Thomas MacGillavry
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thomasmacgillavry.bsky.social
Thomas MacGillavry
@thomasmacgillavry.bsky.social
330 followers 510 following 64 posts
PhD student researching birds of paradise |
Interested in avian rhythm and “dance” 💃🏻🕺🏼|
Love music, nature, bouldering, and exploring wild places 🌴 |
he/him |
University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna
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thomasmacgillavry.bsky.social
Thomas MacGillavry @thomasmacgillavry.bsky.social · Sep 30
Very proud to present our paper on the spectacular “dances” of Victoria’s riflebirds!

Out now in Current Biology.

www.cell.com/current-biol...
Reposted by Thomas MacGillavry
berlinbatlab.bsky.social
New study alert! Sexually selected vocalizations of Greater Mouse-Eared Bats

We recorded male Myotis myotis in mating roosts and found complex vocalizations with an individual signature and pronounced seasonal variation. Check it out!

🔗 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
January 5, 2026 at 12:53 PM
Reposted by Thomas MacGillavry
maxplanck.de
Looks aren't everything! Wolfgang Forstmeier and Clemens Küpper @mpiforbi.bsky.social in Seewiesen study mate-choice preferences in #birds. Here's what they found out 😊 bc.pressmatrix.com/de/profiles/... #NationalBirdDay #Artenvielfalt
As if on a catwalk, this male ruff seems to be showing off his plumage. But looks alone are not enough to impress anyone. While other males fight, this one simply waits and seizes the first opportunity to mate with a female.
January 5, 2026 at 9:18 AM
Reposted by Thomas MacGillavry
witmerlab.bsky.social
Highly recommended! I just finished a cover-to-cover read, and it's a great addition to the avian sensory ecology literature with excellent discussions of the links between brain & behavior. I prefer reading paper books (better retention) but the whole thing is freely downloadable! bit.ly/482xPZm 🦉🧠
"Bird Brains and Behavior: A Synthesis" book by Georg Striedter & Andrew Iwaniuk, surrounded by birds skulls and 3D printed brain endocasts of, from left, ostrich, golden eagle, African grey parrot, American crow, and wild turkey. The pale turquoise endocast is that of a New Caledonian crow.
November 20, 2025 at 5:45 PM
thomasmacgillavry.bsky.social
Reading @edyong209.bsky.social ‘s wonderful book “An Immense World” and was absolutely enthralled by descriptions of cetacean sonar, especially echoic imaging, including the idea that some internal structures could be sexual signals in the sonar modality!

doi.org/10.1111/bij....
‘Antlers inside’: are the skull structures of beaked whales (Cetacea: Ziphiidae) used for echoic imaging and visual display?
Abstract. Skulls of many living and extinct beaked whales (Ziphiidae) contain various bizarre bone and tooth structures. Many of them show sexual dimorphis
doi.org
January 4, 2026 at 7:11 PM
Reposted by Thomas MacGillavry
haneuljang.bsky.social
An outstanding and beautifully filmed documentary inspired by Sarah Hrdy’s “Father Time”, exploring the physiological and emotional changes men experience when becoming fathers and their deep evolutionary roots.

Streaming here until Feb 5, 2026 (French only for now):

www.arte.tv/fr/videos/11...
Paternité, une métamorphose décryptée - Regarder le documentaire complet | ARTE
Devenir père est une aventure dans la vie d’un homme, mais aussi une métamorphose physiologique que la science commence tout juste à révéler. Enquête sur les racines biologiques de la paternité à part...
www.arte.tv
December 8, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Reposted by Thomas MacGillavry
pili-scotland.bsky.social
For context, I watched him leave his family at 16 (late) and his first musth in his 20s. A very successful male.
news.mongabay.com/2026/01/what...
What Craig’s long life reveals about elephant conservation
The death of a well-known wild animal is an odd kind of news. It is intimate, because so many people feel they have met the creature through photographs and video. It is also impersonal, because the a...
news.mongabay.com
January 4, 2026 at 2:51 PM
Reposted by Thomas MacGillavry
taichimpproject.bsky.social
Watch how the Ape Social Mind Lab at the @isc-mj.bsky.social together with colleagues from ENES in St. Etienne and @mpicbs.bsky.social, @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social, and others start to crack the chimpanzee code of vocal communication. Now on the TCP YouTube channel youtube.com/watch?v=ZIsr...
Catherine Crockford & Roman Wittig: Cracking the Chimpanzee Code
YouTube video by Tai Chimpanzee Project
youtube.com
January 4, 2026 at 10:01 AM
Reposted by Thomas MacGillavry
benmocha.bsky.social
Nature Climate Change @natclimate.nature.com nicely covered our recent #ProcB paper (royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...).
Read if interested in how global warming affects the #sleep of desert birds #Arabian_babbler 👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Trapped between darkness and heat: desert birds (Argya squamiceps) initiate daily activity earlier (and terminate it later) in response to heat
Abstract. Diurnal desert endotherms must adjust the timing of their daily activity to mitigate physiological stress from ambient heat. Understanding the li
royalsocietypublishing.org
January 3, 2026 at 12:33 PM
Reposted by Thomas MacGillavry
evolodonata.ecoevo.social.ap.brid.gy
Come and join me and my colleagues at the Department of Biology, #LundUniversity in #sweden! We have am open position as Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in Biodiversity.

Apply here no later than February 11 2026:

https://lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/jobID:848749/type:job/where:4/apply:1
Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in Biodiversity
The Department of Biology was established in 2010 through the merger of the Departments of Ecology, Cell and Organism Biology, Biological Undergraduate Education, and the Biological Museums. The depar
lu.varbi.com
December 20, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Reposted by Thomas MacGillavry
revathe.bsky.social
A very nice end to the year: my PhD work on the development of differentiated social relationships in wild Asian elephants is now published in Ethology!
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Young Asian Elephant Calves Show Differentiated Social Relationships With Conspecifics
We studied spatial and behavioural interactions between young calves (< 6 months old) and conspecific females to understand social ontogeny in a wild Asian elephant population. We found differentiate...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 30, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Reposted by Thomas MacGillavry
teamdiptera.bsky.social
Did you know 1000+ species of fly were described in 2025?? What a year! #Diptera #FliesAreCool
January 3, 2026 at 4:02 AM
Reposted by Thomas MacGillavry
andyradford.bsky.social
Lovely start to the year - 1st paper of #PhD student #NatalieTegtman out in latest issue of @asab.org #AnimalBehaviour

How a novel #call changes responses to #alarms:

doi.org/10.1016/j.an...

CONGRATULATIONS Natalie; thanks #RobMagrath; Happy New Year all. 🎉

#animalcommunication #birds #fairywren
Superb fairy wren in Canberra, Australia.
January 2, 2026 at 5:45 PM
Reposted by Thomas MacGillavry
manymindspod.bsky.social
'The development of evolution' with @kevinlala.bsky.social

Listen: disi.org/the-developm...
December 31, 2025 at 9:03 PM
Reposted by Thomas MacGillavry
andyradford.bsky.social
🚨Roll up, roll up, fully-funded #PhD deadlines approaching...

6th Jan: tinyurl.com/aja54nr6

8th Jan: tinyurl.com/4jfy47pp

Social monitoring & manipulation
#meerkats #mongooses #macaques #fieldwork #long-termdata

@patrick-kennedy.bsky.social @ljnbrent.bsky.social
@bristolbiosci.bsky.social
December 30, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Reposted by Thomas MacGillavry
thecowbirdlab.bsky.social
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
The genetics, evolution, and maintenance of a biological rock-paper-scissors game
Side-blotched lizards (Uta stansburiana) play a biological rock-paper-scissors game in which three differently colored male morphs utilize alternative mating strategies. We identified the genetic basi...
www.science.org
January 2, 2026 at 12:24 PM
Reposted by Thomas MacGillavry
earlkmiller.bsky.social
A must-read review. It argues that brain areas are only one of several organizing principles and are not especially central, given their weak correspondence to function. Cytoarchitecture and connectivity are a starting point, not the endpoint.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#neuroscience
Rethinking the centrality of brain areas in understanding functional organization - Nature Neuroscience
Parcellation of the cortex into functionally modular brain areas is foundational to neuroscience. Here, Hayden, Heilbronner and Yoo question the central status of brain areas in neuroscience from the ...
www.nature.com
December 23, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Reposted by Thomas MacGillavry
pedromartinezserra.bsky.social
Coming in February!! A monstrous 4-book series covering neural systems in animals, featuring a very long chapter on the origin of NS in metazoans by Volker Hartenstein, @simon-sprecher.bsky.social , and myself. Details very soon—for an incredible bargain price!! 😜😅 shop.elsevier.com/books/evolut...
Evolution of Nervous Systems
Evolution of Nervous Systems, Third edition Four-volume set includes wholly new content, all chapters from the previous edition have been thoroughly u
shop.elsevier.com
December 30, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Reposted by Thomas MacGillavry
auersperga.bsky.social
Our new theoretical paper on combinatory tool use origins is out !
with @raccoonologist.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
The flexible, the stereotyped and the in‐between: putting together the combinatory tool use origins hypothesis
You have to enable JavaScript in your browser's settings in order to use the eReader.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
January 1, 2026 at 1:00 PM
Reposted by Thomas MacGillavry
mattsteinglass.bsky.social
Any Dutch who might have thought to contest implementation of the anti-fireworks law next year are going to have a hard time making their case, after the Vondelkerk burnt down tonight www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2026/...
January 1, 2026 at 2:29 AM
Reposted by Thomas MacGillavry
davidcsimon.bsky.social
Let's start 2026 with some adorable baby King Parrots.
#birds
Photograph of a juvenile Australian King Parrot in a tree with green leaves. It has one foot raised towards the viewer so the underside is clearly visible. The bird is bright green with red 'pants', orange/yellow beak, black eyes, and is looking at the green leaves with intent to nibble. Photograph of a different juvenile Australian King Parrot against a soft background. It is a side view, with the bird's head lowered to horizontal with its shoulders. Photo of a third juvenile King Parrot (at least I think they're all different individuals... it can be hard to tell), sunlit against a dark background. It has its head turned and is eyeing the viewer quizzically.
January 1, 2026 at 7:05 AM
Reposted by Thomas MacGillavry
raccoonologist.bsky.social
I had the honour of working to bring @auersperga.bsky.social’s baby to life. It’s a VERY heavy baby - over 200 references (and yes I read them all) - but necessary to do justice to our new hypothesis of combinatory tool use origins 📝👶🛠️

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
The flexible, the stereotyped and the in‐between: putting together the combinatory tool use origins hypothesis
Tool use research has long made the distinction between tool using that is considered learned and flexible, and that which appears to be instinctive and stereotyped. However, animals with an inherite...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 31, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Reposted by Thomas MacGillavry
arjunraj.bsky.social
Blog post: Just quit
Quitting projects in science is hard, but we should be doing a lot more of it.

open.substack.com/pub/arjunraj...
Just quit
Quitting projects in science is hard, but we should be doing a lot more of it.
open.substack.com
December 30, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Reposted by Thomas MacGillavry
aosiecka.bsky.social
🔊Our last paper of the year: Unique rhythmic signatures in arrhythmic birdsong

First evidence: rhythm analysis can reliably describe arrhythmic sequences. In tawny pipits, (ar)rhythmic differences are individual, and indicate singers' population of origin!

doi.org/10.64898/202...
Unique rhythmic signatures in arrhythmic birdsong
Animal rhythms are gaining increasing attention in the studies of behaviour and musicology. Recently, it has been shown that rhythm itself can be used as an information coding channel. Now we ask: doe...
doi.org
December 23, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Reposted by Thomas MacGillavry
jenteo.bsky.social
Your daily Avian Hybrids story!

Not dead yet: The decaying W-chromosome of songbirds can still acquire new genes
avianhybrids.wordpress.com/2021/09/11/n...

#ornithology
Not dead yet: The decaying W-chromosome of songbirds can still acquire new genes
Researchers report the transfer of genes from the Z- to the W-chromosome.
avianhybrids.wordpress.com
December 28, 2025 at 2:00 PM