Claudia Wascher
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wascherclaudia.bsky.social
Claudia Wascher
@wascherclaudia.bsky.social
1.9K followers 1.6K following 110 posts
Prof. of Behavioural Biology | cooperation, communication, cognition, corvids and physiology | equity & diversity research | addressing biases in animal behaviour

https://claudiawascher.github.io/

she/her ♻️🌍💚|🏳️‍🌈 & 🏳️‍⚧️ ally|✊🏿 ally|🇪🇺|
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Claudia Wascher
cornishjackdaws.bsky.social
New paper, led by our former PhD student Victoria Lee. Wild jackdaws recognise the contact calls of their mate: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
@uniexecec.bsky.social @guillmcivor.bsky.social
Wild jackdaws recognise the contact calls of their mate - Animal Cognition
Animal Cognition - In stable social environments, the ability to recognise other group members and integrate individual cues with previous experience is likely to be beneficial in mediating social...
link.springer.com
November 27, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Reposted by Claudia Wascher
primbehavecol.bsky.social
Come and join our lab! We have TWO fully funded PhD positions AND a paid field assistant opportunity in our Behavioral Ecology group @uni-goettingen.de & @primatenzentrum.bsky.social. Projects will be part of @rtg2906-curiosity.bsky.social & @sfb1528.bsky.social!!
Details in thread. Please re-post!
November 25, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Reposted by Claudia Wascher
viveknityananda.bsky.social
Wondering if insects feel pain? Here's our critique of work that looked at this in bees. We were unconvinced of the evidence, and built a model to think through these issues.

Their response is published alongside and we'll have a response to that out soon.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Motivational trade-offs as evidence for sentience in bees: a critique
www.sciencedirect.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Reposted by Claudia Wascher
elizabethhobson.bsky.social
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...
Graphic showing the paper title “Monk parakeets ‘test the waters’ when forming new relationships” in the journal Biology Letters. Also features photos of the co-authors (Claire, Annemarie, Gerry, and Liz) as well as the issue cover photo of two marked monk parakeets from Claire’s work grooming each other. Also shown are some of the main plots of the paper showing how the parakeets escalate their behaviors from low risk/low investment (like proximity) to higher risk/higher investment interactions (like preening/grooming)
November 12, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Reposted by Claudia Wascher
mariehebert.bsky.social
PLEASE SHARE

🚨🚨 6-month RA position available at the Univ. of St Andrews to work with Sue Healy (@cogwild.bsky.social), Simone Meddle (@simonemeddle.bsky.social) and I on the behavioural neuroendocrinology of early reproduction in zebra finches.

tinyurl.com/577cx9tj

Deadline: 03/12/2025
⬇️
November 19, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Reposted by Claudia Wascher
ljnbrent.bsky.social
Apply now for a NERC-funded PhD position with @andyradford.bsky.social & Patrick Kennedy at @bristolbiosci.bsky.social (with me as friendly 2nd supervisor down the road in @crab-exeter.bsky.social). Network cognition, cooperation, competition...what's not to like?
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Funded PhD NERC GW4+ DLTP - Social monitoring and manipulation of cooperative exchanges at University of Bristol on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - Funded PhD NERC GW4+ DLTP - Social monitoring and manipulation of cooperative exchanges at University of Bristol, listed on FindAPhD.com
www.findaphd.com
November 17, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Reposted by Claudia Wascher
xavh.bsky.social
Fully funded NERC GW4+ PhD Opportunity - *Understanding The Spread of Antimicrobial Resistance by Migratory Birds*

Supervised by me, @stubearhop.bsky.social (Exeter) & Patricia Brekke (ZSL). Application deadline 8th January. Please get in touch for more info

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
November 17, 2025 at 6:06 AM
Reposted by Claudia Wascher
biotay.bsky.social
1/7 Vocal mimicry, robots, and music

The ability to mimic sounds could be extremely common among corvids. Here, it has been found in 39 species (30%), but it is predicted that it could be present in around 82% of them.

(paper) link.springer.com/article/10.1...
November 10, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Reposted by Claudia Wascher
animal-sounds.bsky.social
🚨Who wants to work with Kalahari meerkats? A MSc project with @mathildemartin.bsky.social at the University of Zurich.
#bioacoustics 🧪
November 10, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Reposted by Claudia Wascher
distrustful-dinos.bsky.social
Bonfire night is here! Sending love to those sheltering with animal companions

@wascherclaudia.bsky.social and I have new research out about the impacts fireworks have on urban corvids: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

And as video: youtu.be/dCfHEqJfx2A

#BonfireNight #birds #crows #urbanwildlife
Crows are flying around in the dark through thick smoke as fireworks explode all around. Crows are flying around in the dark through thick smoke as fireworks explode all around. Hundreds of crows can be seen flying in to roost around Alexanderplatz on a grey winter night. A hooded crow stands in a slushy puddle on a cold winter night.
November 5, 2025 at 4:14 PM
wascherclaudia.bsky.social
As Bonfire Night approaches, new research lnkd.in/epBXK8Tu by @distrustful-dinos.bsky.social and me shows that fireworks significantly disturb urban corvids. OA: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/d...

#BonfireNight #Wildlife #AnimalWelfare #Corvids

📸 Photo: @distrustful-dinos.bsky.social
A picture of Berlin at night, fireworks are going off in the background and corvids are flying in the air. A picture of a hooded crow in a water puddle on the street. Some lights in the background. Picture of the Berlin skyline at night. Corvids are flying in the air.
November 5, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Reposted by Claudia Wascher
amyleedale.bsky.social
Looking for a PhD? 🦜
Interested in ornithology, animal behaviour, bioacoustics?

I am advertising a PhD on vocal communication in ring-necked parakeets tinyurl.com/44a3hcnz

Eligible candidates are encouraged to apply for University of Salford Widening Participation Scholarships tinyurl.com/4wtzzh3z
Genetic and Acoustic Diversity in an Invasive Parrot at University of Salford on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - Genetic and Acoustic Diversity in an Invasive Parrot at University of Salford, listed on FindAPhD.com
tinyurl.com
October 23, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Reposted by Claudia Wascher
krishsubramaniam.bsky.social
‼️ Thrilled to share my first article on the Kalahari meerkats ‼️, in @animalecology.bsky.social! Group membership strongly influences gut microbiomes & especially the co-occurrence of beneficial bacteria, beyond animals' age or sex, disease status, or environmental exposure

doi.org/10.1111/1365...
Impact of animal socioecology on gut microbial communities: Insights from wild meerkats in the Kalahari
Our study addresses critical gaps at the nexus of animal and microbial ecologies, adding much-needed empirical support to recent theoretical frameworks that have conceptualised gut microbiomes as bei...
doi.org
October 31, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Reposted by Claudia Wascher
andyradford.bsky.social
Out 🌟TODAY🌟 in the #new volume of @asab.org #AnimalBehaviour, is latest #PhD chapter from the fantastic #Chun-ChiehLiao:
Functionally referential communication about danger in cooperatively breeding white-winged choughs
#fieldwork #experiments
With #RobMagrath #RobHeinsohn
doi.org/10.1016/j.an...
1/
Two wild white-winged choughs in Canberra, Australia; the study species in the newly published paper. Lead author Chun-Chieh Liao presenting the published work at the Behaviour 2025 conference in Kolkata.
October 30, 2025 at 2:51 PM
wascherclaudia.bsky.social
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
wascherclaudia.bsky.social
Our special collection is growing nicely, already featuring six published papers and more under review/in production #animalcognition #vocalcommunication
October 30, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Reposted by Claudia Wascher
viveknityananda.bsky.social
New #PhD ad alert!
Interested in wild #bee #cognition and #brains in different #bumblebees? Want to live in #Newcastle and the beautiful north-east of England?

Check out this project with me, @lenariab.bsky.social and Sarah Scott. Contact me for further information.

iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...
The cognitive ecology of wild bumblebees
iapetus.ac.uk
October 28, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Reposted by Claudia Wascher
co-breed.bsky.social
1/6 The Cooperative-Breeding Database (Co-BreeD) is alive! Co-BreeD covers key biological parameters relevant to cooperative breeding research in birds and mammals. Get your copy of this updateable & open-access database: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
@animalecology.bsky.social
An integrative, peer‐reviewed and open‐source cooperative‐breeding database (Co‐BreeD)
Co-BreeD is the first updatable and open-source database dedicated to cooperative breeding. It enables continuous, non-binary measurement of cooperative breeding, transforming how we study breeding s....
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 24, 2025 at 5:46 AM
Reposted by Claudia Wascher
domcram.bsky.social
🚨Fully-funded PhD opportunity in my group🚨

🧬How does parental ageing shape the next generation?🐾

Find out by studying meerkats!

🧪Epigenetic clocks
✨Bioinformatics
📊Long-term data
🌍Kalahari fieldwork
💡Big evolutionary questions

Get in touch or APPLY NOW
Please share!
www.uea.ac.uk/course/phd-d...
A collage featuring some laboratory analyses, a schematic of the structure of DNA, a pocket watch in an elderly person's hand, and a family of wild meerkats.
October 17, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Reposted by Claudia Wascher
delphinedemoor.bsky.social
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
The Adaptive Relationships Framework illustrating how broad socioecological pressures shape the social solutions animals use to meet these challenges, and how these lead to social strategies and emergent structures that help them gain access to those solutions.
October 16, 2025 at 7:07 AM
wascherclaudia.bsky.social
Job alert: want to be my boss? 😁 The School of Life Sciences @ARU is looking for a new Head of School. It’s a great place to work with brilliant colleagues, students, and partners. Please share widely! #AcademicJobs #Leadership #LifeSciences #HigherEducation jobs.aru.ac.uk/vacancy/head...
Head of School of Life Sciences - ARU
jobs.aru.ac.uk
October 8, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Reposted by Claudia Wascher
ccioannou.bsky.social
Last hours for this - deadline is midnight tonight, 1st October, UK time. That's for both the application (online form) and the referee statement (emailed direct to me). All info here:
www.asab.org/conference-g...
ccioannou.bsky.social Christos C. Ioannou @ccioannou.bsky.social · Sep 27
ASAB @asab.org conference grants for the Winter meeting in Edinburgh, up to £500, close 1st October!

@asab-meetings.bsky.social #ASABWinter2025

All the details needed are here:
www.asab.org/conference-g...
Don't forget I also need a referee statement emailed direct by the same deadline!
October 1, 2025 at 5:14 AM
Reposted by Claudia Wascher
elizabethhobson.bsky.social
**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!)
Image showing Hobson Lab logo (with parakeets, a social network, and R code), two Monk Parakeets, and several individually-marked parakeets with the text "Now recruiting PhD students!!"
September 23, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Reposted by Claudia Wascher
ljnbrent.bsky.social
Postdoc job alert! We are hiring a NYU-based postdoc to work on our project on the social and environmental determinants of aging. The 3 year post will be based in James Higham's lab and will focus on endocrine, immune, and inflammatory aspects of aging. Please share! apply.interfolio.com/173938
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
September 22, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Reposted by Claudia Wascher
markuseichhorn.bsky.social
Don't be this editor. I can't believe we still have to put up with this exclusionary sh*t in academic publishing.
Text reads: So, if your manuscript is accepted, it will only be edited for future publication after we receive the certificate with proof of English language proficiency.
September 18, 2025 at 11:46 AM