Theresa Rueger

Predator defence in anemonefishes

Applications closing 5th Jan for Fully funded PhD through @iapetusdtp.bsky.social

Studying behaviour and ecology of anemonefishes. Need to be happy to spend lots of time in Papua New Guinea and need to be SCUBA qualified.

iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...

🚨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

An integrative, peer‐reviewed and open‐source cooperative‐breeding database (Co‐BreeD) Co-BreeD is the first updatable and open-source database dedicated to cooperative breeding. It enables continuous, non-binary measurement of cooperative breeding, transforming how we study breeding s....

1/6 The Cooperative-Breeding Database (Co-BreeD) is alive! Co-BreeD covers key biological parameters relevant to cooperative breeding research in birds and mammals. Get your copy of this updateable & open-access database: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
@animalecology.bsky.social

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.

🐟 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

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

🚨New PhD paper out today in @natcomms.nature.com with @renatoamorais.bsky.social and Dave Bellwood! 🚨

Marine fishes exhibit extraordinary patterns of diversity, but how does this diversity relate to their productivity? 🐟🐠🐡

🌐
🦑🧪

🔗 nature.com/articles/s41...

2) Importantly, I am looking to recruit a PhD-level graduate student to start next school year (August 2026). My lab website (still under construction: christopherhemings.wixsite.com/my-site) has the details outlining the position and applying.

Super excited that our new paper is out today in
@pnas.org. Title: Lateral jaw motion in fish expands the functional repertoire of vertebrates and underpins the success of a dominant herbivore lineage.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

PNAS paper about this year's missing #ocean #upwelling along the coast of #Panama

share.google/pWxTjMwVl5Lh...

Turns out it's very unlikely Nemo and Marlin lived in the same anemone.. Just out in Behavioral Ecology! with Pete Buston, Steve Bogdanowicz, Tina Barbasch
@behavecol.bsky.social @newcastleuni.bsky.social @bostonu.bsky.social

A bright orange clown anemonefish (Amphiprion percula) with white bands and wide black edging. swims near the tentacles of a pale purple sea anemone.

Why do anemonefish (A. percula) live in groups where only the dominant pair breed? We tested ~200 groups for genetic relatedness and showed no patterns indicating relatedness was high within groups. 🧬🧪

doi.org/10.1093/behe...

@theresarueger.bsky.social #MarineBiology #SocialEvolution

Alaska Man vs. 700-pound Boulder - CNN 5 Good Things - Podcast on CNN Audio We tell you how a hiker in Alaska survived a 700-pound boulder falling on his back. This café in a war-torn country serves cuteness with its coffee. Clownfish are learning how to survive climate chang...

🐠Clownfish shrink to survive heat stress and avoid conflict. Want to find out how? Listen to Melissa Versteeg and
@theresarueger.bsky.social from 08.20 on #CNN 's 5 Good Things podcast here🎧 tinyurl.com/b4nwrcc9 #WeAreNCL #marinescience
Read the article here 📖https://tinyurl.com/yjsbeztm

🐠💥2 year postdoc in fish sensory ecology!! 💥🐟
If you’re into animal colour, collective behaviour, predator-prey interactions, enjoy behavioural experiments and fieldwork, please apply! Based in Oxford with fieldwork in northwest Thailand (and elsewhere). Please repost! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNM294/p...

Come and join us in Newcastle for a wonderful gathering of network ecologists! This year our theme is 'Network Ecology in the Anthropocene' and our plenary speakers include Jane Memmott and Paulo Guimarães. Symposium tickets are an absolute bargain, especially for students.

Individual clown anemonefish shrink to survive heat stress and social conflict Clown anemonefish survive heatwaves by shrinking together with their breeding partner.

🐠🔥 Clownfish shrink to survive heatwaves

A new study finds that clown anemonefish shrink during marine heat stress – and those that shrink more (especially in sync with their partners) survive better.

🔗 doi.org/10.1126/scia...

#ClimateChange #Fish 🧪

Individual clown anemonefish shrink to survive heat stress and social conflict Clown anemonefish survive heatwaves by shrinking together with their breeding partner.

New study in @science.org Science Advances: Clownfish can shrink to survive heatwaves and social conflict!
Led by Melissa Versteeg, with Chancey MacDonald, Morgan Bennett-Smith, Pete Buston
@newcastleuni.bsky.social
@sciencesncl.bsky.social
@bostonu.bsky.social

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

Why Some Birds Get Mean Over a Nest Professor Mark E. Hauber contributed to a study showing that female birds competing for scarce nesting spots evolve more aggressive behavior, backed by parallel changes in brain gene expression.

Highlighted by @thegraduatecenter.bsky.social @asrc-gc.bsky.social www.gc.cuny.edu/news/why-som...

Supplemental Feeding as a Driver of Population Expansion and Morphological Change in Anna's Hummingbirds Bird beaks are highly adaptable, with the potential to undergo rapid morphological shifts in response to environmental change such as climatic variation or food availability. Anna's Hummingbirds (Cal...

🚨New paper alert!🚨
We show that hummingbird beaks have changed in shape & size since around WWII, driven by the rise of commercialized feeders! 🧵
📄 Paper: dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb....
#ornithology #evolution #GlobalChangeBiology

A pair of clown fish (Amphiprion percula) swimming near a sea anemone.

@theresarueger.bsky.social and her team report that clown fish (Amphiprion percula) can shrink in response to heat stress, boosting their survival odds by 78% with better odds when these fish coordinate with a breeding partner! 🧪

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

Individual clown anemonefish shrink to survive heat stress and social conflict Clown anemonefish survive heatwaves by shrinking together with their breeding partner.

New study in @science.org Science Advances: Clownfish can shrink to survive heatwaves and social conflict!
Led by Melissa Versteeg, with Chancey MacDonald, Morgan Bennett-Smith, Pete Buston
@newcastleuni.bsky.social
@sciencesncl.bsky.social
@bostonu.bsky.social

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

'Shrinking Nemos': smaller clownfish sound alarm on ocean heat Fish made famous by the movie Finding Nemo are shrinking to cope with marine heatwaves.

'Shrinking Nemo': Smaller clownfish sound alarm on ocean heat www.bbc.com/news/article...

Great work by @theresarueger.bsky.social @sciencesncl.bsky.social

Blue-lined octopus Hapalochlaena fasciata males envenomate females to facilitate copulation Chun et al. show that in the blue-lined octopus Hapalochlaena fasciata males envenomate females during copulation, most likely as a defense against being cannibalized.

The actual study 🐙💉❤️

www.cell.com/current-biol...

The Evolution of Cetacean Societies From leading cetacean biologists, an up-to-date, comprehensive collection exploring advancements in our understanding of cetacean ecology, behavior, and societies.   Cetaceans—whales, dolphins, and po...

🐳 UPCOMING BOOK ALERT 🐬
The Evolution of Cetacean Societies

Really enjoyed working on this project with a fantastic editorial team @andrewfoote.bsky.social @ellengarland.bsky.social @stephanielking.bsky.social

Preorder available now shorturl.at/Y58at out Jan2026

#whale #dolphin #animalbehaviour

And with that, sMacrobehaviour has left the building! What an awesome few days, thanks everyone 🥰🥳😃 Yay science #sDiv @kamarske.bsky.social @jonathanpdrury.bsky.social @theresarueger.bsky.social @ruchakarkarey.bsky.social @sheardcat.bsky.social & co. Looking forward to March 2026

Cover of the book 'Behavioural Responses to a Changing World: Challenges and Applications'.

Hurrah - it's arrived! 🎉 Congratulations to @bbmwong.bsky.social & @ulrikacandolin.bsky.social (Editors) and all the authors. Delighted to have contributed the #noise #pollution chapter, enlivened with beautiful drawings by Martin Aveling.

#ChangingWorld #behaviour
@bristolbiosci.bsky.social

🦑🧪 Three days left to apply for the postdoctoral position in my lab. We're looking for a population geneticist/ecologist/evolutionary biologist who is interested in studying tiny fishes in the Indo-Pacific! Come join us! 🤗

fishandfunctions.com/s/Postdoc_Ad...

Scientific poster detailing a study naming two species of cryptic coral reef fish. It includes the methods used and descriptions of the fish.

Want to learn about the two species I recently described and named, but don't have time or want to read a 23 page paper?

Here is a quick little poster version I put together while I was working on it!

Hope you enjoy!

Lovely to celebrate the brilliant #PhDs of @emweschke.bsky.social & Harry Suter and the wonderful #Masters by Research of Evie Croxford & Lauren Vane. Amazing people; fantastic research... but sad it's the end of an era. Looking forward to seeing what they all do next...
@bristolbiosci.bsky.social

Coral Reef in the Ras Mohanned Marine Park, Egypt. Credit: Alex Mustard / Ocean Image Bank

NEW JOB: How does pelagic-reef connectivity vary across atolls and oceans?

2 year post-doc position based at research-intensive @lancasteruni.bsky.social, and part of the fantastic @lec-reefs.bsky.social team

Apply: hr-jobs.lancs.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

#AcademicSky 🦑 🧪 🌊 🌍

Non-native regal demoiselles (Neopomacentrus cyanomos) have become more common and abundant in the Western Gulf of Mexico, but thus far, they appear to have no effect on potential competitors. New paper by my student Mariana Rivera-Higueras

dx.doi.org/10.5343/bms....