Dear All,
This is just a reminder that today (4pm) we have a seminar led by Dr. Maleen Thiele (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology) entitled "Exploring The Flexible Nature of Joint Attention" - abstract below. The meeting will be held online (link below) but some of us will watch it from the common room.
"In this talk, I will provide an overview of our eye-tracking research investigating the role of joint attention interactions in guiding visual attention orienting, memory, and learning. Drawing on findings from multiple studies with German infants and toddlers, I will demonstrate how joint attention serves as a highly flexible social learning mechanism that operates dynamically across diverse social environments. Furthermore, I will share insights from our ongoing comparative work with chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans to explore the evolutionary history of this learning mechanism. I will conclude by discussing our findings within the broader context of cultural learning, and give an outlook on our current efforts in refining eye-tracking methodologies for developmental and comparative research."
link to the meeting:
BERG research seminars | Meeting-Join | Microsoft Teams<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/ap/t-59584e83/?url=https%3A%…<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/ap/t-59584e83/?url=https%3A%…<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/ap/t-59584e83/?url=https%3A%…<https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/3816460052135?p=xsEIefROgXSXlZHxc0>>>>
Best
Alex
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Alejandro Sanchez-Amaro
Lecturer in Psychology
Cottrell Building Room 3B144c, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Natural Sciences
University of Stirling
@ Colleagues and Students: Please let me know of any EDI (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) -related issues that you would like me to bring to the attention of our Division's EDI Committee.
[cid:3e49fe8d-1521-4d02-8e7d-642a58e55151]<https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/2a25868e07e14f2d87f6b0b660fce268…>
Book time to meet with me<https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/2a25868e07e14f2d87f6b0b660fce268…>
________________________________
Scotland's University for Sporting Excellence
The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159
Dear All,
This Wednesday (4pm) we have a seminar led by Dr. Maleen Thiele (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology) entitled "Exploring The Flexible Nature of Joint Attention" - abstract below. The meeting will be held online (link below) but some of us will watch it from the common room.
"In this talk, I will provide an overview of our eye-tracking research investigating the role of joint attention interactions in guiding visual attention orienting, memory, and learning. Drawing on findings from multiple studies with German infants and toddlers, I will demonstrate how joint attention serves as a highly flexible social learning mechanism that operates dynamically across diverse social environments. Furthermore, I will share insights from our ongoing comparative work with chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans to explore the evolutionary history of this learning mechanism. I will conclude by discussing our findings within the broader context of cultural learning, and give an outlook on our current efforts in refining eye-tracking methodologies for developmental and comparative research."
link to the meeting:
BERG research seminars | Meeting-Join | Microsoft Teams<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/ap/t-59584e83/?url=https%3A%…<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/ap/t-59584e83/?url=https%3A%…<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/ap/t-59584e83/?url=https%3A%…<https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/3816460052135?p=xsEIefROgXSXlZHxc0>>>>
Best
Alex
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Alejandro Sanchez-Amaro
Lecturer in Psychology
Cottrell Building Room 3B144c, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Natural Sciences
University of Stirling
@ Colleagues and Students: Please let me know of any EDI (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) -related issues that you would like me to bring to the attention of our Division's EDI Committee.
[cid:711b7736-0296-48bc-8042-2f571594959b]<https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/2a25868e07e14f2d87f6b0b660fce268…>
Book time to meet with me<https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/2a25868e07e14f2d87f6b0b660fce268…>
________________________________
Scotland's University for Sporting Excellence
The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159
FYI:
Want to help your local
wildlife and community?
Join our project as a volunteer!
Local volunteers are invited to take part in the Coexist Project, a nationwide programme monitoring human-wildlife encounters in the UK. The project takes a multidisciplinary approach, combining cutting-edge technology, field methods, and community engagement to understand where and why these encounters occur. We bring together local residents, universities, councils, and wildlife organisations to support human-wildlife coexistence in an ever-changing world.
What will volunteers do? You will join our team and be trained to help monitor wildlife behaviour in your local area, such as deploying and checking equipment (e.g., trail cameras, puzzle feeders, or acoustic recorders). You will also help us distribute fliers within these same locations to encourage residents to complete a short (<10min) online questionnaire about their experiences and attitudes towards local wildlife. You will help record local environmental characteristics, such as the presence of food, shelter, and other resources available to wildlife. Finally, you will help manually code and upload your observations to our secure online dashboard where councils and conservation partners can use the data to help guide locally tailored strategies to promote coexistence. All equipment will be provided, and we will train you through a series of workshops, video tutorials, and online guides before you begin.
Why it matters: Urban growth, climate change, and nature restoration are changing where wildlife live in the UK, creating more opportunities for people and wildlife to encounter each other. While many human-wildlife encounters can be positive or neutral (e.g., bird watching), others can lead to conflict (e.g., animals raiding gardens, bins, and chicken coops). Nationally, human-wildlife conflicts cost over £500 million per year to manage, yet many of these costs could be reduced through early detection and simple preventative measures where wildlife and people can both benefit. Local authorities, such as councils and conservation organisations, often lack the resources to systematically monitor these human-wildlife interactions, limiting their ability to help communities respond with early, locally tailored strategies to reduce conflict and promote coexistence. By enabling residents to take an active role in helping to collect data within their local area, the Coexist Project opens a two-way dialogue between communities and local authorities, helping to guide more effective, targeted actions while giving residents an active voice in shaping how wildlife and communities thrive together.
How much time is required? Volunteers will typically spend at least 25 hours in total, which includes your training and ideally starting whenever you are available. While the time commitment is important to ensure data are collected reliably and on time, individual tasks can be broken into short, flexible sessions, and the specific days and times can be arranged to suit your availability within each week.
Who can volunteer? You must (1) be 18 years or older, (2) have a smartphone and computer for data collection, (3) be able to travel (~1-5km) to sites within your local area, (4) be able to commit at least 25 hours of your time, (5) be physically able and willing to work safely during daylight hours and in variable weather, and (6) have a keen interest in wildlife and outdoor activities.
What’s in it for you? Volunteering with the Coexist Project lets you make a real difference to local wildlife and your community. By joining the team, your observations will help local authorities, such as city councils and conservation organisations, understand where and why human-wildlife interactions occur. This information can then be used to help inform effective and environmentally responsible strategies to support people and wildlife living together. You will gain hands-on experience in wildlife monitoring and citizen science. You will see how data and technology are used to understand and reduce human-wildlife conflicts, and you will develop practical skills in animal observation, field methodology, and environmental problem-solving with other like-minded volunteers.
Ethics and governance. The Coexist Project is ethically approved by the University of Hull and complies with all GDPR and animal welfare regulations from the UK government. All study sites have landowner permission and local authority involvement.
Interested? Questions about volunteering should be directed to Dr Blake Morton (b.morton(a)hull.ac.uk<mailto:b.morton@hull.ac.uk>) at the University of Hull. Staff profile: https://www.hull.ac.uk/staff-directory/blake-morton
Dr Blake Morton | Lecturer
Behaviour & Ecology Research Group
Department of Psychology
University of Hull, HU6 7RX, UK
Email: b.morton(a)hull.ac.uk<mailto:b.morton@hull.ac.uk>
Web: https://www.blakemorton.co.uk/
Bluesky: @drblakemorton.bsky.social
Best wishes,
Pawel
-------------------------------
Dr Pawel Fedurek (he/his)
Lecturer in Psychology
Behaviour and Evolution Research Group (BERG)
School of Psychology, Faculty of Natural Sciences
University of Stirling
Stirling, FK9 4LA
Scotland, UK
@pawel-fedurek<https://bsky.app/profile/pawel-fedurek.bsky.social> @berg-stirling<https://bsky.app/profile/berg-stirling.bsky.social>
Staff webpage<https://www.stir.ac.uk/people/1080868> | BERG webpage<https://www.stir.ac.uk/about/faculties/natural-sciences/our-research/resear…>
I aim to reply within 3 working days (my working days are between Monday and Friday).
________________________________
Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence
The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159
Hello,
This may be interesting for some former HAI MS students
Two postdoc position at the Messerli Research Institute in the area of human-animal interactions: https://www.vetmeduni.ac.at/fileadmin/v/z/mitteilungsblatt/stellen/2025_202…
best
Alex
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Alejandro Sanchez-Amaro
Lecturer in Psychology
Cottrell Building Room 3B144c, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Natural Sciences
University of Stirling
@ Colleagues and Students: Please let me know of any EDI (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) -related issues that you would like me to bring to the attention of our Division's EDI Committee.
[cid:cc31e685-2e25-4912-b13d-c5f0d43d883f]<https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/2a25868e07e14f2d87f6b0b660fce268…>
Book time to meet with me<https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/2a25868e07e14f2d87f6b0b660fce268…>
________________________________
Scotland's University for Sporting Excellence
The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159
Dear All,
This Wednesday (4pm) we have a seminar led by Matthias Allritz (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology) entitled "Captive great apes follow human pointing gestures" - abstract below. The meeting will be held online: please find a link to the meeting below.
Pointing gestures are among the most fundamental acts of human communication. Whether and which nonhuman animals can comprehend cooperative, declarative gestures such as human pointing has been the subject of 30 years of controversial debate, with implications for theories of how potentially human-unique forms of communication evolved. I will present the results of a study that systematically varied both the amount of referentiality (here: deictic movement elements) and ostension (here: attention getters that highlight that communication is happening) in pointing gestures shown to a large sample of great apes (N = 39) across five conditions. Unlike in many prior studies, great apes followed the human points successfully; and yet, their performance improved only marginally when gestures were maximally ostensive or referential. These results support a nuanced re-evaluation of great apes’ abilities: great apes, even those not raised by humans, follow human pointing. At the same time, their success is unlikely to be driven by actual comprehension of cooperative, communicative intention.
Link to the meeting: BERG research seminars | Meeting-Join | Microsoft Teams<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fteams.mic…<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fteams.mic…<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fteams.mic…<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fteams.mic…<https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/3816460052135?p=xsEIefROgXSXlZHxc0>>>>>
Best
Alex
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Alejandro Sanchez-Amaro
Lecturer in Psychology
Cottrell Building Room 3B144c, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Natural Sciences
University of Stirling
@ Colleagues and Students: Please let me know of any EDI (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) -related issues that you would like me to bring to the attention of our Division's EDI Committee.
[cid:953913d0-91cd-4b2c-89cb-69ef53df7477]<https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/2a25868e07e14f2d87f6b0b660fce268…>
Book time to meet with me<https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/2a25868e07e14f2d87f6b0b660fce268…>
________________________________
Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence
The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159
FYI:
Please find below a call for applications for an external PhD opportunity:
We are currently advertising a fully funded PhD position (3 years, fully funded by the Leverhulme Trust) at Nottingham Trent University within the department of Psychology.
In this PhD, the student will generate new data to measure the facial behaviour of two species of semi-free ranging macaques (Tonkean and rhesus) and subsequently quantify their expressivity. The project will assess the link between an individual’s facial expressivity (measured through ethological techniques) and the accuracy of their social knowledge (measured through cognitive testing). Using a secondary MRI dataset of the study subjects, and potentially incorporating new MRI, the student will also attempt to quantify the facial musculature of living primates and directly compare underlying anatomy with expressive behaviour.
The project will include an approximately 10-month visit to the Centre for Primatology (SILABE, University of Strasbourg) for the collection of behavioural and cognitive data. All field costs will be covered by the project. You will be supported by interdisciplinary team: Jamie Whitehouse (Nottingham Trent University), Sébastien Ballesta (University of Strasbourg) and Bridget Waller (Nottingham Trent University).
International applications welcome! Deadline 19th June, apply here: https://tinyurl.com/PhDNTU<https://links.whitefuse.net/ls/click?upn=u001.0DLfZXjD-2BwiUR1Oqo6rqQAs9G3b…>
and more information here: https://jamiewhitehouse.github.io/mappingconnections/<https://links.whitefuse.net/ls/click?upn=u001.0DLfZXjD-2BwiUR1Oqo6rqQNp-2B3…>
For any enquiries, contact Jamie Whitehouse (jamie.whitehouse(a)ntu.ac.uk<mailto:jamie.whitehouse@ntu.ac.uk>)
________________________________
Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence
The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159
Dear All,
Today (4pm) we have a seminar led by Patrick Allsop (Bangor University) about his PhD project entitled "Anthropogenic disturbance is associated with greater dietary diversity and differentiation of the gut microbial community in the Zanzibar red colobus monkey (Piliocolobus kirkii)" - abstract below. The meeting will be held online (link below) but some of us will watch it from the common room.
Abstract: Habitat loss is the primary threat to primates today, with many populations being encroached upon by human settlements and agriculture. Despite this, some generalist species can exploit novel anthropogenic opportunities to supplement their diet via crop foraging when preferred foods are scarce. This can potentially come with significant health risks however, including zoonoses and changes in the composition of the gut microbiome potentially increasing individuals’ susceptibility to pathogens. The Zanzibar red colobus monkey (Piliocolobus kirkii) is unusual in that congeners are highly sensitive to anthropogenic disturbance, yet in some cases populations of P. kirkii can survive in highly disturbed habitats. We studied eight groups of Zanzibar red colobus living in the forests (n=3 groups) and farmlands (n=4 groups) of Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park and the urban village of Paje (1 group), to examine the effect of habitat disturbance on dietary composition and their gut microbiome. These were characterised by DNA metabarcoding, using 16S and ITS2 primers to sequence plant and bacterial DNA sequences found in faecal samples (n=137). We predicted that dietary diversity would be lowest in the urbanised village due to deforestation and highest in the farmland due to a greater variety of crops to supplement their diet in the absence of their preferred forest food species. We also predicted that the diversity and composition of the gut microbiome would vary across habitats in association with dietary composition. We found that farmland individuals had significantly higher dietary diversity than either forest or village individuals and that forest monkeys had a significantly less diverse gut microbiome than those in the urbanised village. Both dietary and microbiome composition showed significant variation between habitats. This demonstrates that although P. kirkii is capable of exploiting anthropogenic resources and landscapes, this may come at the cost of a disrupted gut microbiome.
ink to the meeting:
BERG research seminars | Meeting-Join | Microsoft Teams<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fteams.mic…<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fteams.mic…<https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/3816460052135?p=xsEIefROgXSXlZHxc0>>>
Best wishes,
Pawel
-------------------------------
Dr Pawel Fedurek (he/his)
Lecturer in Psychology
Behaviour and Evolution Research Group (BERG)
School of Psychology, Faculty of Natural Sciences
University of Stirling
Stirling, FK9 4LA
Scotland, UK
@pawel-fedurek<https://bsky.app/profile/pawel-fedurek.bsky.social> @berg-stirling<https://bsky.app/profile/berg-stirling.bsky.social>
Staff webpage<https://www.stir.ac.uk/people/1080868> | BERG webpage<https://www.stir.ac.uk/about/faculties/natural-sciences/our-research/resear…>
I aim to reply within 3 working days (my working days are between Monday and Friday).
________________________________
Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence
The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159
Dear All,
This Wednesday (4pm) we have a seminar led by Patrick Allsop (Bangor University) about his PhD project entitled "Anthropogenic disturbance is associated with greater dietary diversity and differentiation of the gut microbial community in the Zanzibar red colobus monkey (Piliocolobus kirkii)" - abstract below. The meeting will be held online (link below) but some of us will watch it from the common room.
Abstract: Habitat loss is the primary threat to primates today, with many populations being encroached upon by human settlements and agriculture. Despite this, some generalist species can exploit novel anthropogenic opportunities to supplement their diet via crop foraging when preferred foods are scarce. This can potentially come with significant health risks however, including zoonoses and changes in the composition of the gut microbiome potentially increasing individuals’ susceptibility to pathogens. The Zanzibar red colobus monkey (Piliocolobus kirkii) is unusual in that congeners are highly sensitive to anthropogenic disturbance, yet in some cases populations of P. kirkii can survive in highly disturbed habitats. We studied eight groups of Zanzibar red colobus living in the forests (n=3 groups) and farmlands (n=4 groups) of Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park and the urban village of Paje (1 group), to examine the effect of habitat disturbance on dietary composition and their gut microbiome. These were characterised by DNA metabarcoding, using 16S and ITS2 primers to sequence plant and bacterial DNA sequences found in faecal samples (n=137). We predicted that dietary diversity would be lowest in the urbanised village due to deforestation and highest in the farmland due to a greater variety of crops to supplement their diet in the absence of their preferred forest food species. We also predicted that the diversity and composition of the gut microbiome would vary across habitats in association with dietary composition. We found that farmland individuals had significantly higher dietary diversity than either forest or village individuals and that forest monkeys had a significantly less diverse gut microbiome than those in the urbanised village. Both dietary and microbiome composition showed significant variation between habitats. This demonstrates that although P. kirkii is capable of exploiting anthropogenic resources and landscapes, this may come at the cost of a disrupted gut microbiome.
ink to the meeting:
BERG research seminars | Meeting-Join | Microsoft Teams<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fteams.mic…<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fteams.mic…<https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/3816460052135?p=xsEIefROgXSXlZHxc0>>>
________________________________
Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence
The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159
