Helen Mylne

Now THAT I miss!! 😭 Love my new project, but I do miss actually collecting data "properly" rather than online

Sparrows silhouetted in tree with no leaves against blue sky and snowy mountain peak

Happy Friday! This week for #FieldworkFriday is not fieldwork, but just some birds that were enjoying the evening sunshine in the mountains on my last holiday 😊

The job Cooperating in the field of periglacial vegetation development with other Helmholtz centres, we offer a PhD position (f/m/x) to survey and analyse the development of vegetation and associated microbiomes in glacier forelands of the Alps. Your tasks • Collection of vegetation data in glacier forelands and surroundings • Collection of soil and root samples • Analyses of soil and root associated microbiomes through meta-barcoding • Analysis of the link between vegetation and microbiome development as a function of (successional) time • Scientific publications We offer A lot of things, but space does not permit. Please see the link for details. Your profile • Degree (Master, Diploma) in biology, ecology, geoecology or comparable courses of study • Experience in the field of vegetation methods (vegetation surveys) • Field work experience in soil and root sampling for microbiome analysis • Lab skills to analyse the microbiome like DNA extraction, PCR, and sequencing • Knowledge of the Northern Alpine flora • Experience in high mountains and the ability to hike several hours a day and 1000 metres in altitude with luggage and equipment • Orientation skills in the mountains • Ability to work independently and solve unexpected problems • Statistical skills (preferably in R), knowledge of data storage (databases) desirable • Very good knowledge of English (communication in the working group, reading technical literature, writing technical articles)

Interested in pursuing your PhD in Alpine Ecology? How do ecosystems emerge after glacial retreat? Come with us @ufz.de as a PhD researcher on the development of vegetation and microbiome in glacier forelands.

recruitingapp-5128.de.umantis.com/Vacancies/33...

#ecojobs #ecology #Alps #AlpineEcology

Nature security assessment on global biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and national security This strategic assessment explores how global biodiversity loss and the collapse of critical ecosystems could affect the UK’s resilience, security and prosperity.

An across-government technical assessment published today recognises that "nature is the foundation of national security" and that "every critical ecosystem is on a pathway to collapse". A rational response to this would be to get very serious about nature recovery.
www.gov.uk/government/p...

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...

Sometimes, the only way around is over.

Little Wamata has already overcome a major life hurdle – and no fence will stop her now. With ingenuity, a dash of yoga and lots of determination, she made it to the tasty greens on the other side.

Her story: swt.bio/wamata

🚨 PhD offer (please share)
Fascinated by bird migration and movement ecology? 🦜🌍 Join us at @vogelwarte.bsky.social to study annual cycle energetics with multi-sensor loggers in multiple species

Deadline: 20 Feb 2026
Starting: June 2026
Supervision: Martins Briedis & me

Info: tinyurl.com/2dbv9nzh

We've got ISSUES. Literally.

We scraped >100k special issues & over 1 million articles to bring you a PISS-poor paper. We quantify just how many excess papers are published by guest editors abusing special issues to boost their CVs. How bad is it & what can we do?

arxiv.org/abs/2601.07563

A 🧵 1/n

BIG FIGHT AT POLAND’S WROCLAW ZOO!!!

Young male lion in the shade under a bush

Happy New Year and Happy #FieldworkFriday! 🎉

I saw 3 lions when in the Makgadikgadi. 1 on the first day, 1 on the last day, and 1 right in the middle!

Reminder that Reform UK featured a notorious antivaxxer as a keynote speaker at their recent conference. The UK is not immune from this weaponized idiocy.

Shy at first glance, mischievous at heart – Daba is the adorable young bull who joined our orphan herd just this September. Over the coming days, we'll share the story of how he came to us, but we already know one thing: you're going to fall head over heels for him, just as we have: swt.bio/daba

📢 Competition funded PhD with @iapetusdtp.bsky.social: Occupancy, density & the ecology of terrestrial British mammals - what can years of systematic camera trapping tell us?

Apply by 5th January 2026. 👇
iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...

@mammalweb.bsky.social @ptes-org.bsky.social @durham.ac.uk #phd

🚨Roll up, roll up, fully-funded #PhD deadlines approaching...

6th Jan: tinyurl.com/aja54nr6

8th Jan: tinyurl.com/4jfy47pp

Social monitoring & manipulation
#meerkats #mongooses #macaques #fieldwork #long-termdata

@patrick-kennedy.bsky.social @ljnbrent.bsky.social
@bristolbiosci.bsky.social

First-ever footage of wild Amur tigress taking care of five cubs caught on camera A camera trap in the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park has recorded the country's first-ever footage of a wild Amur tigress nurturing five cubs, providing powerful evidence of progress i...

I was on the BBC World Service News Hour today (aired on a lot of @npr.org stations in the US) to talk about this sighting of an Amur tigress with ***five cubs*** in northeast China. Link to interview here, my bit starts ~30:52: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w...
www.chinadailyasia.com/hk/article/6... 🌍

360 watercolour flowers painted stamp size across 18 pages of paper, laid out across a large dining table

The final five panels of watercolour flowers in bloom in late December in Yorkshire

The first flower: a snowdrop painted on 22 December 2024

The last flower, Viburnum against a blue sky, painted on 21 December 2025

And that’s a wrap on a year of watercolour #WildflowerHour: 365 flowers painted within a week of blooming. Mostly wildflowers, with a few garden escapes, and a whole lot of joy.

Festive Season in CRAB, which we celebrate with a quiz and by rediscovering the password to the CRAB Bluesky account.

Had a fantastic 2 days at my first @primatesocietygb.bsky.social conference in Cardiff. Met so many great new people, saw some fantastic talks, and generally enjoyed my introduction to the world of primatology 🐒

Long story short: all of the models! Models within models within models.... And attending my first primate conference tomorrow! 🐒

A small bird that is not a zebra finch but something similar sitting on a dry branch. Sorry that I can't remember what it actually is....!

Happy #FieldworkFriday! Don't even remember taking this photo but it was on my camera so I must have done.....

Enjoy! 😂

Meat transfer patterns reflect the multi-level social system of Guinea baboons Wildlife behavior; Biological sciences; Zoology; Evolutionary biology

New paper out in iScience. We found the pattern of Guinea baboon meat transfers follows the shape of their nested multi-level society. Transfers of meat are more tolerant at the lower levels of the society and are more likely to occur along stronger social relationships. www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

Project | E5 Doctoral Training Partnership | E5 Doctoral Training Partnership The project advertisement

Interested in a PhD disease ecology? Post advertised at @uni-of-edinburgh.bsky.social with @thedickvet.bsky.social & the @roslininstitute.bsky.social, to work on viral & parasitic disease transmission in grey squirrels for red squirrel conservation 🐿️ details here:

e5-dtp.ed.ac.uk/project?item...

Global body adopts policy to protect Earth’s old, wise and large animals | Charles Darwin University The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has recognised Charles Darwin University-led research into the Earth’s oldest animals with the adoption of the ‘Longevity Conservation’ global...

the IUCN have passed the Longevity Conservation motion put forward to them by @kellerfish.bsky.social and @pili-scotland.bsky.social and based on the paper we wrote on the value of older individuals in animal societies.
www.cdu.edu.au/news/global-...

Examples of some recent papers from graduate students in my group - a full list of recent papers and preprints can be found here (https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?hl=en&user=pTdxVdIAAAAJ) and profile of the group here: https://egioxford.web.ox.ac.uk/members

The annual Wytham Field Team Photo!

Celebrating a successful field season with great food & good company - May 2025

Front view of the Life & Mind Building, which opened in Oct 2025: The new home of Biology at Oxford

Interested in a PhD in ornithology? Funding available for projects at the interface of ecology, behaviour & evolution from Oct '26 working on long-term population studies of tits at Wytham, based in @biology.ox.ac.uk in the new Life & Mind Building in Oxford
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

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.

🚨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 group of zebras in a green landscape of the Makgadikgadi in wet season

What are you looking at? 👀🦓

Happy #FieldworkFriday, and today I'm posting zebras for Jo other reason than that zebras are cool 😎

My only question: why isn't everything zebra striped?! It's thermoregulatory, it's camouflage, it's protection from biting flies... Why can't I be stripy?!

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.

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

This is a fantastic piece, with some wonderful animations showing the movement patterns of different birds. I had no idea that there are hurricane-chasing birds! 😱🌪️

Dwarf mongoose

Rhesus macaques grooming

Meerkat

❓ Want to join us?
📢 Fully funded #PhD for UK-domiciled Black heritage candidates
🐵 Biological market monitoring & manipulation in social animals #mongooses #macaques #fieldwork

👥 With me, #LaurenBrent & #PatrickKennedy
🎓 @bristolbiosci.bsky.social

ℹ️ www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

🙏Share widely

Molecular and genomic insights to sexually antagonistic genes (GRIESHOP_U26DTP) | Doctoral Training Partnership Why do harmful genes persist in populations instead of being removed by natural selection? One answer lies in sexual antagonism: when a genetic variant benefits males but harms females, or vice versa.

Please RT!

🚨 4-year PhD position in my lab (Oct 2026 start) 🚨

Molecular and genomic insights to sexually antagonistic genes

Application deadline: Dec 2, 2025

biodtp.norwichresearchpark.ac.uk/projects/mol...