Animals Doing Stuff in Groups
@animalsdoingstuff.bsky.social
Hello, we are the Animals Doing Stuff in Groups lab, PI @mikemwebster.bsky.social at the University of St Andrews. We study animal behaviour and social interactions.
🐟(🐚🦀)🐧
https://sites.google.com/view/big-lab-webster/home?authuser=0
🐟(🐚🦀)🐧
https://sites.google.com/view/big-lab-webster/home?authuser=0
Reposted by Animals Doing Stuff in Groups
How do we know our research results are REAL? We replicate them! Most folks agree but lament on how hard it is to publish these replications.
My dearest gentle reader, lament no more! Delighted to unveil: Replication Studies, a new section of Behavioral Ecology 1/
academic.oup.com/beheco/artic...
My dearest gentle reader, lament no more! Delighted to unveil: Replication Studies, a new section of Behavioral Ecology 1/
academic.oup.com/beheco/artic...
Replication studies: a win-win for early-career training and behavioral ecology
Replicating previous research builds confidence that results are real and meaningful. But close replications are rare due to limitations in resources and d
academic.oup.com
February 10, 2026 at 7:42 PM
How do we know our research results are REAL? We replicate them! Most folks agree but lament on how hard it is to publish these replications.
My dearest gentle reader, lament no more! Delighted to unveil: Replication Studies, a new section of Behavioral Ecology 1/
academic.oup.com/beheco/artic...
My dearest gentle reader, lament no more! Delighted to unveil: Replication Studies, a new section of Behavioral Ecology 1/
academic.oup.com/beheco/artic...
Reposted by Animals Doing Stuff in Groups
Happy #waspwednesday everyone! Here's the latest article from wasp HQ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
In a nutshell - controlling crop pests using parasitoid wasps is evolutionarily resilient to resistance evolution in pests because parasitoids are cool #science #evolution #parasitoid
In a nutshell - controlling crop pests using parasitoid wasps is evolutionarily resilient to resistance evolution in pests because parasitoids are cool #science #evolution #parasitoid
Resistance evolution in parasitoid biocontrol: understanding the rule, managing the exceptions
In contrast to chemical pest control, biological control (biocontrol) is generally considered evolutionarily stable, with pests rarely evolving resist…
www.sciencedirect.com
February 11, 2026 at 9:22 AM
Happy #waspwednesday everyone! Here's the latest article from wasp HQ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
In a nutshell - controlling crop pests using parasitoid wasps is evolutionarily resilient to resistance evolution in pests because parasitoids are cool #science #evolution #parasitoid
In a nutshell - controlling crop pests using parasitoid wasps is evolutionarily resilient to resistance evolution in pests because parasitoids are cool #science #evolution #parasitoid
Reposted by Animals Doing Stuff in Groups
A new special issue in JEB tackles the important problem of animal sensory perception in a changing world. Includes a paper by Cait Newport and me, on the visual challenges that fish face when navigating journals.biologists.com/jeb/issue/22...
Volume 229 Issue Suppl_1 | Journal of Experimental Biology | The Company of Biologists
Journal of Experimental Biology (JEB) is the leading primary research journal in comparative physiology and biomechanics.
journals.biologists.com
February 11, 2026 at 10:11 AM
A new special issue in JEB tackles the important problem of animal sensory perception in a changing world. Includes a paper by Cait Newport and me, on the visual challenges that fish face when navigating journals.biologists.com/jeb/issue/22...
Reposted by Animals Doing Stuff in Groups
A brief break from the beautiful Scottish weather we've been having lately finally allowed us to get out for a little spot of fieldwork yesterday! @animalsdoingstuff.bsky.social 🦀☔🪸
February 10, 2026 at 10:52 AM
A brief break from the beautiful Scottish weather we've been having lately finally allowed us to get out for a little spot of fieldwork yesterday! @animalsdoingstuff.bsky.social 🦀☔🪸
Reposted by Animals Doing Stuff in Groups
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
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
January 13, 2026 at 8:27 AM
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
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
Reposted by Animals Doing Stuff in Groups
🚨 Our new paper is out!! A call for CARE in animal behaviour: an holistic ethical research framework 🐾💚 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A call for CARE in animal behaviour: an holistic ethical research framework
Despite increasing awareness of animal welfare, there are vast discrepancies between legal protections and recommended practices for different species…
www.sciencedirect.com
December 12, 2025 at 11:59 AM
🚨 Our new paper is out!! A call for CARE in animal behaviour: an holistic ethical research framework 🐾💚 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Animals Doing Stuff in Groups
New paper out today in Ecology and Evolution! Link below. Congrats PhD student @smthmpsn.bsky.social, on your first paper. All about how wild birds learn to avoid a novel aposematic warning signal. And a nice nod to Britney Spears in the paper title.
December 4, 2025 at 2:56 PM
New paper out today in Ecology and Evolution! Link below. Congrats PhD student @smthmpsn.bsky.social, on your first paper. All about how wild birds learn to avoid a novel aposematic warning signal. And a nice nod to Britney Spears in the paper title.
Reposted by Animals Doing Stuff in Groups
Residents of an inshore Bridlington Bay shipwreck attend the BRUV for day 4 of #25DaysOfFishmas. A shoal of pouting investigate the bait cage, while tucked away in a triangular hole top left is a rarely filmed visitor in these waters - a shy conger eel awakes and surveys the melee outside! 🐟🧐🎅🦑
December 4, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Residents of an inshore Bridlington Bay shipwreck attend the BRUV for day 4 of #25DaysOfFishmas. A shoal of pouting investigate the bait cage, while tucked away in a triangular hole top left is a rarely filmed visitor in these waters - a shy conger eel awakes and surveys the melee outside! 🐟🧐🎅🦑
Reposted by Animals Doing Stuff in Groups
Delighted that one of my Antarctic winter photos has won the 2025 Royal Society Photography Competition, Earth Science & Climatology category.
Captured during polar-night surveys of ocean conditions near Antarctic Peninsula glaciers.
royalsociety.org/journals/pub...
Captured during polar-night surveys of ocean conditions near Antarctic Peninsula glaciers.
royalsociety.org/journals/pub...
December 4, 2025 at 8:40 AM
Delighted that one of my Antarctic winter photos has won the 2025 Royal Society Photography Competition, Earth Science & Climatology category.
Captured during polar-night surveys of ocean conditions near Antarctic Peninsula glaciers.
royalsociety.org/journals/pub...
Captured during polar-night surveys of ocean conditions near Antarctic Peninsula glaciers.
royalsociety.org/journals/pub...
Reposted by Animals Doing Stuff in Groups
A great article about @nhm-london.bsky.social Scientific Assiciate and generally fabulous human @valdosaurus.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
The GP turned Isle of Wight dinosaur hunter rewriting history
Retired doctor Jeremey Lockwood has used his medical skills to discover three new dinosaur species
www.bbc.co.uk
December 5, 2025 at 12:07 PM
A great article about @nhm-london.bsky.social Scientific Assiciate and generally fabulous human @valdosaurus.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Animals Doing Stuff in Groups
After 5 years of sample collection and analysis our paper examining the impacts of an industrial #DeepSea mining trial on seafloor #biodiversity is published! Read here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
December 5, 2025 at 8:49 AM
After 5 years of sample collection and analysis our paper examining the impacts of an industrial #DeepSea mining trial on seafloor #biodiversity is published! Read here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Animals Doing Stuff in Groups
Our new paper offers an explanation for the universal law that "under carefully controlled conditions.... an animal behaves as it damn well pleases." We explore how stochastic mechanisms may play an underappreciated role in generating individuality. (1/7 🧵)
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Playing dice with behavior: drivers of stochastic individuality
Animal behavior is often viewed as stemming from predictable genetic and environmental factors. However, despite our best attempts to control genetic …
www.sciencedirect.com
November 10, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Our new paper offers an explanation for the universal law that "under carefully controlled conditions.... an animal behaves as it damn well pleases." We explore how stochastic mechanisms may play an underappreciated role in generating individuality. (1/7 🧵)
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Animals Doing Stuff in Groups
#PhD position!
Comparing #foraging and #cognition in #hummingbirds and #bumblebees
Fieldwork in the Canadian Rockies, lab experiments at @newcastleuni.bsky.social, and ecological modelling at @uniofstandrews.bsky.social
Details (including my email) here: iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...
Comparing #foraging and #cognition in #hummingbirds and #bumblebees
Fieldwork in the Canadian Rockies, lab experiments at @newcastleuni.bsky.social, and ecological modelling at @uniofstandrews.bsky.social
Details (including my email) here: iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...
From preferences to pollination: do hummingbirds and bees differ in how they choose flowers?
iapetus.ac.uk
November 9, 2025 at 2:14 PM
#PhD position!
Comparing #foraging and #cognition in #hummingbirds and #bumblebees
Fieldwork in the Canadian Rockies, lab experiments at @newcastleuni.bsky.social, and ecological modelling at @uniofstandrews.bsky.social
Details (including my email) here: iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...
Comparing #foraging and #cognition in #hummingbirds and #bumblebees
Fieldwork in the Canadian Rockies, lab experiments at @newcastleuni.bsky.social, and ecological modelling at @uniofstandrews.bsky.social
Details (including my email) here: iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...
Reposted by Animals Doing Stuff in Groups
The more complex three or four component calls are social calls produced by the Soprano Pipistrelle to communicate with other bats. Great recordings by the students from St Andrews! Analysed using Kaleidoscope from @wildlifeacoustics.com
#acoustic #ecology #bats #echolocation #fieldwork
#acoustic #ecology #bats #echolocation #fieldwork
November 6, 2025 at 8:08 AM
The more complex three or four component calls are social calls produced by the Soprano Pipistrelle to communicate with other bats. Great recordings by the students from St Andrews! Analysed using Kaleidoscope from @wildlifeacoustics.com
#acoustic #ecology #bats #echolocation #fieldwork
#acoustic #ecology #bats #echolocation #fieldwork
Reposted by Animals Doing Stuff in Groups
The Pipistrelle is echolocating at about 55 kHz and has a wingspan of roughly 20cm, while the Free-tailed Bat is huge, with a wingspan of 45cm. It’s echolocating at a much lower frequency: 10-16 kHz, within the range of human hearing. @animalsdoingstuff.bsky.social
November 6, 2025 at 8:08 AM
The Pipistrelle is echolocating at about 55 kHz and has a wingspan of roughly 20cm, while the Free-tailed Bat is huge, with a wingspan of 45cm. It’s echolocating at a much lower frequency: 10-16 kHz, within the range of human hearing. @animalsdoingstuff.bsky.social
Reposted by Animals Doing Stuff in Groups
While on their field course with us, MSc students from the University of St Andrews carried out independent research projects. One group studied bat behaviour using ultrasonic recorders. Here, they’ve managed to record a Soprano Pipistrelle and a European Free-tailed Bat.
@mikemwebster.bsky.social
@mikemwebster.bsky.social
November 6, 2025 at 8:08 AM
While on their field course with us, MSc students from the University of St Andrews carried out independent research projects. One group studied bat behaviour using ultrasonic recorders. Here, they’ve managed to record a Soprano Pipistrelle and a European Free-tailed Bat.
@mikemwebster.bsky.social
@mikemwebster.bsky.social
Reposted by Animals Doing Stuff in Groups
Humans perceive but animals don’t: pitfalls in using plasticine models for assessing biotic interactions buff.ly/7hcLYXx | #ProcB #Ecology
October 26, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Humans perceive but animals don’t: pitfalls in using plasticine models for assessing biotic interactions buff.ly/7hcLYXx | #ProcB #Ecology
Check out this fascinating special edition of the Journal of Fish Biology @thefsbi.bsky.social focussed on how we study cognition in fishes- led by lab alumnus @nickarjones.bsky.social
🐟 Our special issue "Measuring Fish Cognition: Empirical-based Guidance for Designing Cognition Assays" is out! From acclimation protocols to automated tracking, these studies tackle a range of methodological issues. Check it out: tinyurl.com/vdprfbf4 #FishCognition #AnimalBehaviour
Special Issue: Measuring fish cognition: Empirical based guidance for designing cognition assays: Journal of Fish Biology: Vol 107, No 4
The <em>Journal of Fish Biology</em> is a leading international ichthyology journal, addressing all aspects of fish biology, their exploitation and importance to human society.
tinyurl.com
October 21, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Check out this fascinating special edition of the Journal of Fish Biology @thefsbi.bsky.social focussed on how we study cognition in fishes- led by lab alumnus @nickarjones.bsky.social
Reposted by Animals Doing Stuff in Groups
City lizards are more social. In a new paper in #BiologyLetters, social network analysis revealed that urban lizards have more social connections and stronger bonds than their non-urban counterparts. buff.ly/kqf2YfZ | #Behaviour #UrbanEcology
September 26, 2025 at 9:01 AM
City lizards are more social. In a new paper in #BiologyLetters, social network analysis revealed that urban lizards have more social connections and stronger bonds than their non-urban counterparts. buff.ly/kqf2YfZ | #Behaviour #UrbanEcology
Reposted by Animals Doing Stuff in Groups
super cool study found human artifacts in Bearded vulture nests, incl. "weaponry like a crossbow bolt and wooden lance, decorated sheep leather, and parts of a slingshot....a shoe made from twigs and grass is ~675-years-old." link to paper: doi.org/10.1002/ecy..... www.popsci.com/environment/... 🧪🌍🦉
Multi-generational vulture nests hold 700 years of human artifacts
Crossbow bolts, sandals, slingshots, and more.
www.popsci.com
October 3, 2025 at 1:06 PM
super cool study found human artifacts in Bearded vulture nests, incl. "weaponry like a crossbow bolt and wooden lance, decorated sheep leather, and parts of a slingshot....a shoe made from twigs and grass is ~675-years-old." link to paper: doi.org/10.1002/ecy..... www.popsci.com/environment/... 🧪🌍🦉
Reposted by Animals Doing Stuff in Groups
In a world bursting with colour, why go monochrome? I joined Tim Caro & Martin How on the BBC World Service’s Crowdscience to explore why some animals stand out in stark contrast. From 🦓🐼🐧 it turns out the answers aren’t always so black & white 😉
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
CrowdScience - Why are some animals black and white? - BBC Sounds
Why are zebras so stripy? Why do penguins wear tuxedos?
www.bbc.co.uk
October 3, 2025 at 8:22 PM
In a world bursting with colour, why go monochrome? I joined Tim Caro & Martin How on the BBC World Service’s Crowdscience to explore why some animals stand out in stark contrast. From 🦓🐼🐧 it turns out the answers aren’t always so black & white 😉
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Reposted by Animals Doing Stuff in Groups
🆕 in the ESA Bulletin's Photo Gallery: A deep-sea fight between a fish & a sea lily, previously speculated but not actually observed, caught on camera and described in @ESAEcology's #TheScientificNaturalist series
See more 📸: doi.org/10.1002/bes2...
Read the study: doi.org/10.1002/ecy....
See more 📸: doi.org/10.1002/bes2...
Read the study: doi.org/10.1002/ecy....
May 16, 2025 at 5:09 PM
🆕 in the ESA Bulletin's Photo Gallery: A deep-sea fight between a fish & a sea lily, previously speculated but not actually observed, caught on camera and described in @ESAEcology's #TheScientificNaturalist series
See more 📸: doi.org/10.1002/bes2...
Read the study: doi.org/10.1002/ecy....
See more 📸: doi.org/10.1002/bes2...
Read the study: doi.org/10.1002/ecy....
Reposted by Animals Doing Stuff in Groups
Animal brains don’t think in a vacuum, they think in heatwaves & hypoxia, and around predators, parasites, and social groups. Our new review maps mechanisms, timescales, and gaps for understanding animal cognition in changing environments: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lau5Esvgs...
August 12, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Animal brains don’t think in a vacuum, they think in heatwaves & hypoxia, and around predators, parasites, and social groups. Our new review maps mechanisms, timescales, and gaps for understanding animal cognition in changing environments: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lau5Esvgs...
Reposted by Animals Doing Stuff in Groups
Join us for #ASABWinter2025 in Edinburgh Dec 15-16 🏴
Abstracts for posters/talks due Aug 29
More details here: asabwinter.github.io/2025/
Abstracts for posters/talks due Aug 29
More details here: asabwinter.github.io/2025/
July 29, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Join us for #ASABWinter2025 in Edinburgh Dec 15-16 🏴
Abstracts for posters/talks due Aug 29
More details here: asabwinter.github.io/2025/
Abstracts for posters/talks due Aug 29
More details here: asabwinter.github.io/2025/
Reposted by Animals Doing Stuff in Groups
Interesting new paper on color "rules" in terrestrial mammals, suggesting that Gloger's rule actually holds:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Gloger's Rule or Historical Conjecture? Tests in Mammals
Ecogeographical rules for animal coloration include Gloger's rule, which states that homeotherms are darker at lower latitudes; however, 19th-century naturalists observed that animals are more colour...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
July 31, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Interesting new paper on color "rules" in terrestrial mammals, suggesting that Gloger's rule actually holds:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...