William O'Hearn
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williamohearn.bsky.social
William O'Hearn
@williamohearn.bsky.social
Postdoctoral Researcher in Center for Animal Research, Uni Exeter | Studying social cognition and partner choice in baboons and macaques

Personal website: https://williamohearn.weebly.com/
New paper out in iScience. We found the pattern of Guinea baboon meat transfers follows the shape of their nested multi-level society. Transfers of meat are more tolerant at the lower levels of the society and are more likely to occur along stronger social relationships. www.cell.com/iscience/ful...
Meat transfer patterns reflect the multi-level social system of Guinea baboons
Wildlife behavior; Biological sciences; Zoology; Evolutionary biology
www.cell.com
October 31, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by William O'Hearn
Social relationships are powerful predictors of fitness across social animals. But *why*?

In our new @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social paper, we outline testable predictions for why relationship quality and quantity adaptively vary across socio-ecological contexts.

tinyurl.com/55dnkeh7
October 16, 2025 at 7:07 AM
Reposted by William O'Hearn
Curious about how primates acquire and process social information to generate social knowledge? 🦧

Check out our new review paper on social evaluation, with a particular focus on the cognitive mechanisms involved in assessing others' skills and competence 👇
August 25, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Reposted by William O'Hearn
Reposted by William O'Hearn
New @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social paper out today in @royalsociety.org Biology Letters. We found adult jackdaws can learn to tolerate usually bullied or ignored juveniles when they provided information about a new foraging resource.

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
Wild jackdaws learn to tolerate juveniles to exploit new foraging opportunities | Biology Letters
Social tolerance can enhance access to resources and is thought to be crucial in facilitating the evolution of cooperation, social cognition and culture, but it is unknown whether animals can optimize...
royalsocietypublishing.org
August 20, 2025 at 3:59 AM
Reposted by William O'Hearn
New paper led by @josharbon.bsky.social. Adults jackdaws often bully youngsters, but we show they can learn to be tolerant and attend to juveniles as sources of information. @uniexecec.bsky.social. Funded by @leverhulme.ac.uk & @swbiodtp.bsky.social

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
August 20, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Reposted by William O'Hearn
When female gorillas leave one social group and join another, they tend to seek out groups with other females that they've lived with in the past, showing the power of long-term relationships.
Study finds female mountain gorillas prefer to join 'buddies'
When female gorillas leave one social group and join another, they tend to seek out groups with other females that they've lived with in the past, showing the power of long-term relationships.
n.pr
August 6, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Reposted by William O'Hearn
Our new article is out! We explored how early life social experiences and age affect social connectedness measures later in life for captive female olive baboons. Please feel free to message me if you have any questions / want to discuss anything 😊🐒 link.springer.com/article/10.1...
The effects of early life rearing experiences and age on sociality in captive olive baboons (Papio anubis) - Primates
Social connections within primate groups are continuously changing, and an individual’s connectedness within their social network can have important consequences on morbidity and mortality. Here, we e...
link.springer.com
July 28, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Reposted by William O'Hearn
Very excited to see our paper using historical data to infer toothed whale lifespans published this week in the Biological Journal of the Linnaean Society (@biojlinnsoc.bsky.social)

doi.org/10.1093/biol...

w. @darrencroft.bsky.social @drwhale.bsky.social @mialybkaer.bsky.social, Dan Franks
June 6, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Reposted by William O'Hearn
My first co-author paper is out in Current Biology!

In this study, led by Daniela Perez and Serena Ding, we show that nematode self-assembling towers occur in nature and can serve as a collective dispersal mechanism 🪱

Check out a video where Daniela explains the findings and the paper here 👇
Move over, starling murmurations. There’s a slimier, squirmier collective behavior in town. It's a living, twisting tower of worms.

Everybody, meet the wormuration 🪱🪱

Latest paper by Daniela Perez, Serena Ding and team @uni-konstanz.de

Paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

youtube.com/shorts/F8QVc...
Have you ever seen a worm tower?
YouTube video by Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
youtube.com
June 6, 2025 at 7:00 AM
Reposted by William O'Hearn
Postdoc job alert! I'm hiring a 3-yr postdoc to work on our Social Modifiers of Primate Lifespans grant. Job info and how to apply below. Deadline June 1. Pls share! jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...
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jobs.exeter.ac.uk
May 2, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by William O'Hearn
Thrilled to have the 1st project in my @snsf-ch.bsky.social Ambizione fellowship in @pnas.org this week. With Vic Martignac, @samellisq.bsky.social and @savinggorillas.bsky.social we asked what is a good social environment for a gorilla? And the answer was complicated... www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Group traits moderate the relationship between individual social traits and fitness in gorillas | PNAS
Evidence across a broad range of disciplines has demonstrated how individuals’ social environments can impact their health, lifespan, reproduction,...
www.pnas.org
May 7, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Reposted by William O'Hearn
BEHOLD THE FLAGSHIP PAPER OF MY PHD! 🚢 I trained wild and zoo housed Guinea baboons to pull a lever for peanuts to test whether they monitored the foraging skills of others and used the information to inform their social choices 🧵 (1/9) royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
March 5, 2025 at 8:49 AM