You know both these people….and both are 2026 National Geographic 33 honorees 🎉 These are people tackling the world's most pressing challenges and driving meaningful breakthroughs. To Martin, Harrison + 31 #NatGeo33 changemakers: may the force be with you ⭐
on.natgeo.com/NG33EXMWHL
@uni-konstanz.de

For research that "has transformed our understanding of bird migration" Andrea Flack is awarded the British Ornithologists’ Union Early Professional Award @anflack.bsky.social

As Andrea's students will attest, "she is an excellent supervisor" too.

Congrats @anflack.bsky.social and the Flack Flock

Resource variability shapes the ecology of social information and collective sensing Social information expands individual sensing of resources in dynamic ecosystems, yet why social strategies evolve in resource pursuit remains unsettled. We posit that resource variability along three...

New paper in TREE co-led w @jennakohles.bsky.social: We explore how resource variability shapes the value of social information for maximizing resource gain & minimizing variance. This eco-evolutionary lens helps us explain why collective sensing emerges in dynamic ecosystems!
🧪 tinyurl.com/2rurcry7

PNAS – Nine changes needed to deliver a radical transformation in biodiversity measurement by William J. Sutherland, Neil D. Burgess, Scott V. Edwards, et al. Read now!

Addressing global biodiversity loss needs more than data collection. A new PNAS Perspective from the 2025 US–UK Scientific Forum outlines 9 changes to improve how biodiversity is measured and used for conservation.

Read now: https://ow.ly/BH5Q50YsXUY
Forum: https://ow.ly/U5ZV50YsUTK

Ravens and wolves in Yellowstone National Park YouTube video by Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior

#Wolves kill—and #ravens remember where: In #Yellowstone National Park, birds primarily search for food in areas where wolves frequently hunt prey www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpqZ... [YouTube] www.mpg.de/26220626/030... [News] @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social

Sometimes the timing of things that happen can't be beaten. To mark transition and progression, the moveTraits paper was published just before year's end. A movement based trait database. dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele.... @larissabeumer.bsky.social @thomasmueller.bsky.social @animaltracking.bsky.social

A quick introduction to the herbarium -home to more than 10,000 plant specimens - by Orlando Vargas from the #OrganizationforTropicalStudies, was a welcome break from laptop work for the participants. Thank you ! 🌱🌿 @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @animaltracking.bsky.social #CostaRica

Weekend break was fun, now back to work 👍 Whilst the first week was teaching heavy, the second week is focusing on the learned new methods using data sets that everyone has brought along to work with.

@mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @animaltracking.bsky.social

Day 5 of week 1 @animove-course.bsky.social was about analysing our movement data together with their environmental context, through resource selection and step selection functions.
#laselvaresearchstation #costarica @animaltracking.bsky.social

Hester and myself with her PhD hat.

Happy and proud of the next fledgling of the Flack flock. Dr Hester Brønnvik @hbronnv.bsky.social defended her PhD thesis today. She has done a wonderful job. I could not be happier! @imprs-qbee.bsky.social @animaltracking.bsky.social @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social

🚀 Guess who’s back? 🛰️🥳💫
ICARUS, our global wildlife-tracking system, returns to orbit aboard the GENA-OT satellite, which launched from Vandenberg SFB today 🎉
This is step one for ICARUS 2.0: full global coverage, smaller sensors, near-real-time.
Congrats @animaltracking.bsky.social + team ICARUS

Burden of a failed error culture in biologging Driven by technological advancement and low cost, biologging has rapidly transformed the study of animal behaviour and ecology, providing unprecedente…

For your consideration, our paper about how we can build a better error culture around biologging is now out in Animal Behavio(u)r. A collaborative effort between researchers the veterinarians at @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

🥳64 more days until the start of #Animove at #LaSelva Organization of Tropical Studies in #CostaRica. 22 participants, 6 tutors,2077 plant species,125 mammal species,470 bird species,48 amphibian species,87 reptile species,45 fresh water fish species and 10000 insects, arachnids and other.🐒🦇🦜🐊🦂

Global monitoring of wildlife mortality through participatory science in near-real time Detection of wildlife mortality events is critical for timely conservation and natural resource management. We present an open-source, web-based decision support tool that queries, aggregates and summ...

Monitoring wildlife mortality 24/7 worldwide using participatory science

Paper 👉: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The Web Application 👉:
huggingface.co/spaces/diego...

#Biodiversity #iNaturalist #WildlifeMortality #DigitalOneHealth #ConservationTech #EcologicalForecasting
1/ A thread:

From biologging to conservation: Tracking individual performance in changing environments | PNAS Under an accelerating biodiversity crisis, increased urbanization, habitat fragmentation, and climate change require new approaches to assess conse...

From bio-logging to conservation 🔽

New paper by an @animaltracking.bsky.social dream team

@diegoellissoto.bsky.social @anflack.bsky.social @arispeshkin.bsky.social Timm Wild, Hannah Williams, @teagueo.bsky.social

@cbehav.bsky.social @uni-konstanz.de

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Waving our hands in the air like we don’t care

#mpiab #summer #konstanz #maxplanckinstitut #love

If there is an optimal behavior, why is there so much variation in the world? We found that, for white storks, context is everything. @anflack.bsky.social @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social

New paper! @cellpress.bsky.social doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2025.06.044
🧵1/5

The study of social animal migrations: a synthesis of the past and guidelines for future research | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Seasonal migration is a common behaviour seen in many species worldwide. There is evidence that social factors influence various migration decisions, but compared to the well-studied field of social f...

🚨 New paper alert! 🚨
Excited to share our new review in @royalsocietypublishing.org Proceedings B! 🎉

We synthesize research on social factors influencing animal migration and offer guidelines for future research. Check it out here: doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

#OpenAccess #Migration #MovementEcology

(4) developing educational programs and ethical guidelines tailored to the unique challenges of biologging research

(3) demanding industry standards for biologging devices to ensure reliability and minimize harm

(2) implementing pre-registration as well as post-reporting of studies and devices to reduce publication bias and improve transparency

(1) establishing a biologging expert registry to enhance collaboration and knowledge sharing

Preprint @ecoevorxiv.bsky.social arising from @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social animal welfare workshops. How can we develop a better error culture in animal biologging where we can learn from our, and others, mistakes and experiences?

ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

Seasonal and comparative evidence of adaptive gene expression in mammalian brain size plasticity Adaptive gene expression in the common shrew hypothalamus connects energy homeostasis with reversible brain size changes in response to seasonal environmental challenges.

🚨Shrew paper alert!🚨
In @elife.bsky.social, in this paper led by @labdavalos.bsky.social we found that shrews reprogram their hypothalamus to shrink in winter, tweaking gene expression to save energy and survive the cold!
👉🏼 doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

@dechman.bsky.social @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social

Migratory Birds Advance Spring Arrival and Egg‐Laying in the Arctic, Mostly by Travelling Faster A warming climate is affecting the phenology of life on earth, including when birds migrate and start breeding. We show that earlier arrival is a general pattern also for birds travelling to the Arct...

📄 New Paper!

Migratory Birds Advance Spring Arrival and Egg-Laying in the Arctic, Mostly by Travelling Faster doi.org/10.1111/gcb....

@globalchangebio.bsky.social @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @animaltracking.bsky.social

Crossing our fingers for the results World Illustration Awards. We think Javi should win with the commissioned orangutan illo, and we're not biased.

Heads up animal behavior researchers!

Amazing opportunity: 3 3-year independent postdoctoral fellowships based in Panama at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Deadline July 15.
Come collaborate with @livingingroups @MPI_animalbehav...