Birgit Szabo, PhD 🦎🐸🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

SORTEE Webinar: On what makes good sharable and reproducible R code, how to do it, and why it’s good for science For this month's SORTEE webinar, Dr. Dax Kellie from the Atlas of Living Australia will present on good, sharable, and reproducible R code in science

In one week I'll be talking about tips for reproducible R code and why science would love you to try these tips on your own code too 🧪😍🌏

It's an online talk, so feel free to watch comfortably from your couch. Hope to see you there!
@sortee.bsky.social #rstats

events.humanitix.com/sortee-webin...

Congrats!!!!

Congratulations 🎉🎉

Our TREE paper is now out in its final published form! Well done @yoricklambreghts.com for leading this and doing the heavy lifting! DM him for a PDF. @cellpress.bsky.social

Deadline for applying is 9 march. Don't miss out!

Spatial learning and lateralization in lizards Abstract. Spatial memory is a fundamental cognitive process that allows animals to navigate and interact with their environment effectively. While extensiv

📣 I am excited to share some new collaborative work published in Biology Letter @royalsocietypublishing.org on spatial learning and lateralisation in lizards 🦎! Check out the full OA paper here:
doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...

#AnimalCognition #ThinkLikeALizard

Creatures of habit: similar but more repeatable behaviours in insular compared with mainland lizards Island habitats often differ markedly from those on the mainland in many biotic and abiotic factors. Typically, they harbour fewer predator, competito…

Three field seasons

219 lizards 🦎

>1,000 hours of behavioural video scoring

Proud of Ioanna Gavriilidi for getting this major chapter of her PhD on insularity and lizard behaviur published.

Serious dedication!

Sixty orchid mantis babies hatch at once, turning from fragile noodles to tiny kung fu fighters in minutes.

🦎 Funded 4-year PhD position on Lizard Evolutionary Ecology in our lab at UCLouvain (Belgium)! Apply before 9 March! jobs.uclouvain.be/Personnelsci...

Roars, Rumbles, and Resonance: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis of Crocodylian Acoustic Signals Crocodylians are highly vocal reptiles, possessing a complex acoustic signalling system including vocal and non-vocal signals used for courtship, mating, mediating conflict, and providing maternal ca....

Want to know what we know about Crocodylian acoustics? 🐊

Read "Roars, Rumbles, and Resonance: A Systematic Review and
Meta-Analysis of Crocodylian Acoustic Signals"

doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

#science #biology #animalbehaviour

Banded mongooses discriminate relatedness and MHC diversity in unfamiliar conspecifics
#SocialCommunication #Olfaction #Recognition

doi.org/10.1093/behe...

Job alert! The University of Zurich is hiring a professor for Evolutionary Anthropology and Primatology. Learn more here: www.appointments.mnf.uzh.ch/auth/Apply/0...

Humans are transforming the natural world at an unprecedented scale and rate. We, at #UCLouvain 🇧🇪, are organizing a symposium on how organisms, populations, and communities respond to these human-induced environmental changes. April 29–30, 2026! Join us: www.uclouvain.be/en/research-...

Flexible use of a multi-purpose tool by a cow YouTube video by Antonio Jose Osuna Mascaró

I have prepared a video summarizing the study. Please come back here after reading the thread : )

youtu.be/bAk4PFEuWKQ English

also
youtu.be/CETjjZBMT5c Spanish
youtu.be/tkpjlCxDJZA German

(Thanks to Esau Dharma for providing the Spanish voice for Witgar Wiegele!)

True Facts: Is The Goffin's Cockatoo The Smartest Bird? YouTube video by Ze Frank

A fun and informative video by @zefrank.bsky.social (True Facts) about our research on Goffin's cockatoos!! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq9J...

a man and a woman are jumping in the air while a man holds a woman 's hand . ALT: a man and a woman are jumping in the air while a man holds a woman 's hand .

📢 The deadline for the ISBE Early Career Award has been extended to the 20th of January 2026!!

See all the details here: www.behavecol.com/awards

Two house mice interacting in an enclosure

🎉 What a way to end the year!

Very excited to see our new paper on 🐭 innovation and mate choice out in @currentbiology.bsky.social!

doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.11.077

With the amazing @fragdarm.bsky.social, @valmazza.bsky.social & Anja Guenther

The flexible, the stereotyped and the in‐between: putting together the combinatory tool use origins hypothesis Tool use research has long made the distinction between tool using that is considered learned and flexible, and that which appears to be instinctive and stereotyped. However, animals with an inherite...

I had the honour of working to bring @auersperga.bsky.social’s baby to life. It’s a VERY heavy baby - over 200 references (and yes I read them all) - but necessary to do justice to our new hypothesis of combinatory tool use origins 📝👶🛠️

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

Our recent paper on lizard societies now online in a special issue of Animal Behaviour. DM if you want me to send you a PDF.

same ⬇️👏

A greyish/light blue gecko with yellowish/orangey spots is looking directly at the camera. The shape of its mouth makes it look like it is smiling. The background is blurry brown.

🦎Tokay gecko (Gekko gecko).

Called 'tokay' because that is what the sound of a male sounds like.

Max. size 40 cm (15.7").

Found in tropical Asia, from northeastern India in the west to Indonesia in the east.

Considered Least Concern by the IUCN.

📷by kuritafsheen77 on Freepik

Abstract (and travel award) submission deadline has been extended to the 7th of January 2026. Don’t miss the chance to submit your contribution and be part of the scientific program of ISBE2026!

Are Goats Smart? Revealing Goat Intelligence - Goat Journal Are goats smart? And why is it important for goat owners to understand how goats think? Researchers uncover goat intelligence.

2022. Are Goats Smart? Revealing Goat Intelligence.
Understanding Domestic Goat Behavior and Cognition. goatjournal.iamcountryside.com/ownership/ar...

It’s a proud moment when your star exPhD student, now early career researcher, is the senior author on a Biology Letters paper in the same issue of Biology Letters as you. And to be precise, the paper above! @lizabeldm.bsky.social

New study challenges the idea of humans as innately nature-loving Nature is a source of well-being and recovery for many people. However, research shows that there is also a growing number of individuals who experience negative emotions, such as fear, discomfort, or...

"A lack of contact with nature and limited knowledge about nature can reinforce each other in a negative spiral."

#Biophobia - people can fear what they don't know or understand.

Education in and about nature is vital

phys.org/news/2025-12...

Interested in open, reliable & transparent science in ecology & evolution?

Become a member of the Society for Open, Reliable, and Transparent Ecology and Evolutionary Biology @sortee.bsky.social!

Membership is open to all and it's optional to join at no cost 👉 sortee.org/join/

A huge congrats to Dr Jai Lake! Jai just gave his exit seminar at Macquarie on why lizards are social. To be slightly more precise, his PhD was about the mechanisms underlying sociality. Papers are submitted and in prep! Watch this space. Jai was cosupervised by Geoff While at Univ. Tasmania.

Adventure time! Off to Kartong Bird Observatory in the Gambia to test out #MotusWTS using a mobile #Sensorgnome and @lotektelemetry.bsky.social Nanotag!

Me and my load of tech and trusty duct tape will be repping @ecobird.bsky.social funded by @fwovlaanderen.bsky.social.

🐦📡

Congrats!!! 🥳🥳

New study on the way 📣
I am currently raising cute quails 🐥 to study the effects of enrichment on the development of the brain, cognition, behaviour, and health! I am learning loads of new skills @ecobird.bsky.social