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Posts by Rob Heathcote

A collage of 1) a meerkat in the Kalahari desert, wearing a tracking collar while stood beside the entrance to its burrow, 2) a 3D scan of a subterranean burrow, 3) a map showing burrow locations and their usage patterns.

A collage of 1) a meerkat in the Kalahari desert, wearing a tracking collar while stood beside the entrance to its burrow, 2) a 3D scan of a subterranean burrow, 3) a map showing burrow locations and their usage patterns.

🚨 Please share: PhD opportunity

🐾 Mapping the Manor: How are the lives of meerkats shaped by their sleeping & breeding burrows? 🐾

💡 Big ecological Qs
📡 Geophysical scanning
🌍 Field ecology & behaviour
📊 Big data & code

with me & @geophysics-adam.bsky.social
APPLY www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

2 weeks ago 15 15 0 1
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Join me & @olliepadget.bsky.social at @livuninews.bsky.social! #postdoc #seabird movement & navigation in response to environmental cues @ukri.org. Developing new loggers w/ micro-engineers & computer scientists @yorkuniversity.bsky.social. Job tinyurl.com/2zuzktv5 Press release tinyurl.com/2zuzktv5

2 weeks ago 38 38 4 1
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Increasing temperature reduces decision accuracy by shifting speed–accuracy trade-offs in slower individuals Abstract. Cognitive responses are linked to consistent individual behavioural variation, but the potential impact of warming on this relationship remains u

Excited to share our new paper @royalsocietypublishing.org This one took what felt like endless maze trials.

We found that even modest warming (~1°C) changed an ectotherm's behaviour such that it affected cognitive performance. Speeding them up and reducing decision accuracy.

3 weeks ago 30 17 1 1
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Our BehaveAI paper has just come out!

Easy & effective tracking & behavioural classification, even with tiny (2px), fast moving, camouflaged objects.

Paper: doi.org/10.1371/jour...
Download: github.com/troscianko/B...

@uniexecec.bsky.social @kevinjgaston.bsky.social @jimamclgalloway.bsky.social

2 months ago 87 36 4 1
Moth perched on a streetlamp. Our work suggests that light suppresses activity in moths, so once attracted to a light they are prevented from escape.

Moth perched on a streetlamp. Our work suggests that light suppresses activity in moths, so once attracted to a light they are prevented from escape.

Eye-opening findings on how light suppresses moth activity. Light attracts moths, but what if we've been missing a much more pervasive effect where even sky-glow light levels make them freeze?

Paper: doi.org/10.1098/rspb...
@uniexecec.bsky.social @esbriolat.bsky.social @kevinjgaston.bsky.social

2 months ago 36 17 0 0

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

2 months ago 10 9 0 0
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5 days, 5 reasons to apply for a Lectureship @bristolbiosci.bsky.social (Day 1):

Evolutionary Biology & Understanding the Evolution of Life

This theme includes origins of life, evolution of complexity & drivers of biodiversity

www.bristol.ac.uk/biology/rese...

Advert: tinyurl.com/3ebphy34

2 months ago 5 6 0 0

Are Great Tits becoming Not So-Great Tits? New preprint from @davididiaquez.bsky.social et al. documenting decline in mass of adult Great Tits in @wythamwoods.bsky.social of ~1 s.d. over 47 years - results from carry-over effect of increased population density during the nestling period. Thread ⬇️

2 months ago 34 13 1 1
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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

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...

2 months ago 214 109 4 9
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🚨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

2 months ago 9 8 0 0
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A long blue-brown trumpetfish swimming above and close to a blue stoplight parrotfish

A long blue-brown trumpetfish swimming above and close to a blue stoplight parrotfish

🚨NEW PAPER🚨 Need to #camouflage on the move? Easy - simply seek out something that's coloured like you and move along with it! 🐠 Read the latest #trumpetfish instalment here: tinyurl.com/4tb5h5hk
@royalsociety.org
#shadowing #predator #experiment #marine #movement

3 months ago 41 10 1 3
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Our newest research in @currentbiology.bsky.social:

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

We find dominant baboons have more interrupted and less rest at night.

Author list and story in comments below :-)

4 months ago 41 15 1 0
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Thrilled to announce a Postdoc opportunity in our group on the evolutionary genetics and ecology of colour. Wonderful system, great collaborators, and room to shape your own ideas.
Apply by 7 Jan: jobs.helsinki.fi/job/13477181...

4 months ago 74 63 0 4
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POSTDOC ALERT🚨

Two exciting social evolution postdoc positions live today!

We're looking for two excellent field biologists. Join us to explore the evolution of sociality in wasps across Africa. Apply by 11th January.

Collaboration with
@dustinrubenstein.com

@bristolbiosci.bsky.social

4 months ago 38 44 1 4
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Very happy to see our opinion article out in @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social today. 🥳 We ask whether sexual signals can influence the evolutionary trajectory of naturally selected adaptations, such as protective colouration, for better or for worse 🧐 1/n
doi.org/10.1016/j.tr...

4 months ago 44 18 1 1
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ShoalBase | Join, Explore, Contribute Now ShoalBase offers a global database on fish social behaviour, supporting research, conservation, and ecology through community contributions and visual data mapping.

🧵1/9 There are 35,000+ fish species, but we have formal social-behaviour classifications for a tiny fraction. Most knowledge lives in the experience of researchers, fishers, divers, aquarists, naturalists, and Indigenous communities, but almost none of it is centralised. So we built ShoalBase.org.

4 months ago 50 33 4 4
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PhD opportunity: MOVE
Details: blogs.reading.ac.uk/crocus-dla/c...
Deadline: 12/01/26
Supervisors: @shoalgroup.bsky.social, @inesfuertbauer.bsky.social, @wlallen.bsky.social, @nhcooper123.bsky.social, @marinapapa.bsky.social
Apply: blogs.reading.ac.uk/crocus-dla/p...

5 months ago 30 47 0 1
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Join us! 🧬🪰🎉🔬

We are currently advertising two #PhD projects to study the #evolution, #development and #genomics of sexual traits in stalk-eyed flies.

Deadline for applying is Wednesday, January 7, 2026. Get in touch for more info!

5 months ago 60 62 2 1
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What drives aggression? Linking Ecology, Evolution, and Genes

Interested in fighting, flies, and evolution? I've got a project at Durham investigating the ecology, evolution, and genetics of aggression in fruit flies (Drosophila): iapetus.ac.uk/studentships.... All questions welcome - just shoot me a message or email!

5 months ago 5 3 0 0
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Video

BehaveAI is live!

Our biologically inspired video analysis tool sees motion as colour. Track animals or objects, classify their behaviour, and handle complex natural scenes with ease.

Semi-supervised annotation, no GPUs required, user-friendly, free & open source.

Pre-print tinyurl.com/BehaveAI

5 months ago 70 26 2 1
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MSc by Res opportunity - developing behavioural indicators to inform killer whale conservation with
@exeter.ac.uk @whaleresearch.bsky.social @seadocsociety.bsky.social

People from underrepresented groups in marine science encouraged to apply.

Deadline 19Dec

www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...

5 months ago 29 21 1 3
A collage featuring some laboratory analyses, a schematic of the structure of DNA, a pocket watch in an elderly person's hand, and a family of wild meerkats.

A collage featuring some laboratory analyses, a schematic of the structure of DNA, a pocket watch in an elderly person's hand, and a family of wild meerkats.

🚨Fully-funded PhD opportunity in my group🚨

🧬How does parental ageing shape the next generation?🐾

Find out by studying meerkats!

🧪Epigenetic clocks
✨Bioinformatics
📊Long-term data
🌍Kalahari fieldwork
💡Big evolutionary questions

Get in touch or APPLY NOW
Please share!
www.uea.ac.uk/course/phd-d...

6 months ago 44 54 2 0

And so it begins!! 💥💥💪

6 months ago 2 0 0 0
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And a new chapter begins! I'm thrilled to have started a PDRA role at @biology.ox.ac.uk with @rjpheathcote.bsky.social. Stay tuned for more fish content 🐟

6 months ago 17 1 1 0
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I'm v excited to be recruiting a PhD student to work on badger behaviour and ecology! Starting date is March 2026; see the ad here, or message me for more details: www.gregalbery.me/s/March-2026...

6 months ago 57 63 0 1

And welcome to the other place!!

6 months ago 2 0 0 0
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The sun did briefly shine in Cambridge today on my last day in @camzoology.bsky.social. It has been a monumental 5.5 years, both professionally and personally. Words can't express my gratitude towards both the Department and the @marinebehavecol.bsky.social group for making me feel so at home 🐠

6 months ago 12 1 1 0
A white-fronted bee-eater (Merops bullockoides) decides whether to consume a warningly colored white-barred acraea butterfly (Telchinia encedon). Photo (c) Mike Rowe

A white-fronted bee-eater (Merops bullockoides) decides whether to consume a warningly colored white-barred acraea butterfly (Telchinia encedon). Photo (c) Mike Rowe

📢🦋 Our paper ‘Global selection on insect antipredator coloration’ is out and featured on the cover of @science.org

We ran a huge experiment to find out how ecological context favours camouflage and warning colouration as antipredator strategies. 1/6

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

6 months ago 132 53 3 6
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We are hiring - PDRA position exploring how information access shapes social dynamics in killer whales. Collaboration with @samellisq.bsky.social @drwhale.bsky.social Prof Dan Franks (York) start 1st Nov (or ASAP) end 31st Oct 2028. Apps close on 19th Oct.

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOT336/p...

6 months ago 32 44 1 5
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We're looking for a new postdoc on our new BBSCR grant (Graham Taylor/Tim Guilford/Cait Newport). See link below!

my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

7 months ago 47 52 1 1