📣ATTENTION!!! Postdoc position on Creativity in Wild Chimpanzees and Bonobos 🤩 With the APE Group & Wildminds Lab @nakedprimate.bsky.social Come join us!!! ✨Please RT✨ @efprimatology.bsky.social @ips-primatenews.bsky.social @primatesocietygb.bsky.social
Me with my PhD hat made by my colleagues, which is full of things I love
Me in the room with my first presentation slide open, the title being "development of independence and turn-taking in wild mother-infant bonobos"
Group picture of the lab
Group picture of my family
I am happy to share that, after 4.5 years, I successfully defended my PhD and I am now officially Dr. Jolinde Vlaeyen 🥳! This could not have been possible without all the help from my colleagues, friends and family, as well as my Advisory Committee - so grateful to everyone!
#PhDone
New paper out in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: we apply linguistic tools to sperm whale vowels.
The result: sperm whale vowels do not just look like human vowels. They also behave like them.
We found several parallels. Like in Latin, whales have short and long vowels.
🐒 Second PhD chapter on sooty mangabeys out! The rule-based vocal sequences we first described? They might actually mean something! Females use specific combinations when handling others' infants, suggesting compositionality to signal benign intent 💞.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
The. Rise. Of. Cognitive. Surrender.
Study finds that people who use GenAI chatbots rely on them 80% of the time, and develop almost no capacity to recognize when a chatbot is feeding them faulty information.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
🎉 New paper out in Biological Reviews! 🎉
With 19 brilliant co‑authors from the IUCN SGA's Working Group on Chimpanzee Cultures, led by Crickette Sanz and me, we provide a much needed toolkit on how animal cultures can be built into conservation.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Flyer advertising special collection of stories for Frontiers for Young Minds. We invite expressions of interest for a curated collection of short articles on animal behavior to be published in Frontiers for Young Minds, an open-access journal for readers ages 8–15. This international collection, developed in collaboration with the Animal Behavior Society, will introduce young readers to how scientists explain behavior using Tinbergen’s four questions. Each article will be co-authored by a researcher and an undergraduate, with an emphasis on clear, engaging communication. Articles will be ~1,500 words and designed for a broad student and classroom audience. Contributors will work with an undergraduate co-author and participate in iterative editorial development prior to submission. We anticipate selecting approximately 10–12 articles, depending on the strength and diversity of submissions.
Do you love animal behavior & want to share that joy with younger folks?
Write a short article on animal behavior for Frontiers for Young Minds (ages 8–15), co-authored with an undergrad! Part of an international ABS collection. Expression of interest due April 30.
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Curious how to apply turn-taking across taxa? Look no further! In our preprint, we present a toolkit on how to annotate data, to then assess if a species has similar turn-taking to humans or not! @filipaabreu.bsky.social @kaylakolff.bsky.social @monkeyologist.bsky.social
Our new preprint is out! Animal collocation analysis 2.0: improving statistical inference and applications for cohort comparisons. 🥳 Check it out here, or read our summary below: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Statistical Rethinking 2026 is done: 20 new lectures emphasizing logical and critical statistical workflow, from basics of probability theory to causal inference to reliable computation to sensitivity. It's all free, made just for you. Lecture list and links: github.com/rmcelreath/s...
I feel like this is a kind of wild example, because we've been engaging in these discussions for while. But I've been meaning to give this a re-share anyway! Science has never been objective, and recognizing our situated perspectives leads to better science!
www.prosocial.world/posts/harawa...
There’s never a dull moment at the Lola ya Bonobo nursery, and now you can join us in watching bonobos play and socialize LIVE! Check out our Live Cams now at explore.org/bonobos! 🎥
#LiveCams #BonobosConservation
A new Department of Cognitive Science is being created at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy.
Here is the call for a cluster hire (for around 10 faculty) in all areas of cognitive science, at both junior and senior levels:
www.unibocconi.it/en/faculty-a...
Deadline: May 4th, 2026
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...
Yet, that doesn't mean these sister species distribute aggression equally... 👀
Read to find out more as we discuss the significance of these results in light of evolutionary explanations of aggression in the Pan species and our own! ⬇️
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Photo credit: Jake S. Brooker
Fully funded PhD position on primate parochialism! Study how cooperation within groups and conflict between groups evolve in red-fronted lemurs at our long-term field site in Kirindy Forest, Madagascar. @kirindy.bsky.social & @primatenzentrum.bsky.social. Apply here: www.dpz.eu
🐒 My first PhD chapter is out! We describe the vocal sequence repertoire of wild sooty mangabeys and show that they use combinatorial rules. Follow-up paper coming soon 👀
@taichimpproject.bsky.social @cogcompneuch.bsky.social @tozbu.bsky.social
🔗 royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article...
Two PhD positions in dolphin genomics and behavioral ecology are available at the University of Zurich, starting May/June 2026. Applicants must have relevant degrees and experience. More info: www.michaelkruetzenlab.org. #phd
Imagination in bonobos!
I am thrilled to share a new paper w/ Amalia Bastos, out now in @science.org
We provide the first experimental evidence that a nonhuman animal can follow along a pretend scenario & track imaginary objects. Work w/ Kanzi, the bonobo, at Ape Initiative
youtu.be/NUSHcQQz2Ko
🚨New animal linguistics paper🚨
Together with @geoffreymesbahi.bsky.social and @maelmleroux.bsky.social, we tried to finally answer this question: Do titi monkeys have complex syntactic skills?
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
New paper out👂📢🐒! We highlight the remarkable expertise of local field assistants at BCFS (Uganda) in interpreting chimpanzee pant-hoot calls—identifying who is calling, their age, sex, and context—revealing scientific knowledge built through years of experience. doi.org/10.1098/rspb...
A big thank you to all my collaborators, without whom this would have not been possible! @monkeyologist.bsky.social @franziswegdell.bsky.social @RaymondKatumba, @AndreasBerghänel, @MartinSurbeck, and @SimonePika (5/5)
Our results point to a mosaic: some parts of development are tightly conserved (ventral riding, nursing, grooming), while others shift with ecology, social risk, and maternal strategy. (4/5)
2. Spatial independence:
Chimpanzee infants stay closer to mothers for longer. Both stay close to their mothers for long though. This may be linked to the high-risk exposure for chimpanzees and possibly differences in maternal strategies. (3/5)
So, do they differ in their development? Mostly not! But we found some differences:
1. Travelling patterns:
- Dorsal riding: chimpanzees longer than bonobos
- Independent travel: bonobos more often
(This may be a population difference though!) (2/5)
My first PhD paper is published! 🎉 We compared how wild bonobo and chimpanzee infants (0-5.5y) become independent from their mothers. Here is the open-access link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
🧵(1/5)
Very happy to have presented my poster today on vocal regulation of cooperation in meerkats at #ASABWinter2025 come chat to me tomorrow if you’re interested! 🤓
Scientific illustration of a seaweed life cycle #art
Illustration of two bats occupying a bird nest #art #bats
Illustration of a sword-tailed newt #art #salamander
Illustrationj of two hyenas #art #mammals #hyaena
Commissions for 2026 are now open!
Researchers, labs, institutions:
I’m taking new projects. If you need scientific illustrations for figures, posters or presentations, contact me at lazaroillustration@gmail.com
Let’s bring your research to life with detailed, engaging art! #SciArt
Not all sexual swellings signal fertility. Some signal strategy. In our new Current Biology paper, we show how gelada females “fake it” during male takeovers—and why it works.
authors.elsevier.com/a/1m7%7E93QW...
