Claudia Wascher

Vocal mimicry in Corvids - Animal Cognition Vocal mimicry, the copying of sounds produced by another species or the environment, is commonly described in vocal learners, such as songbirds. Understanding the functions of vocal mimicry can help t...

Very nice recording! And here is the paper: link.springer.com/article/10.1... 😀

Lovely clear Buzzard calling yesterday. Grabbed my phone. Yep, I thought it was a Buzzard, Merlin thought it was a Buzzard. Fabrizio listened back to my recording and said “Nice Buzzard”.
I saw the bird.
It was a Jay.
Brilliant mimicry though!
Thought you'd approve @wascherclaudia.bsky.social

EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION DETAILS (ends 31 March) 🐾Full registration including conference dinner and ceilidh 🐾*,**Student from developing country £260 🐾**Student £310 🐾*Non-student from developing country* £360 🐾Non-student £400 🐾Basic registration excluding dinner and ceilidh 🐾*,**Student from developing country £200 🐾**Student £250 🐾*Non-student from developing country* £300 🐾Non-student £340 Basic registration includes: conference admission, wine reception, tea/coffee breaks, lunch (days 2 & 3). *A limited number of reduced price tickets are available for participants from developing countries. Please e-mail ecbb2026@aru.ac.uk to request a reduced price ticket. Tickets are issued on a first‑come, first‑served basis. **Please email ecbb2026@aru.ac.uk with confirmation of your student status to obtain a discount code for registration. 🦚ASAB To encourage attendance at conferences, @asab_org award Conference Attendance Grants of up to £750 to standard applicants, and up to £2,500 to ‘Developing Country Applicants’. The award provides a contribution towards the cost of registration, accommodation, as well as the cost of travel to and from the conference. 🦚Ethologische Gesellschaft Members of the Ethologische Gesellschaft e.V. may apply for a contribution of up to €500 for active participation (poster or talk) at the conference.

We are delighted to announce #ECBB2026 registration and abstract submission are now open!

Conference Attendance Grant are also available, thanks to @asab.org and @ethoges.bsky.social support!

www.aru.ac.uk/events/confe...

Our article has been published today, "Reliability and precision of thermal imaging measurements to study animal behaviour and welfare" peerj.com/articles/20861 #AnimalBehaviour #AnimalWelfare #VeterinaryMedicine #Zoology led by @debottam1991.bsky.social via @peerj.bsky.social

🚨JOB alert🚨

We have three (yes, THREE) 🌟lectureships🌟 advertised in the School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol.

Broad remit, including #AnimalBehaviour & #GlobalChangeBiology

⏱️Deadline: 8th March 2026
🙏Please circulate widely

😊Come join us!

Full #job details: tinyurl.com/y3us95rc

What are the ecological effects of releasing and managing mallard ducks for hunting?

Our new OA paper with @ecoevoenviro.bsky.social authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

What did we find? A short 🧵

Guidelines for the ethical treatment of nonhuman animals in behavioural research and teaching

The @asab.org animal behavior ethics guidelines now reference our work on humane husbandry and ethical study design for insects and decapods! See the full guidelines:

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

NEW JOB in #ornithology chasing #nutcrackers in Switzerland to understand seed dispersal patterns: buff.ly/Cx0OOQy

Close up of a herring gull, with red around the yellow eye, and a red spot on the lower beak

🚨Not one, but two papers now out on response inhibition (also called motoric self-regulation or inhibitory control in the field of animal cognition). Many studies find no link between individual performance on different tasks supposedly measuring response inhibition.
1/6

🎓Training School: Phylogenetic Study of Affective States Across Species

Join us in Thessaloniki, Greece (April 14-15) with experts Liz Paul, Mike Mendl, & László Garamszegi.

💰 16 fully-funded places available!

Apply by Feb 23: 🔗 forms.office.com/e/U9jSVsH09S

Melissa in a labcoat holding up a starling. ASAB logo is in the corner

This #MeetASAB features Madam President herself: Melissa Bateson (@melissabateson.bsky.social)

Melissa was elected as ASAB president in 2024. In the past, she has also been on council as grants secretary and as an ordinary member. She has been an ASAB member since she was a PhD in the 90s… 1/6

🎉 Celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science! Join my inaugural lecture Social by Nature — exploring how social worlds shape animal minds
11 Feb 26 • 18:00–19:00 GMT • Cambridge + Online
Register: www.aru.ac.uk/events/inaug...
#EveryVoiceInScience #WomenInSTEM #LGBTQHistoryMonth

@katrina-siddiqi.bsky.social & my review on same-sex partnerships in birds is now out in the JAVB Award Issue special, with a beautiful cover by @bertillemohring.bsky.social! 🐧🏳️‍🌈 Check it out along with other brilliant reviews by fellow ECRs on everything from microbiomes to the importance of sleep

PhD Scholarship

My Centre is a unique place to do a PhD in Philosophy, because you can be in constant contact with experts in veterinary medicine, psychology, zoology and policy and be part of a team united by a shared interest in animal minds. We now have our 1st ever PhD scholarship: www.lse.ac.uk/sentience/phd

ASAB Winter/Spring Newsletter 2026 ASAB Winter/Spring Newsletter 2026

The latest ASAB newsletter is out! If want these sent to your e-mail, remember to sign up for the mailing list at asab.org/newsletters

Read here:

Distress calls as social stressors affecting chicken welfare Abstract. Social signals about current environmental risks can shape development in young animals. Distress calls made by young chickens (Gallus gallus dom

2026. Distress calls as social stressors affecting chicken welfare. "Distress calls are consequently an important consideration in farms, where young are raised at high density and one individual is heard by many." url: royalsocietypublishing.org/rsbl/article... via @royalsocietypublishing.org

Have you ever wondered how animals were using affective states to cope with our activities?

Here's our NEW PAPER (and my first) that tells you everything you need to know and how much should we feel concerned by the consequences of our activities besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Background image: blue-and-yellow macaw ECBB2026 logo and image title ECBB Registration Middle table reads Registration - Early bird (until 31 Mar) - General Registration Prices listed are Early Bird Students £250 | General Registration £300 Early Bird Students from developing countries £200 | General Registration £250 Early Bird Non-Students £340 | General Registration £390 Early Bird Non-Students from developing countries £300 | General Registration £350 Excursions, dinner, and additional items available to add on Registration opening soon 1-4 September 2026 | Anglia Ruskin University

With ten days to go to submit your symposia proposal, we're here to answer your most burning question: What is the registration cost?

#AcademicTwitter #Conferencechatter #ECBB2026

Registration - ECBB 2026 - ARU Find out how to register for the European Congress for Behavioural Biology (ECBB) 2026 at ARU, Cambridge, 1-4 September 2026.

Hi Elisa, yes grants are offered by @asab.org and @ethoges.bsky.social (and potentially others). For more information visit: www.aru.ac.uk/science-and-...

There is still some time to submit for our Special Collection on social cognition and anthropogenic environments! We are looking forward to hear from you! link.springer.com/collections/... Please do get in touch if you have any questions.
#openaccess #socialcognition

First weeks of testing First weeks of testing

🐊 From desk to field: the first weeks of EvOCRO testing are shaping how crocodiles learn.
Pilot experiments, protocol changes, individual differences — science in real life.

🔗 Read the full blog post:
evocroproject.github.io/blog/posts/2...

#EvOCRO #AnimalCognition #Fieldwork #SciencePop

We are seeking to appoint four full-time field assistants to work on the Wytham Tit Project for 4-8 weeks in spring 2026. Two 8-week field assistants will join the nest monitoring team; duties for these posts will include (i) collecting standardised data from nest-box breeding populations of blue and great tits, (ii) catching and ringing parent birds, (iii) ringing nestlings, and (iv) inputting data collected in the field. These positions with run from approximately Tuesday 7th April to Monday 1st June. Successful candidates for these positions must have (or be qualified to obtain) a BTO permit to ring adult great tits and blue tits. A further two field assistants will be hired to support a project collecting behavioural (foraging) data for great tits breeding in the Wytham population. These roles will involve a significant amount of nightwork. Duties will include (i) setting up and calibrating electronic tracking equipment and nest box cameras in the field, (ii) mapping tracking equipment locations using GPS, (iii) helping with catching and ringing parent birds and fitting tracking devices, (iv) assisting with mistnetting to re-trap tagged parents, and (v) inputting data collected in the field. These positions with be approximately 7 and 4 weeks in duration, starting from 13th April and 4th May, respectively. Possession of a BTO ringing permit with misnet endorsement and driving license are highly desirable for these roles. All fieldwork will take place in Wytham Woods, near Oxford. All Successful candidates must be able to demonstrate skill and enthusiasm for biological research as well as experience of fieldwork under arduous conditions, and both lone work and working as part of a team. Due to the short-term nature of these posts, successsful applicants must already have the right to work in the UK. Salary & Accommodation: Field assistants will be paid at grade 5.2 (£17.37/hour). Contact eleanor.cole@Biology.ox.ac.uk

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

Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research - Wikipedia

Don't know about pdfs. I think most historic (non-digital) materials are at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_... or en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_....

Die andere Seite des Spiegels War Konrad Lorenz, einer der bekanntesten österreichischen Wissenschaftler im 20. Jahrhundert, ein Nationalsozialist? Seit vielen Jahren beschäftigt diese Frage nicht nur eine kleine Fachöffentlichkei...

Recommended reading unfortunately only in German: czernin-verlag.com/buch/die-and...

Konrad Lorenz on human degeneration and social decline: a chronic preoccupation Throughout his career, Konrad Lorenz, co-founder of ethology, extrapolated from animal behaviour to humans – especially concerning degeneration as a r…

The 'opportunism' argument closely mirrors the collective Austrian narrative of self-victimisation ('we were the victims'). This reading is difficult to sustain in light of the fact that he never apologised and denied party membership when directly questioned by Kalikow (tinyurl.com/3ym9wmrd).

Our 2026 Conference is on Saturday 28th March and it's going to be a superb day! With six talks on the status of key species & habitat in Essex, lots of display stands, plenty of delicious food, & a prize raffle it's not to be missed! Book your place at ebws.org.uk/conference/r...
#essexbirding

If you are organising a symposium related to animal cognition @ecbb2026.bsky.social and would like to develop/guest edit a special collection in the journal Animal Cognition to accompany it, please get in touch #ecbb2026 #AnimalCognition #AcademicPublishing #SpecialCollection

Internships are now available with the Cornish Jackdaw Project! 🐦‍⬛

Duties will include assisting with nest monitoring, bird ringing, data entry, and the potential to help with ongoing research projects.

Social by nature: from animal minds to inclusive Science communities - ARU Inaugural lecture at ARU, Professor Claudia Wascher, explores what it means to be social in the animal kingdom and in the scientific community.

📣 Delighted to share that my inaugural lecture, Social by nature, from animal social minds to inclusive science cultures, is coming up.

📅 11 Feb 2026, 18:00 GMT | 💻 Online & Cambridge (www.aru.ac.uk/events/inaug...). A fitting way to mark the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

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...