Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Sofia Forss @sofiaforss.bsky.social · 2d

Our findings suggest that vervets do not integrate evolutionary novel labels in their responses but instead react to dogs with ingrained adaptive behaviors.

Sofia Forss @sofiaforss.bsky.social · 2d

🚨In this new Pre-print we present our findings on Monkey-Dog interactions
🐒🐕‍🦺🐒🐕‍🦺 @UrbanVervet
Living with urban fear: vervet monkey response to an evolutionarily new predator www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Living with urban fear: vervet monkey response to an evolutionarily new predator

Humans have facilitated contacts between prey and predator species that have originally not co-evolved, reshuffling the prey-predator arms race. How do prey cope with an evolutionarily new predation r...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Sofia Forss

Ari Strandburg-Peshkin @arispeshkin.bsky.social · 6d

⭐PhD position available!⭐
Come join us @imprs-qbee.bsky.social to study communication and collective behavior in animal groups! We're looking for someone excited to use computational approaches to tackle biological questions, using our full-group tracking datasets
imprs-qbee.mpg.de/121465/analy...

Analysis of communication and collective behavior in animal groups

imprs-qbee.mpg.de

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Sofia Forss @sofiaforss.bsky.social · 11d

in the beginning of September the UVP hosted a few days with our collaborators from the Sinergia project on gut-microbiom axis & behavior. Looking forward to see what the urban diet reveals in terms of health 🐒🍕🐒 @UrbanVervet Project @SimbithiEcoEstate

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Sofia Forss @sofiaforss.bsky.social · 12d

oh that is adorable! Looking at this reminds me, we totally should do some site comparative stuff at some point 👍🏻

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Reposted by Sofia Forss

Elizabeth Hobson @elizabethhobson.bsky.social · 15d

**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!)

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Reposted by Sofia Forss

Darren Croft @darrencroft.bsky.social · 15d

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...

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Reposted by Sofia Forss

Sheina Lew-Levy @sheinalew.bsky.social · 27d

@durhampsych.bsky.social current has 5 (FIVE!!) PhD studentships being advertised!

3 to work with me on children as agents of cultural evolution

2 to work with @drboothroyd.bsky.social on examining school-based body image interventions.

Please share and apply!

www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...

Fees and Funding - Durham University

www.durham.ac.uk

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Sofia Forss @sofiaforss.bsky.social · 28d

The Urban Vervet Projects educational work is featured in local South African news 🐒 Thanks Stef 🙏🏻 www.citizen.co.za/north-coast-...

Simbithi study reveals health crisis in urban monkeys caused by human food | North Coast Courier

Experts warn against feeding monkeys as human food is doing more harm than good.

www.citizen.co.za

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Reposted by Sofia Forss

Ari Strandburg-Peshkin @arispeshkin.bsky.social · Sep 7

🚨 Junior Research Fellow position (+possible PhD conversion) studying Emergent Collective Intelligence for Ephemeral Resource Tracking. Based with Akanksha Rathore at BITS Pilani (India) and including visits to Konstanz (Germany) to collaborate with us! Apply by 12 September. More info 👇

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Sofia Forss @sofiaforss.bsky.social · Sep 4

🐕 Dogs, 🐺Wolfs & 🇸🇪 Sweden - sounds like a fantastic combination to me 👇🏼

Christina Hansen Wheat @chansenwheat.bsky.social · Sep 3

🚨 PhD position in behavioural evolution 🚨

Come do your PhD with me in Linköping, Sweden, using the domestic dog (and some wolves) to answer fun questions on how complex behaviours develop and evolve.

Application deadline September 24 2025 🧪 🌍 🦊 #AcademicSky #ScienceJobs

liu.se/en/work-at-l...

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Sofia Forss @sofiaforss.bsky.social · Aug 21

News from Kalahari on Meerkat foraging ontogeny 👇🏼

Zoe Turner @zoejturn.bsky.social · Aug 21

🚨 New paper! 🚨
In exploring the ontogeny of foraging in cooperatively breeding meerkats:
🐛 Foraging skill development doesn't align with the delayed onset of breeding
🪲 Foraging performance likely constrained by physical traits

@asab.org #AnimalBehaviourJournal

Read more ✨ doi.org/10.1016/j.an...

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Reposted by Sofia Forss

Julie K. Young @drjuliekyoung.bsky.social · Aug 13

Come join my lab!!! 🧪🦊🐺🐱seeking a PhD student for urban mesocarnivore research. Details at jobs.rwfm.tamu.edu/view-job/?id... or my website: drjuliekyoung.weebly.com

PhD position - urban mesocarnivores | Natural Resources Job Board

jobs.rwfm.tamu.edu

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Sofia Forss @sofiaforss.bsky.social · Aug 12

You gonna rock this anyways Kate - Big Fan 💪🏻

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Sofia Forss @sofiaforss.bsky.social · Jul 19

🙏🏻 Claudio, you helped big time to bring us here 🙏🏻

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Sofia Forss @sofiaforss.bsky.social · Jul 14

For a long time we been wondering how the human “WEIRD” syndrome also is present in comparative cognitive research. In our new Paper led by @elisa_bandini we report on the existing biases in chimpanzee research 🚨👇🏼 @Einstein_Berlin

The Biases in Captive Chimpanzee Cognitive Research: First Insights From the Ape Research Index (ARI) Database

Photo of a female chimpanzee (Ikuru) at Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary, Uganda (photo by Sofia Forss). The Ape Research Index (ARI) project aims to measure the diversity of cognitive research eff...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Sofia Forss @sofiaforss.bsky.social · Jul 4

Do you have expertise in Animal Behavior & in Editorial work? Open position below👇🏼

ASAB @asab.org · Jul 4

We are seeking a full-time Managing Editor for our journal Animal Behaviour. This editor will be involved in all stages of the publication process & must have a general understanding of the topics covered. Position starts Oct 1, application deadline July 31.

More details:
www.asab.org/opportunities

Opportunities — ASAB

www.asab.org

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Sofia Forss @sofiaforss.bsky.social · Jun 28

Thanks to the Diverse Intelligence Community for all these inspiring days & impressions in Sydney 🙏🏻 @chriskrupenye.bsky.social @katelaskowski.bsky.social @divintelligence.bsky.social @maxkw.bsky.social

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Reposted by Sofia Forss

Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · Jun 27

A new theme issue in #PhilTransB looks at how and why animal minds have evolved to be so different from one another, framing animal #cognition as a diverse set of solutions to life’s many challenges buff.ly/csMZa3R

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Sofia Forss @sofiaforss.bsky.social · Jun 27

🚨New PrePrint out on the Kalahari Meerkats. In this study we quantified two axes of sociality to explain how developmental needs of pups shape meerkat social life. @zoejturn.bsky.social Neumann Christof & Tommaso Sacca
ecoevorxiv.org/repository/vie…

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Sofia Forss @sofiaforss.bsky.social · Jun 18

It was a great defense & we will miss you and your group!

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Sofia Forss @sofiaforss.bsky.social · Jun 17

Working with @wildcognition.bsky.social on this paper was so much fun: drawing from our research with mammals (primates & hyenas) we discuss to what extent the urban niche poses novel cognitive challenges or whether they are exapted to exploit urban resources
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

How cognitively demanding is the urban niche? Reconsidering exaptation and habituation - Animal Cognition

Urbanization is hypothesized to create a myriad of cognitive challenges for animals because it creates novel environmental conditions in evolutionary terms. The consensus is that these novel urban cha...

link.springer.com

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Reposted by Sofia Forss

Stephanie L King @stephanielking.bsky.social · Jun 15

We are looking for a Research Assistant to contribute to our ongoing analysis of dolphin acoustic data from West Wales - collaboration between @wtsww.bsky.social @bristolbiosci.bsky.social 🐬
Deadline is 29th June - please share widely!
www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...

Details | Working at Bristol | University of Bristol

www.bristol.ac.uk

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Sofia Forss @sofiaforss.bsky.social · Jun 11

🚨 In our new Preprint we studied how anthropogenic foraging experience relate to behavioral flexibility and innovativness in urban vervet monkeys 🐒
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Behavioural flexibility and its drivers in semi-urban vervet monkeys

Phylogenetic comparisons suggest that behavioural flexibility facilitates success in urban environments. It remains less clear whether urbanization fosters cognitive skills that require flexibility, o...

www.biorxiv.org

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Sofia Forss @sofiaforss.bsky.social · Jun 10

Team catch up with the urban vervet heroes coming to an end at beautiful coast of Kwazulu Natal, South Africa. Thanks @ccenni.bsky.social Valeria Simenova, Durre & Lukas 🙏🏻🐒

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