Dear All, Quick reminder that today we have a seminar led by Ashleigh Messenger (University of Stirling) about her PhD study entitled "The importance of personality in ex-situ ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta)" - abstract below. The meeting will be held in-person in the Psychology common room with a possibility of joining online. Abstract Ex-situ conservation of ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) is becoming increasingly important, due to threats in the wild (LaFleur & Gould, 2020). However, there are many difficulties associated with the husbandry of this species, due to their complex social structure (Sauther & Sussman, 1993) and aggressive tendencies (Gould, Sussman & Sauther, 2003). Personality has been used as an indicator of welfare in many species. However, it is often difficult to determine which aspects of personality are the most relevant in a given species. The trait theory of personality can distinguish differences between species (allowing for cross-species comparison) and acknowledges individual differences within a given species (Tetley & O’Hara, 2012). This has been applied successfully to many species, including primates King & Figuerdo, 1997; Weiss et al., 2006; 2009; 2011) However, there has thus far been no attempt to describe personality structure in ring-tailed lemurs. This research aims to uncover the major traits of ring-tailed lemur personality by utilising these established methods. Link to the meeting: BERG research seminars | Meeting-Join | Microsoft Teams<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fteams.microsoft.com%2Fmeet%2F3816460052135%3Fp%3DxsEIefROgXSXlZHxc0&data=05%7C02%7Cpawel.fedurek%40stir.ac.uk%7C1bc391692517484f928208ddff28eef8%7C4e8d09f7cc794ccb9149a4238dd17422%7C0%7C0%7C638947273516325922%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=NVfYEejdJFIzArh77n12V8FzGFjxvJM9z4EWy1uSZqs%3D&reserved=0<https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/3816460052135?p=xsEIefROgXSXlZHxc0>> BERG seminar schedule (Spring 2026):   Date Speaker Affiliation Talk title Chair 18-Feb-26 Ashleigh Messenger University of Stirling TBC. Ring-tailed lemur personality and welfare Pawel 25-Feb-26 Floriane Fournier Université Jean Monnet TBC. Nonlinear phenomena in vocal emotional expression and perception in bonobos Pawel 4-Mar-26 MID SEMESTER BREAK 11-Mar-26 IMPACT meeting Impact research catch up Pawel 18-Mar-26 Robert Aitchison University of Stirling TBC. Carrion crow vocal behaviour Pawel 25-Mar-26 Janie Fink University of St Andrews; University of California Davis TBC. Comparative cognition, bee cognition Pawel 1-Apr-26 Maleen Thiele Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology TBC Alex 8-Apr-26 Stephan Kaufhold Univesity of California, San Diego TBC Alex 29-Apr-26 Patrick Allsop Bangor University TBC. Zanzibar red colobus, human-wildlife conflict Pawel Best wishes, Pawel ________________________________ Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159