitting and understanding Bayesian models of social transmission
A critical consequence of joining social groups is the possibility of social transmission of information related to novel behaviours or resources. Network-based diffusion analysis (NBDA) has emerg...
doi.org
December 21, 2025 at 9:00 AM
A big step forward in how we model NBDA, with a great step-by-step user guide. Check it out!
I couldn't agree more!
December 19, 2025 at 12:43 AM
I couldn't agree more!
Reposted by Lucy Aplin
Congratulations to Hanna Kokko for receiving this year’s ASAB medal! Hanna has done extraordinary work and we are so pleased to honour her at #ASABWinter2025
December 16, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Congratulations to Hanna Kokko for receiving this year’s ASAB medal! Hanna has done extraordinary work and we are so pleased to honour her at #ASABWinter2025
We couldn't have asked for a better end-of-year lab BBQ / stroll at a local nature reserve. Spotted platypus, emu, bandicoots, roos, wallabies, YTBC (black cockies), wedge-tailed eagles, and of course hundreds of sulphur-crested cockies feasting on the wattles. Glorious!
December 16, 2025 at 3:35 AM
We couldn't have asked for a better end-of-year lab BBQ / stroll at a local nature reserve. Spotted platypus, emu, bandicoots, roos, wallabies, YTBC (black cockies), wedge-tailed eagles, and of course hundreds of sulphur-crested cockies feasting on the wattles. Glorious!
Reposted by Lucy Aplin
Sorry to hear that Martin Parr has died. When he was documenting Oxford University he came out to Wytham Woods to photograph our team doing fieldwork - featuring @mcmahok.bsky.social & @lucymaplin.bsky.social as well as Fraser Bell & Ella Cole. The generally serious demeanour was at his request!
December 8, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Sorry to hear that Martin Parr has died. When he was documenting Oxford University he came out to Wytham Woods to photograph our team doing fieldwork - featuring @mcmahok.bsky.social & @lucymaplin.bsky.social as well as Fraser Bell & Ella Cole. The generally serious demeanour was at his request!
Reposted by Lucy Aplin
Meet Chrissie Painting the new ASSAB president!
@cpaintingnz.bsky.social is a Senior Lecturer and behavioural ecologist at the University of Waikato. Her research seeks patterns in animal behaviour and morphology, with a particular focus on insect and arachnid mating systems.
🪰🕷️🪳
@cpaintingnz.bsky.social is a Senior Lecturer and behavioural ecologist at the University of Waikato. Her research seeks patterns in animal behaviour and morphology, with a particular focus on insect and arachnid mating systems.
🪰🕷️🪳
September 22, 2025 at 5:01 AM
Meet Chrissie Painting the new ASSAB president!
@cpaintingnz.bsky.social is a Senior Lecturer and behavioural ecologist at the University of Waikato. Her research seeks patterns in animal behaviour and morphology, with a particular focus on insect and arachnid mating systems.
🪰🕷️🪳
@cpaintingnz.bsky.social is a Senior Lecturer and behavioural ecologist at the University of Waikato. Her research seeks patterns in animal behaviour and morphology, with a particular focus on insect and arachnid mating systems.
🪰🕷️🪳
Reposted by Lucy Aplin
Where to start, with a statement like this?
"Tim Ayres said the cuts were aimed at refocusing … CSIRO towards research priorities, such as critical minerals, iron & steel production in Australia."
From some rando down the bus stop, one would brush it off.
But this is from our Science Minister 🤯
"Tim Ayres said the cuts were aimed at refocusing … CSIRO towards research priorities, such as critical minerals, iron & steel production in Australia."
From some rando down the bus stop, one would brush it off.
But this is from our Science Minister 🤯
CSIRO to cut up to 350 research jobs in major overhaul
After 440 positions were slashed last year, the CSIRO has announced more staff cuts across the country in a bid to remain financially viable.
www.abc.net.au
November 19, 2025 at 12:10 AM
Where to start, with a statement like this?
"Tim Ayres said the cuts were aimed at refocusing … CSIRO towards research priorities, such as critical minerals, iron & steel production in Australia."
From some rando down the bus stop, one would brush it off.
But this is from our Science Minister 🤯
"Tim Ayres said the cuts were aimed at refocusing … CSIRO towards research priorities, such as critical minerals, iron & steel production in Australia."
From some rando down the bus stop, one would brush it off.
But this is from our Science Minister 🤯
Reposted by Lucy Aplin
Only 2 days left to get your abstracts in!
👉 A reminder that the deadline for submitting your abstract to the CES 2026 #CESRabat is the 16th of November.
🔗Submit here: airess.fgses-um6p.ma/ces2026
We look forward to seeing you in Rabat!
🔗Submit here: airess.fgses-um6p.ma/ces2026
We look forward to seeing you in Rabat!
Cultural Evolution Society 2026 Conference | Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique - FGSES
aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com
November 14, 2025 at 1:14 AM
Only 2 days left to get your abstracts in!
Calling all parrot enthusiasts!
November 12, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Calling all parrot enthusiasts!
Nice view, but now you’ll have to start working on rooks!
November 5, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Nice view, but now you’ll have to start working on rooks!
Reposted by Lucy Aplin
Just 1 week to apply! 4 year @erc.europa.eu funded PhD position working in an interdisciplinary team to study #culturalEvolution as a process of reuse, recombination, and creative re-engineering of past solutions. Details 👉 hmc-lab.com/ERCPhDCultur... 🙏Please share!
November 5, 2025 at 10:24 AM
Just 1 week to apply! 4 year @erc.europa.eu funded PhD position working in an interdisciplinary team to study #culturalEvolution as a process of reuse, recombination, and creative re-engineering of past solutions. Details 👉 hmc-lab.com/ERCPhDCultur... 🙏Please share!
enjoying a soak...
November 4, 2025 at 3:18 PM
enjoying a soak...