Mastodawn

Timothée Bonnet Apr 29, 2024

New paper in Ecology:
Synchrony in adult survival is remarkably strong among common temperate songbirds across France

We found 70% of time variation in survival was shared among species.

Timothée Bonnet Feb 27, 2024

Very proud of collaborator and former office neighbour Weliton Menário Costa for WINNING the dance your PhD global contest and appearing in the Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/feb/27/kangaroo-time-anu-scientist-global-science-prize-aaas-dance-your-phd-competition

‘Joyful madness’: ANU scientist wins global prize for ‘dancing his PhD’ about kangaroos

Four-minute video features drag queens, twerking, ballerinas, a classical Indian dancer and a bunch of friends from Canberra

The Guardian

Timothée Bonnet Jan 28, 2024

Impressed by former PhD student Weliton Menario Costa for creating a catchy song and very pro video explaining some of his results with such a Canberra vibe
It's about Kangaroo, there are drag queens and beautiful grasslands
https://youtu.be/RoSYO3fApEc?si=79RdMSZM3inotzHq

WELI - Kangaroo Time (Club Edit) (From Dance Your PhD 2023-2024)

YouTube

Timothée Bonnet Aug 15, 2023

Feeling lucky to work on a campus where I can share the lunch spot with this cute asp viper

Timothée Bonnet Mar 29, 2023

Just finished "Bird Minds" by Gisela Kaplan. It was a bit of a difficult read, not the best prose, but well worth it for the trove of information about bird cognition. Completely amazing examples of research and anecdotes showing how smart birds are (especially Australian ones!) Did you know magpies can play hide and seek, point, and show theory of mind?! https://www.publish.csiro.au/book/7130/

Bird Minds

In her comprehensive and carefully crafted book, Gisela Kaplan demonstrates how intelligent and emotional Australian birds can be. She describes complex behaviours such as grieving, deception, problem solving and the use of tools. Many Australian birds cooperate and defend each other, and exceptional ones go fishing by throwing breadcrumbs in the water, extract poisonous parts from prey and use tools to crack open eggshells and mussels. The author brings together evidence of many such cognitive abilities, suggesting plausible reasons for their appearance in Australian birds. Bird Minds is the first attempt to shine a critical and scientific light on the cognitive behaviour of Australian land birds. In this fascinating volume, the author also presents recent changes in our understanding of the avian brain and links these to life histories and longevity. Following on from Gisela’s well-received books, Australian Magpie and Tawny Frogmouth, as well as two earlier titles on birds, Bird Minds contends that the unique and often difficult conditions of Australia's environment have been crucial for the evolution of unusual complexities in avian cognition and behaviour. This book is written for a general audience, especially amateur ornithologists and naturalists but it will equally appeal to specialists in bird behaviour and students working in biology, comparative psychology, cognitive ecology, field ornithology, zoology, aviculture and animal welfare. It will also be of interests to veterinarians, zoo personnel, bird lovers and members of other groups concerned with birds. Recipient of a 2016 Whitley Award commendation for Behavioural Zoology

CSIRO PUBLISHING

Timothée Bonnet Dec 14, 2022

Loved helping on this paper about fancy tech (ground-based and drone-based LiDAR), and wildlife monitoring in one of my favorite nature reserves (Mulligans, Goorooyarroo). "LiDAR for modelling avian species richness and abundance in a restored woodland." https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2022.113326

Completely new topics for me (although I only did the stats... as usual)

#WildOz #rstats #LiDar #RemoteSensing #drones

(sorry it is an Elsevier, paywalled journal, I did not have a say)