Grant C. McDonald

Just over a week left to apply for this PhD project (unfortunately UK students only). If you're interested then please get in touch!

🚨Postdoc opportunity🚨: The impact of global change on parental care systems

Interested in Shorebirds? Global change? Parental care? Fieldwork? 🐣☀️ Come join us in Budapest!

Interested candidates - get in touch! Deadline Feb 28 2026

McDonald Grant C. - University of Veterinary Medicine Budapest INTRODUCTION Grant C. McDonald is an evolutionary ecologists studying how the social organisation of animal societies governs male and female reproductive strategies. He obtained his PhD from the University of Oxford where he studied how variation in social and sexual networks impact on patterns of sexual selection and sexual conflict. His current research explores the

Post-doc position open in 2026 at UVMB Budapest to study the effects of global change on parental care in shorebirds. PhD in life sciences required. Apply via email to Grant McDonald: grant.mcdonald@univet.hu. More info: https://univet.hu/en/about/staff/mcdonald-grant. #job

🚨Postdoc opportunity🚨: The impact of global change on parental care systems

Interested in Shorebirds? Global change? Parental care? Fieldwork? 🐣☀️ Come join us in Budapest!

Interested candidates - get in touch! Deadline Feb 28 2026

Angry and Alone: How Social Experience Shapes Female Aggression in Flies at Newcastle University on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Angry and Alone: How Social Experience Shapes Female Aggression in Flies at Newcastle University, listed on FindAPhD.com

We're advertising a PhD project on how social isolation influences aggression in flies. Based at Durham, co-supervised by @clarahowcroft.bsky.social . Despite what the ad says, this is also open to international applicants! Any questions, shoot me a msg! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Kentish Plover with a solar-powered GPS tag just before release, Maio, Cape Verde

Kentish Plover with a solar-powered GPS tag just before release after a nocturnal capture, Maio, Cape Verde

🧵1/5 Our new paper is now published in @avianbiology.bsky.social! The first GPS tagging study of Kentish Plovers in Maio investigated the potential impact of tagging, finding no detectable impacts across multiple aspects of behaviour, reproduction & survival.

doi.org/10.1002/jav....

📰 Wader News #waders #shorebirds

Solar-powered GPS tags show no detectable harm to Kentish Plovers ⬇️
www.rarebirdalert.co.uk/v2/Content/S...

Launch of new Canada Impact+ Research Training Awards As announced in Budget 2025 -

New post doc funding opportunity:
Are you outside Canada & interested in a post doc on insects & environment/climate? Our lab studies insect evol & ecol, esp reproduction/sexual selection. Our university seeks a nominee. Let's chat!
nserc-crsng.canada.ca/en/news/laun...

Researchers share their findings about the effects of tracking devices on survival etc., so that others can learn how to study waders as safely as possible.
1/4
New paper suggests that Kentish Plovers are not affected by tracking devices.
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
BUT ...

We assessed the effects of solar-powered GPS devices on behaviour, incubation, reproductive outcomes, and apparent survival, in an emerging avian model, Kentish Plovers.

We found no effect of tagging on behaviour or life-history indicating tagging is unlikely to manifest in demographic consequences

We assessed the effects of solar-powered GPS devices on behaviour, incubation, reproductive outcomes, and apparent survival, in an emerging avian model, Kentish Plovers.

We found no effect of tagging on behaviour or life-history indicating tagging is unlikely to manifest in demographic consequences

No detectable deployment impacts of solar‐powered GPS devices for long‐term use on a small shorebird Portable devices, or biologgers, attached to animals are designed to record data on unobservable aspects of animal behaviour, physiology and ecology. However, wearing such devices is expected to be c...

New research in @avianbiology.bsky.social:
"No detectable deployment impacts of solar-powered GPS devices for long-term use on a small shorebird"

nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

#Shorebird #Wader #GPS #Reproduction
@roasty247.bsky.social

MSc position in my lab. Come study the evolutionary & behavioural ecology of insects!
@stfx-university.bsky.social

Now in Animal Behaviour @asab.org‬ "Inconsistent fear: repeatability in flight initiation distance and neophobic behaviour differs in a ground-nesting bird" #OA #Shorebird #ParentalCare
authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

However, we did not identify neophobic personalities and neophobic responses were not correlated with boldness, indicating parents may not consistently conform to generally risk-prone or risk-averse behavioural syndromes and may not generalize fear responses across different potential dangers.

Flight initiation distances (FIDs) are often used to characterize animal personality.

We report evidence for consistent between-individual variation in FIDs in incubating parents of a ground-nesting bird, indicating variation in boldness personalities.

Now in Animal Behaviour @asab.org‬ "Inconsistent fear: repeatability in flight initiation distance and neophobic behaviour differs in a ground-nesting bird" #OA #Shorebird #ParentalCare
authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

Our new study, published in Scientific Reports and led by Abril Alexander, suggests the possibility that monogamy may remove constraints on reproductive tissue investment imposed by intense sexual selection. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

LOOKING BACK in IBIS

The causes and implications of sex role diversity in shorebird breeding systems | onlinelibrary.wiley....

Tamás Székely et al | #ornithology 🪶

Állatorvostudományi Egyetem Budapest Alapítva: 1787

PhD opportunity in parental care and social ecology focusing on ground-nesting plovers in Cabo Verde, supervised by experts at the University of Veterinary Medicine Budapest. Apply by March 31, 2025: https://univet.hu/ #phd

An image of a fruit fly created by collage.

Rethinking the relationship between the sex ratio and sexual selection
doi.org/10.1093/evle...

Now in @evolletters.bsky.social by @gcmcdon.bsky.social, @daniedmunds.bsky.social, @stuartwigby.bsky.social, and @jennyperry.bsky.social

📷: Dani Edmunds

Collage of a fruit fly credit @daniedmunds.bsky.social

Huge credit to @daniedmunds.bsky.social and everyone else for this work, and Dani's Drosophila Collage!

A male-biased sex ratio increases the opportunity for precopulatory sexual selection but does not change the Bateman gradient Abstract. Theory predicts that the sex ratio within populations should influence the strength of sexual selection, and sex ratio is often used as a proxy f

Sexual selection was consistently stronger on males vs females, however our results reveal that changes in sex ratios do not equal changes in sexual selection.

@daniedmunds.bsky.social @ju-morimoto.bsky.social @stuartwigby.bsky.social @jennyperry.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...

Manuscript image

Image of a fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) credit: Sanjay Acharya

Does the ratio of males to females predictably influence the ability to monopolise mating partners? Is male sexual selection more intense when femaleIs are rare? 🪰

We investigated by manipulating sex ratios in polyandrous fruit flies in our new #OA manuscript published in @evolletters.bsky.social

Field excursion out to Hortobágyi after a PhD student conference on Evolution and Biodiversity at the University of Debrecen. ebird.org/checklist/S2...