The Animal Behavior Podcast

En esta conversación, Matthew habla con Dr. Ximena Bernal, profesora de biología en la Universidad Purdue. Hablan de la investigación de Ximena sobre espías en el sistema de comunicación de la rana túngara. Después del descanso, hablan sobre el viaje de Ximena como hablante nativa de español trabajando como científica en un campo cuyo idioma principal es el inglés y sus esfuerzos para aumentar la comunicación entre los científicos del comportamiento animal que hablan diferentes idiomas. Artículos relevantes para el programa de esta semana: Bernal, X. E., Rand, A. S., & Ryan, M. J. (2006). Acoustic preferences and localization performance of blood-sucking flies (Corethrella Coquillett) to túngara frog calls. Behavioral Ecology, 17(5), 709-715. Bernal, X. E., Page, R. A., Rand, A. S., & Ryan, M. J. (2007). Cues for eavesdroppers: do frog calls indicate prey density and quality?. The American Naturalist, 169 (3), 409-415.

In this conversation, Matthew speaks with Dr. Ximena Bernal, professor of biological sciences at Purdue University. They discuss Ximena's research into spies in the túngara frog communication system. After the break, they talk about Ximena's journey as a native Spanish speaker working as a scientist in a field whose primary language is English and her efforts to increased communication between animal behavior scientists who speak different languages. This week's Two-Minute Takeaway comes from Dr. Brian Leavell, a recent PhD graduate from Ximena's lab. Brian is now a postdoc at Boise State University. Learn more about Brian's work here, and follow him on Twitter. Articles relevant to this week's show: Bernal, X. E., Rand, A. S., & Ryan, M. J. (2006). Acoustic preferences and localization performance of blood-sucking flies (Corethrella Coquillett) to túngara frog calls. Behavioral Ecology, 17(5), 709-715. Bernal, X. E., Page, R. A., Rand, A. S., & Ryan, M. J. (2007). Cues for eavesdroppers: do frog calls indicate prey density and quality?. The American Naturalist, 169 (3), 409-415.

In this week's episode, Maren Vitousek joins the show to talk about stress and her work in tree swallows. She starts by describing what stress is and what it is not. Matthew and Maren talk about the development of the stress response and its long-term implications. Then Maren's talk about the tree swallow project that she co-directs and what her lab has learned from studying stress in these animals. After the break, they talk about Maren's experience as a mother of three in academia. Maren describes her experience becoming a mother at three different career stages, the costs that mothers pay in academia, and what cultural and policy changes can be made to make academia more parent-friendly. This week's Two-Minute Takeaway comes from Mary Woodruff (@MaryJWoodruff), a PhD Candidate in the Rosvall Lab at Indiana University. She uses behavior and physiology to understand how wild birds are coping with climate change. Learn more about Mary’s work here. Del Giudice, M., Buck, C. L., Chaby, L. E., Gormally, B. M., Taff, C. C., Thawley, C. J., ... & Wada, H. (2018). What is stress? A systems perspective. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 58(6), 1019-1032. https://academic.oup.com/icb/article/58/6/1019/5094765 Credits: The Animal Behavior Podcast is created by a team of animal behavior researchers and audio professionals. Come meet us here! We receive production support from the Cornell Broadcast studio directed by Bert Odom-Reed, and financial support from the Animal Behavior Society.

This week Matthew speaks with Jenny Tung, McArthur fellow and the director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. They start out by discussing the mutual benefits that molecular biologists and behavioral ecologists can gain from bringing their methods and frameworks together. They discuss two examples of the power of that synergy from Jenny's work as a co-director of the Amboseli Baboon Research Project: (1) unraveling the hybridization history of the population and the behavioral impacts of hybrid ancestry and (2) measuring "biological" age and its predictors. They close by discussing Jenny's new role as director of MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology. Papers Relevant to this Week's episode: Hybridization in the Amboseli population: Vilgalys, T. P., Fogel, A. S., Anderson, J. A., Mututua, R. S., Warutere, J. K., Siodi, I. L. I., ... & Tung, J. (2022). Selection against admixture and gene regulatory divergence in a long-term primate field study. Science, 377(6606), 635-641. Biological aging in baboons: Anderson, J. A., Johnston, R. A., Lea, A. J., Campos, F. A., Voyles, T. N., Akinyi, M. Y., ... & Tung, J. (2021). High social status males experience accelerated epigenetic aging in wild baboons. Elife, 10, e66128. Credits: The Animal Behavior Podcast is created by a team of animal behavior researchers and audio professionals. Come meet us here! We receive production support from the Cornell Broadcast studio directed by Bert Odom-Reed, and financial support from the Animal Behavior Society.

In this episode, Matthew travels to South Africa to talk with legendary zoologist and behavioral ecologist, Tim Clutton-Brock. They discuss how Tim came to study meerkats and the logistical benefits of meerkats as a study system. Then they dig in to cooperative breeding and its implications for evolution. In the second half of the show, they discuss Tim's 50+ year career, how he has seen the field of animal behavior change, and where he thinks it should be headed. Two-Minute Takeaway: Marina Watowich is a postdoc at Vanderbilt University. Check out her paper on the impacts of hurricane Maria on aging in the Cayo Santiago macaques here. Credits: The Animal Behavior Podcast is created by a team of animal behavior researchers and audio professionals. Come meet us here! We receive production support from the Cornell Broadcast studio directed by Bert Odom-Reed, and financial support from the Animal Behavior Society.

In this episode, Matthew speaks with Robert Seyfarth, professor emeritus in the psychology department at the University of Pennsylvania. In the first half of the show, they discuss in detail some of the foundational playback experiments that Robert performed in partnership with his late wife Dorothy Cheney. These legendary experiments revealed fundamental discoveries about the kind of social knowledge monkeys have about the groups in which they live. In the second half of the show, they follow an "Ask Me Anything" style interview that covers a wide range, from building a family and field site with your closest collaborator and friend to questions of animal emotion and pre-linguistic, symbolic thought and communication. This week's two-minute takeaway comes from Arielle Fogel (Twitter @afogel29), a postdoc in Andy Clark's lab at Cornell University. See the paper that Arielle describes in Animal Behaviour here. Most relevant books discussed in today's show: How Monkeys See the World (Amazon link) by Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth Baboon Metaphysics (Amazon link) by Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth Wild Life: Dispatches from a Childhood of Baboons and Button-Downs (Amazon link) by Keena Roberts Credits: The Animal Behavior Podcast is created by a team of animal behavior researchers and audio professionals. Come meet us here! We receive production support from the Cornell Broadcast studio directed by Bert Odom-Reed, and financial support from the Animal Behavior Society.

Matthew hosts a live episode of the podcast at the 2023 meeting of the Animal Behavior Society in Portland, Oregon. The show features friends of the pod Swanne Gordon and Jeff Podos, as well as special guests Steve Nowicki and Ted Stankowich. Content relevant to this episode: 1. Buy books of poems written by Janie E. Bibbie, the poet from whom Swanne reads 2. See Kim Rosvall's flaming hula hoop performance along with a list of others' circus tricks: http://www.nowickilab.org/tricklist.html

In this episode, Matthew speaks with Sara Lewis about her book, "Silent Sparks" and her career studying fireflies. They discuss the sexually selected behaviors that are so central to fireflies' lives. After the break, they talk about Sara's conservation work focused on documenting firefly population dynamics and threat levels that different species face. This week's Two-Minute Takeaway comes from Cheyenne McKinley, a PhD student studying bioluminescent ostracods in Todd Oakley's lab at UCSB. Resources relevant to this week's show: Silent Sparks, Sara's book about her career and research studying fireflies. Fallon, C. E., Walker, A. C., Lewis, S., Cicero, J., Faust, L., Heckscher, C. M., ... & Jepsen, S. (2021). Evaluating firefly extinction risk: Initial red list assessments for North America. PloS one, 16(11), e0259379. State of the Fireflies of the United States and Canada: Distributions, Threats, and Conservation Recommendations. Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Credits: The Animal Behavior Podcast is created by a team of animal behavior researchers and audio professionals. Come meet us here! We receive production support from the Cornell Broadcast studio directed by Bert Odom-Reed, and financial support from the Animal Behavior Society.

In this episode, Matthew speaks with Thore Bergman about Niko Tinbergen's 1963 paper "On Aims and Methods of Ethology." They discuss Tinbergen's four questions as well as additional context for each and Thore describes how he has applied Tinbergen's principles to his own work. After the break, they discuss a paper that Thore and Jacinta Beehner published last year, arguing that the connections between Tinbergen's questions have been misunderstood. This week's Two-Minute Takeaway comes from Erin Wall, a PhD candidate studying birdsong perception in Sarah Woolley's lab at McGill University. Papers relevant to this week's show: Tinbergen, N. (1963). On aims and methods of ethology. Zeitschrift für tierpsychologie, 20(4), 410-433. Bergman, T. J., & Beehner, J. C. (2022). Leveling with Tinbergen: Four levels simplified to causes and consequences. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 31(1), 12-19. Credits: The Animal Behavior Podcast is created by a team of animal behavior researchers and audio professionals. Come meet us here! We receive production support from the Cornell Broadcast studio directed by Bert Odom-Reed, and financial support from the Animal Behavior Society.

In the first episode of Season 3, we kick off our new miniseries, "Foundations of Animal Behavior" in a conversation between Matthew and Darwin scholar and intellectual historian Dr. William Kimler. We recommend that you read Chapter 7 either before or after this conversation. Here is the version (1st edition) that William and Matthew reference, starting on page 207 of the text (page 114 of the pdf): http://darwin-online.org.uk/converted/pdf/1859_Origin_F373.pdf William first describes the social and intellectual context in which the Origin was written, including a description of natural theology and Darwin's own movement away from theology as a personal motivation in his work. William steps us through five excerpts from Chapter 7, describing additional context and meaning that might otherwise be missed by a first (or tenth!) time reader of the chapter. After the break, they discuss William's path from field ecologist to intellectual historian and what he sees as the value in connecting history and science. William pursues this goal as director of the Jefferson Scholars program at North Carolina State University. Here are the books that William suggests any aspiring readers of Darwin, likely available at your local or university library: On the Origin of Species, http://darwin-online.org.uk/converted/pdf/1859_Origin_F373.pdfThe Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, The Darwinian HeritageThe Cambridge Encyclopedia of Darwin and Evolutionary ThoughtDarwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and BehaviorThis week's Two Minute Takeaway came from Caleb Hazel, PhD candidate and philosopher of science at Duke University. Learn more about Caleb and his work on his website. Credits: The Animal Behavior Podcast is created by a team of animal behavior researchers and audio professionals. Come meet us here! We receive production support from the Cornell Broadcast studio directed by Bert Odom-Reed, and financial support from the Animal Behavior Society.

Matthew talks with Kate Laskowski about a recently published update to her work on the development of individuality in genetically identical organisms. If you missed the original episode, be sure to go check up Season 2 Episode 8! Read the paper here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-34113-y

In this episode, Amy speaks with guest Zuleyma Tang-Martinez, emeritus Professor of Biology at the University of Missouri - St. Louis. They open by discussing the social function of individual odors and the potential factors driving the evolution of individual recognition systems in animals. Then, they chat about work by Zuleyma (and others) challenging Bateman's Principle, a widely accepted cornerstone of how we understand sexual selection. After the break, they discuss the importance of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) efforts within and beyond academia, how the Animal Behavior Society has changed since its founding, and what excites Zuleyma about the future of our field. This week's Two-Minute Takeaway comes from Solimary García Hernández (@GhSolimary), a Postdoctoral Fellow at Universidade de São Paulo in Brazil. She is a behavioral ecologist especially interested in sexual selection, parental care, and defensive behaviors of arthropods. Recently, her research has focused on how and why sexual dimorphism varies among earwig populations, and how food availability affects lifetime reproductive success in harvestman. Learn more about Solimary's work here. Papers relevant to today's show: 1. The mechanisms of kin discrimination and the evolution of kin recognition in vertebrates: a critical re-evaluation 2001 Behavioural Processes 2. Rethinking Bateman’s Principles: Challenging Persistent Myths of Sexually Reluctant Females and Promiscuous Males 2016 Annual Review of Sex Research 3. The history and impact of women in animal behaviour and the ABS: a North American perspective 2020 Animal Behaviour Credits: The Animal Behavior Podcast is created by a team of animal behavior researchers and audio professionals. Come meet us here! We receive production support from the Cornell Broadcast studio directed by Bert Odom-Reed, and financial support from the Animal Behavior Society.

In this episode, Amy speaks with guest Andy Sih, a Distinguished ​​Professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy within the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at UC Davis. They open by discussing the concept of animal personalities (a.k.a 'behavioral syndromes' or 'consistent individual differences in behavior'). Then, they chat about fear generalization in animals, and they discuss how and why human-induced rapid environmental change threatens some species more than others. After the break, they discuss international collaboration, integrative approaches to behavioral questions, and the value of 'big picture' thinking. This week's Two-Minute Takeaway comes from Jason Dinh (@jasonpdinh), a PhD Candidate at Duke University. He uses physiology and physics to understand how sexually selected signals are used and perceived, exploring proximate mechanisms through an evolutionary lens. Learn more about Jason's work here. Papers relevant to today's show: 1. Behavioral syndromes: an ecological and evolutionary overview 2004 Trends in Ecology & Evolution 2. On the importance of individual differences in behavioural skill 2019 Animal Behaviour 3. Integrating social networks, animal personalities, movement ecology and parasites: a framework with examples from a lizard 2018 Animal Behaviour Credits: The Animal Behavior Podcast is created by a team of animal behavior researchers and audio professionals. Come meet us here! We receive production support from the Cornell Broadcast studio directed by Bert Odom-Reed, and financial support from the Animal Behavior Society.

In this episode, Matthew speaks with guest Kate Laskowski (@KateLaskowski), an Assistant Professor in the Department of Evolution, and Ecology at the University of California, Davis They discuss what it means for animals to display individuality, how frequent individual repeatable differences are, and Kate's work in Amazon mollies that attempts to identify the sources and consequences of individual differences in a naturally clonal species. Then after the break they discuss data reproducibility, including advice from Kate about low-effort steps that researchers can take to make their data more readily reproducible. This week's Two-Minute Takeaway comes from Mauna Desari (@chumblebiome), an NSF Postdoc at the University of Pittsburgh. Mauna studies the causes and consequences of variation in the microbiome in wild animals. Papers relevant to today's show: 1. The meta-analysis of repeatability of behaviors: Bell, Alison M., Shala J. Hankison, and Kate L. Laskowski. "The repeatability of behaviour: a meta-analysis." Animal behaviour 77, no. 4 (2009): 771-783. 2. The paper describing short and long-term winner/loser effects in mollies Laskowski, K. L., Wolf, M., & Bierbach, D. (2016). The making of winners (and losers): how early dominance interactions determine adult social structure in a clonal fish. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 283(1830), 20160183. 3. Emergence of individuality in clonal fish with near-identical rearing conditions: Bierbach, D., Laskowski, K. L., & Wolf, M. (2017). Behavioural individuality in clonal fish arises despite near-identical rearing conditions. Nature communications, 8(1), 1-7. Credits: The Animal Behavior Podcast is created by a team of animal behavior researchers and audio professionals. Come meet us here! We receive production support from the Cornell Broadcast studio directed by Bert Odom-Reed, and financial support from the Animal Behavior Society.

In this episode, Amy speaks with guest Gerry Carter (@gerrygcarter), an Assistant Professor in the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology at The Ohio State University. They open by discussing cooperation and conflict in animal social structures. Then, they dig into variation in individual food-sharing relationships in bats, and they chat about whether or not vampire bats show reciprocal altruism (and how to go about testing this). After the break, they discuss challenges with the current incentive structures in academia, including potential avenues for improvement. This week's Two-Minute Takeaway comes from Mena Davidson (@mena_davidson), a PhD Candidate at the University of Michigan. They use a rodent model to study how social behavior and pair bonding are affected by changing environmental contexts. Learn more about Mena's work here. Papers relevant to today's show: 1. Social bet-hedging in vampire bats 2017 Biology Letters 2. Co-option and the evolution of food sharing in vampire bats 2021 Ethology 3. Vampire bats that cooperate in the lab maintain their social networks in the wild 2019 Current Biology Credits: The Animal Behavior Podcast is created by a team of animal behavior researchers and audio professionals. Come meet us here! We receive production support from the Cornell Broadcast studio directed by Bert Odom-Reed, and financial support from the Animal Behavior Society.

ABS 2022 is just around the corner and The Animal Behavior Podcast will be there! Come meet us!

In this episode, Amy speaks with guest Karen Warkentin, a Professor of Biology and a Professor of Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies at Boston University. They open by discussing the adaptive value of phenotypic plasticity, particularly at critical moments in complex life cycles. Then, they dig into the mechanisms underlying environmentally-cued hatching in red-eyed treefrogs (Agalychnis callidryas), and they talk about experimental approaches Karen has used to test hypotheses within this system. After the break, they discuss Karen’s dual appointments in both Biology and Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies at BU, including the value and necessity of integrating these fields. This week's Two-Minute Takeaway comes from Juleyska Vazquez-Cardona (@JuleyskaV), a graduate student in The Birdsong Lab at the University of Lethbridge. Her work explores vocal communication in Adelaide's warblers (Setophaga adelaidae), a tropical songbird. Papers relevant to today's show: 1. Karen & collaborators (2017) compare escape-hatching onset in Red-eyed treefrog embryos in response to hypoxia and mechanosensory cues. Developmental onset of escape-hatching responses in red-eyed treefrogs depends on cue type Animal Behaviour 2. Karen’s former PhD student Dr. Julie Jung leads this paper (2022) parsing the vibration properties that embryos use to discern predation risk. Frog embryos use multiple levels of temporal pattern in risk assessment for vibration-cued escape hatching Animal Cognition Credits: The Animal Behavior Podcast is created by a team of animal behavior researchers and audio professionals. Come meet us here! We receive production support from the Cornell Broadcast studio directed by Bert Odom-Reed, and financial support from the Animal Behavior Society.

In this episode, Amy speaks with guest Nora H. Prior (@NhPrior), a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Psychology at Cornell University. They open by discussing the many types of social relationships that animals experience throughout their lives, and the impact that these diverse social interactions may have on the involved individuals. Then, they dig into the neuroscience underlying our understanding of different social behaviors and explore the value of linking neural mechanisms and social behavior. After the break, they discuss scholar-activism, finding and building community in our field, and the value of bringing complex personal identities into our work as researchers. This week's Two-Minute Takeaway comes from Shailee Shah (@shailee_shah93), a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Chen Lab in the Department of Biology at the University of Rochester. Check out her recent paper in Science Advances, Prenatal environmental conditions underlie alternative reproductive tactics that drive the formation of a mixed-kin cooperative society. Papers relevant to today's show: 1. Nora (2020) reviews behavioral synchrony during pair-bonding across contexts, timescales, and species. What’s in a Moment: What Can Be Learned About Pair Bonding From Studying Moment-To-Moment Behavioral Synchrony Between Partners? Frontiers in Psychology 2. Nora, along with collaborators Ehren J. Bentz and Alexander G. Ophir, review the interconnectedness of social behavior and sensory processing mechanisms in animals. Reciprocal processes of sensory perception and social bonding: an integrated social-sensory framework of social behavior Genes, Brains, & Behavior Credits: The Animal Behavior Podcast is created by a team of animal behavior researchers and audio professionals. Come meet us here! We receive production support from the Cornell Broadcast studio directed by Bert Odom-Reed, and financial support from the Animal Behavior Society.

In this episode, Matthew speaks with Jesse Goldberg (@jesseGlab), Associate Professor and Robert R. Capranica Fellow in the neurobiology and behavior department at Cornell University. They first cover Jesse's perspectives on some basics of neurobiology-- what he identifies as a brain's function and the brain's role in creating predictions and controlling movement. They then discuss the role of dopamine in an animal's learning and discoveries that Jesse's lab has made regarding the role of dopamine in song learning in zebra finches, in particular. Then after the break they discuss Jesse's path from to neurobiology as well as the limitations and promises of the field of neurobiology. A clarifying note to listeners, during our conversation the nervous systems of a marine animal - the sea squirt - becomes relevant. Although discussed as an example, we want to be clear that sea squirts retain some form of nervous system throughout their entire lives (though they digest large parts of their nervous system upon become sessile). For a more detailed look at the sea squirt's transition from mobile to sessile, check out this blog post. This week's Two-Minute Takeaway comes from Andrew Legan (@AndrewLegan), a recently minted PhD from the NBB department at Cornell. Read Andrew's work on odorant receptor expansion in paper wasps here. Media relevant to today's show: 1. The paper identifying dopamine neurons' role in song learning/self-assessment in zebra finches Gadagkar, V., Puzerey, P. A., Chen, R., Baird-Daniel, E., Farhang, A. R., & Goldberg, J. H. (2016). Dopamine neurons encode performance error in singing birds. Science, 354(6317), 1278-1282. 2. The paper describing how dopamine neurons respond differently when in the presence of females Gadagkar, V., Puzerey, P. A., & Goldberg, J. H. (2019). Dopamine neurons change their tuning according to courtship context in singing birds. bioRxiv, 822817. 3. (Restricted Access) i of the Vortex, by Rodolfo Llinás. A book that argues that the evolution of movement and the mind are deepy intertwined: http://cognet.mit.edu/book/i-of-vortex Credits: The Animal Behavior Podcast is created by a team of animal behavior researchers and audio professionals. Come meet us here! We receive production support from the Cornell Broadcast studio, directed by Bert Odom-Reed and financial support from the Animal Behavior Society.

In this episode, Matthew speaks with Swanne Gordon (@Swanne Gordon), Assistant Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis. They talk about diversity in both nature and in the biological sciences. The research focus of the conversation focuses on Swanne's experimental and modeling work to understand polymorphism among aposematic wood tiger moths, and the surprising outcomes that positive density dependent selection can have, when combined with migration between populations. Then after the break they discuss the lack of racial and ethnic diversity in biological sciences, especially in evolutionary biology. Swanne describes her own experiences and identifies areas of progress and failure in our field. Then they close their conversation by discussing the benefits of increasing diversity in the model systems that we study. This week's Two-Minute Takeaway comes from Dishari Dasgupta (@DishariDg), a PhD student at IISER Kolkata. Read Dishari's work on food preference of urban langurs here. Media relevant to today's show: 1. Swanne's paper explaining the maintenance of polymorphism in wood tiger moths: Gordon, S. P., Kokko, H., Rojas, B., Nokelainen, O., & Mappes, J. (2015). Colour polymorphism torn apart by opposing positive frequency‐dependent selection, yet maintained in space. Journal of Animal Ecology, 84(6), 1555-1564. 2. Duffy et al.'s call for greater diversity in model systems: Duffy, M. A., García-Robledo, C., Gordon, S. P., Grant, N. A., Green, D. A., Kamath, A., ... & Zaman, L. (2021). Model systems in ecology, evolution, and behavior: A call for diversity in our model systems and discipline. The American Naturalist, 198(1), 53-68. 3. Swanne's EcoEvoSeminar Talk, from August 2020, discussing some of these results in more detail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcLjlWc6GCs Credits: The Animal Behavior Podcast is created by a team of animal behavior researchers and audio professionals. Come meet us here! We receive production support from the Cornell Broadcast studio, directed by Bert Odom-Reed and financial support from the Animal Behavior Society.