Damien Farine
@damienfarine.bsky.social
2.1K followers 650 following 79 posts
Analyst of collective movement and social networks of living dinosaurs. Discoverer of multilevel societies. Watcher of fishers and dolphins. Modeller of emergent phenomena. Eccellenza Prof @ Uni Zurich and A/Prof @ Australian National Uni. ERC grantee
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damienfarine.bsky.social
On the cover of @royalsocietypublishing.org Proceedings B:

We show that moving as a group constrains energy efficiency in wild vulturine guineafowl making large displacements (relative to individuals moving alone). A cost of collective movement!

shorturl.at/nKhI0

@jamesklarevas.bsky.social
Reposted by Damien Farine
royalsocietypublishing.org
Social and spatial drivers of the multitiered structure of zebra finch social networks #ProcB @damienfarine.bsky.social #Behaviour #Evolution royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
damienfarine.bsky.social
Very pleased to see our study that formally quantifies the society of zebra finches. They have different types of relationships, and these form tiers, but they do not form a multilevel society.

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

This was a very nice collaboration with great colleagues.
Reposted by Damien Farine
thecharleywu.bsky.social
A small selection of #COSMOS2025 participants hard at work on their group projects @lazytenuredprof.bsky.social @damienfarine.bsky.social @lucymaplin.bsky.social Thanks to all of the instructors for providing code/data for hands-on experience with modeling cosmossummerschool.github.io/projects/
Reposted by Damien Farine
thundergoose.bsky.social
Really cool article on the complex societies formed by vulturine guineafowl. The article has a couple of specialized terms but is pretty readable once you know those words (I had to look up philopatry for example).
Reposted by Damien Farine
thecharleywu.bsky.social
Shifting the spotlight from dominance towards shared decision-making in collective groups @damienfarine.bsky.social #COSMOS2025
Reposted by Damien Farine
andyradford.bsky.social
Interested in vocal #communication? How animals provide referential #information about danger? Then see our 🌟NEW🌟 paper by brilliant ANU #PhD student Chun-Chieh Liao out today in @asab.org Animal Behaviour. 🎉👏

#birds #choughs #fieldwork #ECR
With Rob Magrath and Rob Heinsohn
doi.org/10.1016/j.an...
White-winged choughs in Canberra, Australia - the bird species studied in the newly published work.
Reposted by Damien Farine
sjportugal.bsky.social
We're looking for a new postdoc on our new BBSCR grant (Graham Taylor/Tim Guilford/Cait Newport). See link below!

my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...
damienfarine.bsky.social
One important insight that we could gain from this paper is to show that shared decision-making can alter how individuals perceive the environment, which has impact on future decisions that they make.

This highlights that social behaviour changes the interface between animals and their environment
damienfarine.bsky.social
What drives emergent leader-follower dynamics in animal groups?

We integrate the process of movement initiations into the marginal value theorem, and discover that the identities of leaders can change over time.

nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
damienfarine.bsky.social
One important thing to note about this is that they are only talking about joining Pillar II. These are for large cluster grants. There is no talk of joining Pillar I that has the basic research grant funding (e.g. H2020 Starting, Consolidator, Advanced grants & Marie Curie fellowships).
Reposted by Damien Farine
gfalbery.bsky.social
Celebrating the publication of our big collaborative spatial-social meta-analysis of density-dependent transmission effects, out now in Nature Eco Evo! doi.org/10.1038/s415... (or rdcu.be/eD6eB)
Reposted by Damien Farine
clevercockierp.bsky.social
That's the spot...! A trio of allopreening cockies engaging in some social bonding at our field-site, captured by @elliearose.bsky.social.

If you'd like to learn more about when and why cockies allopreen, check out a recent paper by @julia-penndorf.bsky.social: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
damienfarine.bsky.social
Looks really interesting. Can you share your poster with those of us who are sadly missing the conference?
Reposted by Damien Farine
clevercockierp.bsky.social
Lab member Lara Blumenstiel is currently wrapping up the last stage of training before moving on to cognitive testing. Sydney's clever cockies are playing her custom puzzle-box like pros!
damienfarine.bsky.social
Nice example of social resistance! Well done.
Reposted by Damien Farine
scienceanu.bsky.social
Next week is National Science Week and we have so many upcoming events at ANU!
From panel discussions with inpiring scientists, to science in the pub, to lab tours for students, there's something for everyone:
science.anu.edu.au/news-events/...
Reposted by Damien Farine
clevercockierp.bsky.social
An extremely clever cockie, or one regretting their life choices?

Spotted at our Canberra field-site by @lisafontana.bsky.social, it's first time we've seen a sulphur-crested cockatoo successfully fledge 3 chicks! The usual is 2 eggs laid, resulting in 0-1 chicks.
damienfarine.bsky.social
When the team is out collecting guineafowl faecal samples and everyone wants to join in.

@c-christensen.bsky.social
Reposted by Damien Farine
fairywrensanu.bsky.social
On Tuesday, @sramellini.bsky.social spoke to ABC Radio Canberra Drive about superb fairywrens and the #SFW_ANU project. If you missed it, you can listen to it here (from minute 07:50): www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...
Drive - ABC listen
The lively debate and stories that have shaped Canberra today.
www.abc.net.au
damienfarine.bsky.social
First tracking of wild gang-gang cockatoos. Ever.

This is an awesome application of BLE tags to an important species for conservation.

Also, cute!
clevercockierp.bsky.social
No, it's not a sulphur-crested cockatoo, but it is a clever cockie!

Masters student Miro van den Berg is using light-weight BLE-tags to study the urban lives of the gorgeous gang-gang cockatoo. You can read more here: sites.google.com/site/lucymap...