Cristina Ottocento, PhD

Why do gulls steal our food? Scientists experimented with French fries to find out. Gulls are often seen as intruders in our daily lives. But researchers are discovering what really motivates them—and strategies to keep them away from your lunch.

Nice article by the wonderful Marlene Zuk in National Geographic, featuring my and @neeltjeboogert.bsky.social research on Cornish herring gulls, and how kids got us into gulls 😊 @neeltjeboogert.bsky.social @uniexecec.bsky.social www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...

Last year, J. Endler published an inspiring essay in @behavecol.bsky.social on what we should be doing as behavioral ecologists 👉 doi.org/10.1093/beheco/araf029. According to him, "we need to put Ecology back into Behavioural Ecology: we need to make a lot more use of Natural History" (1/5)

Congrats for the position! And enjoy beautiful Finland 🇫🇮❄️

Our BehaveAI paper has just come out!

Easy & effective tracking & behavioural classification, even with tiny (2px), fast moving, camouflaged objects.

Paper: doi.org/10.1371/jour...
Download: github.com/troscianko/B...

@uniexecec.bsky.social @kevinjgaston.bsky.social @jimamclgalloway.bsky.social

The Map butterfly differs in wing size and color between seasons. We tested how these differences influence body temperature dynamics, revealing potentially optimized thermal performance between seasons. 🦋☀️

The study, led by Dani and Irča, is in preprint version: doi.org/10.64898/202...

Artificial nighttime lighting is suppressing moth activity Moths move significantly less when exposed to artificial nighttime light, new research shows. Moths’ attraction to artificial light, such as streetlights, is common knowledge and has been much studied...

Moths move significantly less when exposed to artificial nighttime light, new research from the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at the University of Exeter, Cornwall shows.
Read More: news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-e...

@uniexecec.bsky.social #ExeterEcology

Hedgehog. Getty Images

Join us! We’re recruiting a PhD researcher to uncover how hedgehogs & other insectivores survive prey toxins. Dive into molecular evolution & protein biochemistry @shabmohammadi.bsky.social @livuni-ives.bsky.social @livuni-ismib.bsky.social @mpi-ce.bsky.social

🦔 www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

(1) Really happy to share our recent review "Speciation in ants: unlocking ant diversity to study speciation". 😀
doi.org/10.25849/myr...

Ants are ecologically diverse and abundant organisms with strong potential to advance the study of speciation. Despite extensive research on their taxonomy, ...

Butterfly Conservation's Butterflies and Moths to see in January: Red Admiral, The Satellite, Comma, Winter Moth, Red-green Carpet, Twenty-plume moth, Small Tortoiseshell, Pale Brindled Beauty, Peacock

Happy New Year! Butterflies and moths are often seen as a symbol of hope and new beginnings 🦋

Keep an eye out for these species in your gardens and local green spaces this month, and let us know what you see.

Male of Spodoptera frugiperda, recorded on 26.VI.2021 in a small valley in the vicinity of Velyki Dmytrovychi, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. (Photo: V. Voronov)

First report of the invasive pest species Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in Eastern Europe

Free download: doi.org/10.18476/202...

#pest #moth @braconidae-ua.bsky.social @smnstuttgart.bsky.social @bioone.bsky.social

The collision of two genomes threatens global food security Human activity alters selection pressures and species' ranges, creating opportunities for hybridisation through secondary contact. Ancient hybridization has enabled adaptive radiation, but its role in...

Excited about our new preprint showing bidirectional adaptive introgression between invasive and native crop pests over ecological timescales www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Thrilled to announce a Postdoc opportunity in our group on the evolutionary genetics and ecology of colour. Wonderful system, great collaborators, and room to shape your own ideas.
Apply by 7 Jan: jobs.helsinki.fi/job/13477181...

You are ABSOLUTELY NOT going to regret listening to this bird:

Resource limitation reveals that high acetate levels in Heliothis subflexa sex pheromone blend are associated with reduced fitness Abstract. Sexual communication allows individuals to find and choose a mate, but also to avoid hybridization with individuals from different species. Sexua

A bit later due to personal chaos but our latest paper is now out in JEB! In it we show that under diet stress female moths that produced higher amounts of a specific pheromone component had longer development times and lower fertility academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...

🚨Two funded PhDs on the evolutionary ecology of antipredator colouration 🦋 with myself and Iliana Medina.

One in Swansea tinyurl.com/4thtbph6 deadline Jan 12th @crocus-dla.bsky.social

The other in Melbourne - deadline Jan 1st

Please share among potential students!

Very happy to see our opinion article out in @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social today. 🥳 We ask whether sexual signals can influence the evolutionary trajectory of naturally selected adaptations, such as protective colouration, for better or for worse 🧐 1/n
doi.org/10.1016/j.tr...

Join us Opportunities Below are the positions currently open in our lab. Fully-funded PhD position The project aims to understand rapid evolution and adaptation in white butterflies flying at high elevatio…

New PhD position: Butterfly Evolution at High Elevations 🦋⛰️
The project aims to understand the rapid evolution and adaptation of white butterflies at high elevations.
DEADLINE: January 11, 2025
More info: pavelmatos.wordpress.com/join-us/

📣 New paper out!
We explored how fungal infection 🍄 affects the bright warning colours of wild poison frogs 🐸. Neither melanin nor carotenoid colouration reliably signals infection status. Defensive signals may remain consistent even under pathogen pressure 👩‍🔬🧪
Thread from @biobiiana.bsky.social 👇

New super pest combines broad spectrum of microbes The reed leafhopper has evolved rapidly from a reed grass specialist into a dangerous pest that attacks important crops such as sugar beets, potatoes, carrots and onions, as well as reeds. It lives in...

The reed leafhopper has become a major crop pest targeting sugar beets & potatoes. Scientists from @kaltenpoth-lab.bsky.social et al. show that it hosts 7 bacteria, 2 of which spread plant diseases. The microbial community may be key to its success in switching hosts. www.ice.mpg.de/524703/PR_Vo...

Effective, efficient, and fair peer reviewing 2023 Effective, efficient, and fair peer reviewing Ben Bond-Lamberty Based on a presentation at the AGU Early Career Scientist Workshop, 2019 1

Scientists are expected to do peer reviewing but no one tells you HOW. After talking with several folks about this today at #AGU24 , it seems a good time to link to this presentation I made several years ago -- feel free to use/share! docs.google.com/presentation...

The story on chemical communication in #poisonfrogs doesn't stop with the sexy fingers! "Histological and Gene Expression Analyses of the Arm and Finger Macroglands of Two Hyloxalus Frogs" is the new paper by the super talented Diana Abondano (Link in comments)! Out now in MolEcol. #cienciacriolla🇨🇴

Watson’s death is a fantastic reminder that you can be intelligent without being a good person.

BehaveAI is live!

Our biologically inspired video analysis tool sees motion as colour. Track animals or objects, classify their behaviour, and handle complex natural scenes with ease.

Semi-supervised annotation, no GPUs required, user-friendly, free & open source.

Pre-print tinyurl.com/BehaveAI

🚨🚨Job! 🚨🚨Permanent (75% time) job! We are a pretty awesome research group & seek a manager who deals with everything: personnel tasks, organizing retreats, preparing code for teaching / data structures for research... Fluency in German & English essential. stellenboerse.uni-mainz.de#/jgu/job/51527

Jane Goodall, world-renowned primatologist, dies aged 91 Jane Goodall Institute says ‘tireless advocate’ for natural world died in California during US speaking tour

“Above all, we must realise that each of us makes a difference with our life. Each of us impacts the world around us every single day. We have a choice to use the gift of our life to make the world a better place - or not to bother.”

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

A white-fronted bee-eater (Merops bullockoides) decides whether to consume a warningly colored white-barred acraea butterfly (Telchinia encedon). Photo (c) Mike Rowe

📢🦋 Our paper ‘Global selection on insect antipredator coloration’ is out and featured on the cover of @science.org

We ran a huge experiment to find out how ecological context favours camouflage and warning colouration as antipredator strategies. 1/6

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Vacancy — Postdoc Position in Decision Making in Birds Are you an expert in animal behavior? Do you have experience working with birds? The Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) is looking for a motivated researcher to investigate the ro...

I have a job opening in my lab. If you are interested in bird behaviour and predator prey interactions please take a look! werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...

Wood tiger moth on leaf. Photo: Juhani Maamela.

Funded PhD position available 🎉 Come and work with me in Helsinki to uncover the pathways producing colourful tiger moth wings. Lots of options for genomics, CRISPR, fieldwork, behaviour experiments… Email with questions! jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...

Green butterfly sat on a flower.

I'm looking for PhD students to join the lab starting August 2026. We study the evolution of insect chemical signals so if you're interested in evolutionary biology, chemical ecology, molecular biology, behavior, or genetics, this could be a good fit for you! More info here: tinyurl.com/mrxchwfm