Informed birds visiting Antzz in Helsinki

Although our work focusses mainly on birds, and the consequences of their information use for others, some of the best examples of how social behaviour evolves are to be found in invertebrates.  From August, I'll be a long-term visitor to the ANTZZ team at the University of Helsinki, led by Prof. Liselotte Sundström.  Lotta is one of the directors of the Centre of Excellence for Biological Interactions (our collaborator Prof Johanna Mappes, in Jyväskylä, is another), and being here offers a really exciting opportunity to learn more about social evolution from the view point of Formica ants.  Vix and Liisa will be visiting regularly from Cambridge, and I'll be visiting them often too. 

See here for more about Team ANTZZ

Science Cafe kicks off 2016 Cambridge Science Festival

Kirsty and Rose are running the Science Cafe event again as part of this year's Science Festival.  Despite pretty awful weather conditions on Saturday March 5th (gales, rain, and hail!) we reached over 70 people during the 3-hr event in the Cambridge Market Square.  Our goal is to communicate how exciting science is to an audience who perhaps wouldn't normally come to the Science Festival - fingers crossed for better weather next weekend! 

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Liisa Hämäläinen begins her 1st field season

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Liisa is now spending her time out in Madingley Woods, collecting data to compile a social network for the blue and great tits.  Her first experiments will combine captive experiments with specific birds that she'll be removing (temporarily!) from the woods.  It will be a busy few months, good luck Liisa!

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Good luck for the field season on #Tiritirimatangi @VixFranks

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Victoria is on her way to New Zealand for her second field season.  She'll be based at Tiritiri Matangi Island until April 2016, and manipulating the ways that juveniles learn about their environment.  If you're visiting New Zealand, make sure you include a trip to Tiritiri to visit Vix and our hihi!