BUSH TELEGRAPH

Oct 2022:

• Huge congratulations to Julia Penndorf and Michael Chimento, who both passed their PhD defences with flying colours! Thank you to their examiners Prof. Iain Couzin, Prof. Rob Boyd, Prof. Meg Crofoot, and Prof. Thomas Bugnyar. Two new doctors in the house!

• Congratulations to Simeon for getting a grant from the CASCB to do a relatedness analysis on monk parakeets.

• First day at the University of Zurich! I'm pleased to say I've started a joint 50/50 faculty position between the Australian National University and the University of Zurich.

Sept 2022:

• Our lab made a good showing at ISBE 2022, CES 2022 and at the HNBC 2022. So much fun to go to in-person conferences again!

• Check out our recently published papers -

Klump et al. Is bin-opening in cockatoos leading to an innovation arms race with humans? Current Biology

Chimento et al. Cultural diffusion rules depend on behavioural production rules. PRSB

Smeele. On the use of relative brain size. Evolution & Ecology

August 2022:

Hug congratulations to our two postdocs! Sonja Wild was awarded a Swiss Mobility Fellowship; from November she'll be heading to California (UC Davis) for 2 years to study social learning in ground squirrels. Barbara Klump was awarded a WWTF fellowship and a position as an Assistant Professor at the University of Vienna, starting 2023.

June 2022:

Welcome to the lab to new PhD student, Lisa Fontana! Lisa is joining the Clever Cockie Project to look at the evolution of complex cognition in parrots.

May 2022:

Woohoo! Julia Penndorf and Michael Chimento submitted their PhD theses at the end of May. Now waiting for the defense.

March 2022:

• Check out our recently published papers -

Smeele et al. Coevolution of relative brain size and longevity in parrots. PRSB.

Wild & Chimento et al. Complex foraging behaviours in wild birds emerge from social learning and recombination of components. Philosophical Transactions B.

Gruber et al. Efficiency fosters cumulative culture across species. Philosophical Transactions B.

Congratulations to authors Michael, Sonja, and extra congratulations to Simeon for his published PhD chapter!

• Michael Chimento and I had a great time presenting at the Royal Society Meeting on "The emergence of collective knowledge and cumulative culture in humans, animals and machines. The footage should be online soon: https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/2022/03/knowledge-culture/

Feb 2022:

• Michael Chimento finished his final experiment on immigration and conformity in great tits. Looking forward to seeing the analysis...

Jan 2022:

• I was awarded the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (ASAB) Christopher Barnard Award for "Outstanding Contributions by a New Investigator". I've been a member of ASAB since the beginning of my PhD, and the Easter ASAB was the first conference I attended, so I'm particularly pleased!

• I'm very pleased and honoured to say I was awarded the European Research Council Starter Grant Award for "CULTURES ADAPT: A landscape level analysis of socio-cognitive responses to human impact in Sulphur-crested cockatoos" 🎉🎉🎉 . What a great start to 2022!