Chelsea Southworth
@chelseasouthworth.bsky.social
Reproductive ecology, microbiomes, social behavior, adolescent development & early-life effects. She/her 🏳️🌈 PhD student in the Archie Lab with the Amboseli baboons.
Pinned
Hi Bluesky! I’m Chelsea, a PhD student in Beth Archie’s lab at Notre Dame. I work with the Amboseli baboons studying female reproduction and am also interested in social behavior, microbiomes, hormones, maternal care, & adolescence among other things! I’d love to reconnect with any ecoevo pals 🐒🐈🌿🪶
Reposted by Chelsea Southworth
Nice summary of many years of research on babies' cries by @nicolasmathevon.bsky.social and his team.
"Caring is a skill that is honed through practice, and it physically reshapes the brain of any dedicated caregiver, male or female."
theconversation.com/what-babies-...
"Caring is a skill that is honed through practice, and it physically reshapes the brain of any dedicated caregiver, male or female."
theconversation.com/what-babies-...
What babies’ cries really tell us – and why maternal instinct is a myth
Is it possible to interpret babies’ cries in order to understand their needs accurately?
theconversation.com
November 24, 2025 at 3:46 AM
Nice summary of many years of research on babies' cries by @nicolasmathevon.bsky.social and his team.
"Caring is a skill that is honed through practice, and it physically reshapes the brain of any dedicated caregiver, male or female."
theconversation.com/what-babies-...
"Caring is a skill that is honed through practice, and it physically reshapes the brain of any dedicated caregiver, male or female."
theconversation.com/what-babies-...
Reposted by Chelsea Southworth
Domestic cats are pushing into Indonesia’s Tangkoko Nature Reserve—and hunting Gursky’s tarsier (Tarsius spectrumgurskyae). #Tarsier #Sulawesi #Tangkoko #Conservation #Wildlife #Cats #InvasiveSpecies #Biodiversity #Primate #Research #anthrosky
October 2, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Domestic cats are pushing into Indonesia’s Tangkoko Nature Reserve—and hunting Gursky’s tarsier (Tarsius spectrumgurskyae). #Tarsier #Sulawesi #Tangkoko #Conservation #Wildlife #Cats #InvasiveSpecies #Biodiversity #Primate #Research #anthrosky
Reposted by Chelsea Southworth
A very stark reminder why no one goes out on foot after dark in Churchill, Manitoba. This mom and her cubs came just off the beach and behind the town complex. The Polar Bear Alert staff gently herded them away from town to keep everyone safe. #mammals #BearSeason2025 🌿
November 14, 2025 at 3:39 AM
A very stark reminder why no one goes out on foot after dark in Churchill, Manitoba. This mom and her cubs came just off the beach and behind the town complex. The Polar Bear Alert staff gently herded them away from town to keep everyone safe. #mammals #BearSeason2025 🌿
Reposted by Chelsea Southworth
people are actually very susceptible to just-so stories about human origins because listening to bullshit helped us survive on the savanna
fake evo-psych has cooked a lot of people's brains
November 18, 2025 at 1:48 AM
people are actually very susceptible to just-so stories about human origins because listening to bullshit helped us survive on the savanna
Reposted by Chelsea Southworth
A 🆕 Contribution in the ESA Bulletin: Thinking about grad school? Here are 15 questions that can help you find the right lab fit — and avoid surprises along the way
📄Fifteen Questions to Ask Before Attending Graduate School
doi.org/10.1002/bes2...
📄Fifteen Questions to Ask Before Attending Graduate School
doi.org/10.1002/bes2...
Fifteen Questions to Ask Before Attending Graduate School
Click on the article title to read more.
doi.org
November 17, 2025 at 9:49 PM
A 🆕 Contribution in the ESA Bulletin: Thinking about grad school? Here are 15 questions that can help you find the right lab fit — and avoid surprises along the way
📄Fifteen Questions to Ask Before Attending Graduate School
doi.org/10.1002/bes2...
📄Fifteen Questions to Ask Before Attending Graduate School
doi.org/10.1002/bes2...
Reposted by Chelsea Southworth
Very cool study: matricide in ants as a maniputing behaviour favouring social parasitism! 🤯🤯
->Socially parasitic ant queens chemically induce queen-matricide in host workers. Current Biology. www.cell.com/current-biol...
->Socially parasitic ant queens chemically induce queen-matricide in host workers. Current Biology. www.cell.com/current-biol...
Socially parasitic ant queens chemically induce queen-matricide in host workers
Taku Shimada and colleagues show that socially parasitic queens of two ant species
spray their respective host queens with chemical signals that trigger host workers
to kill the resident queen.
www.cell.com
November 18, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Very cool study: matricide in ants as a maniputing behaviour favouring social parasitism! 🤯🤯
->Socially parasitic ant queens chemically induce queen-matricide in host workers. Current Biology. www.cell.com/current-biol...
->Socially parasitic ant queens chemically induce queen-matricide in host workers. Current Biology. www.cell.com/current-biol...
Reposted by Chelsea Southworth
In 2008, after killing many of their neighbors, Ngogo chimpanzees expanded their territory. Female fertility then doubled, and infant mortality plummeted. Adaptive violence in our ape cousins, documented in this new paper. www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
Female fertility and infant survivorship increase following lethal intergroup aggression and territorial expansion in wild chimpanzees | PNAS
Lethal coalitionary intergroup aggression is a conspicuous aspect of wild chimpanzee
behavior. Evidence indicates that such violence can lead to te...
www.pnas.org
November 18, 2025 at 4:20 AM
In 2008, after killing many of their neighbors, Ngogo chimpanzees expanded their territory. Female fertility then doubled, and infant mortality plummeted. Adaptive violence in our ape cousins, documented in this new paper. www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Chelsea Southworth
📢 rphylopic 📦 1.6.0 is now on #CRAN!
- resolve_phylopic() retries failing API calls 🔄
- geom_phylopic()/add_phylopic() work with ggplot2 4.0.0 🪛
- add_phylopic_tree() wraps add_phylopic() for base R trees
- get_phylopic() can get og source files from #PhyloPic 👤
rphylopic.palaeoverse.org
#Rstats
- resolve_phylopic() retries failing API calls 🔄
- geom_phylopic()/add_phylopic() work with ggplot2 4.0.0 🪛
- add_phylopic_tree() wraps add_phylopic() for base R trees
- get_phylopic() can get og source files from #PhyloPic 👤
rphylopic.palaeoverse.org
#Rstats
November 18, 2025 at 3:30 PM
📢 rphylopic 📦 1.6.0 is now on #CRAN!
- resolve_phylopic() retries failing API calls 🔄
- geom_phylopic()/add_phylopic() work with ggplot2 4.0.0 🪛
- add_phylopic_tree() wraps add_phylopic() for base R trees
- get_phylopic() can get og source files from #PhyloPic 👤
rphylopic.palaeoverse.org
#Rstats
- resolve_phylopic() retries failing API calls 🔄
- geom_phylopic()/add_phylopic() work with ggplot2 4.0.0 🪛
- add_phylopic_tree() wraps add_phylopic() for base R trees
- get_phylopic() can get og source files from #PhyloPic 👤
rphylopic.palaeoverse.org
#Rstats
Super cool work from @btuliozi.bsky.social !! We got to hear from him at lab meeting and I promise this paper is worth your time
Lifetime fitness and annual survival are heritable and highly genetically correlated in a wild primate population https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.13.688343v1
November 19, 2025 at 3:49 AM
Super cool work from @btuliozi.bsky.social !! We got to hear from him at lab meeting and I promise this paper is worth your time
Reposted by Chelsea Southworth
"Monk parakeets ‘test the waters’ when forming new relationships"
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0399#d1e770
interesting new study by https://bsky.app/profile/elizabethhobson.bsky.social et al.
J. Manson once reminded me that not […]
[Original post on fediscience.org]
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0399#d1e770
interesting new study by https://bsky.app/profile/elizabethhobson.bsky.social et al.
J. Manson once reminded me that not […]
[Original post on fediscience.org]
November 12, 2025 at 8:39 PM
"Monk parakeets ‘test the waters’ when forming new relationships"
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0399#d1e770
interesting new study by https://bsky.app/profile/elizabethhobson.bsky.social et al.
J. Manson once reminded me that not […]
[Original post on fediscience.org]
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0399#d1e770
interesting new study by https://bsky.app/profile/elizabethhobson.bsky.social et al.
J. Manson once reminded me that not […]
[Original post on fediscience.org]
Reposted by Chelsea Southworth
New paper!
We propose a framework to empirically study animal social relationships by modelling social network (SN) data as time-series—that is, without the need to aggregate them over time.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We propose a framework to empirically study animal social relationships by modelling social network (SN) data as time-series—that is, without the need to aggregate them over time.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
November 12, 2025 at 11:56 AM
New paper!
We propose a framework to empirically study animal social relationships by modelling social network (SN) data as time-series—that is, without the need to aggregate them over time.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We propose a framework to empirically study animal social relationships by modelling social network (SN) data as time-series—that is, without the need to aggregate them over time.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Chelsea Southworth
Our new paper offers an explanation for the universal law that "under carefully controlled conditions.... an animal behaves as it damn well pleases." We explore how stochastic mechanisms may play an underappreciated role in generating individuality. (1/7 🧵)
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Playing dice with behavior: drivers of stochastic individuality
Animal behavior is often viewed as stemming from predictable genetic and environmental factors. However, despite our best attempts to control genetic …
www.sciencedirect.com
November 10, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Our new paper offers an explanation for the universal law that "under carefully controlled conditions.... an animal behaves as it damn well pleases." We explore how stochastic mechanisms may play an underappreciated role in generating individuality. (1/7 🧵)
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
My English teachers should NOT have taught me how to use a semi-colon; with a way to make super long but grammatically correct sentences, I am unstoppable and annoying in everything I write
(Currently revising a manuscript and Noticing how I write 😅)
(Currently revising a manuscript and Noticing how I write 😅)
October 26, 2025 at 5:17 PM
My English teachers should NOT have taught me how to use a semi-colon; with a way to make super long but grammatically correct sentences, I am unstoppable and annoying in everything I write
(Currently revising a manuscript and Noticing how I write 😅)
(Currently revising a manuscript and Noticing how I write 😅)
Reposted by Chelsea Southworth
🚨New paper out
Our study reveals how barn owl parents coordinate nightly chick feeding. Females step up when males underperform & pairs that meet more often at the nest share work more equally boosting chick survival🦉
doi.org/10.1016/j.is...
@unil.bsky.social @vogelwarte.bsky.social #movementecology
Our study reveals how barn owl parents coordinate nightly chick feeding. Females step up when males underperform & pairs that meet more often at the nest share work more equally boosting chick survival🦉
doi.org/10.1016/j.is...
@unil.bsky.social @vogelwarte.bsky.social #movementecology
October 23, 2025 at 8:15 AM
🚨New paper out
Our study reveals how barn owl parents coordinate nightly chick feeding. Females step up when males underperform & pairs that meet more often at the nest share work more equally boosting chick survival🦉
doi.org/10.1016/j.is...
@unil.bsky.social @vogelwarte.bsky.social #movementecology
Our study reveals how barn owl parents coordinate nightly chick feeding. Females step up when males underperform & pairs that meet more often at the nest share work more equally boosting chick survival🦉
doi.org/10.1016/j.is...
@unil.bsky.social @vogelwarte.bsky.social #movementecology
Reposted by Chelsea Southworth
Context for non-Chicagoans: The median list price for homes in Lincoln Park is $758,133 according to Zillow. It's also 80% white.
When they go after places with that much privilege, know that no one is safe. And the vulnerable are even more so.
When they go after places with that much privilege, know that no one is safe. And the vulnerable are even more so.
Federal immigration agents tear-gas Lakeview, raid Lincoln Park as feds focus on city’s affluent North Side
Lincoln Park Ald. Timmy Knudsen, 43rd, said masked immigration agents hit “every corner of the ward” he represents, one of the city’s wealthiest communities.
www.chicagotribune.com
October 25, 2025 at 1:03 AM
Context for non-Chicagoans: The median list price for homes in Lincoln Park is $758,133 according to Zillow. It's also 80% white.
When they go after places with that much privilege, know that no one is safe. And the vulnerable are even more so.
When they go after places with that much privilege, know that no one is safe. And the vulnerable are even more so.
Reposted by Chelsea Southworth
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
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
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
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
Reposted by Chelsea Southworth
Double brooding improves lifetime fitness. Our paper "Multigenerational fitness outcomes of double-brooding: a 30-year study of a migratory songbird" appears in the latest Behavioral Ecology: tinyurl.com/3hsyd42m. By @hayleyspina.bsky.social @ryannorrissci.bsky.social and our collaborative team.
October 14, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Double brooding improves lifetime fitness. Our paper "Multigenerational fitness outcomes of double-brooding: a 30-year study of a migratory songbird" appears in the latest Behavioral Ecology: tinyurl.com/3hsyd42m. By @hayleyspina.bsky.social @ryannorrissci.bsky.social and our collaborative team.
Reposted by Chelsea Southworth
New preprint! 🪶
We analysed 60 years of data on 83,000+ great tits to show how extreme climate impacts on nestling growth and survival are stage-specific and context-dependent 🐣 🌍🔥❄️
With @davididiaquez.bsky.social @iremsepil.bsky.social @sheldonbirds.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We analysed 60 years of data on 83,000+ great tits to show how extreme climate impacts on nestling growth and survival are stage-specific and context-dependent 🐣 🌍🔥❄️
With @davididiaquez.bsky.social @iremsepil.bsky.social @sheldonbirds.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
October 14, 2025 at 2:35 PM
New preprint! 🪶
We analysed 60 years of data on 83,000+ great tits to show how extreme climate impacts on nestling growth and survival are stage-specific and context-dependent 🐣 🌍🔥❄️
With @davididiaquez.bsky.social @iremsepil.bsky.social @sheldonbirds.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We analysed 60 years of data on 83,000+ great tits to show how extreme climate impacts on nestling growth and survival are stage-specific and context-dependent 🐣 🌍🔥❄️
With @davididiaquez.bsky.social @iremsepil.bsky.social @sheldonbirds.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Chelsea Southworth
Post-reproductive lifespan in wild mountain gorillas: "Almost one third of females in our study population (7/25) were “postreproductive” according to a commonly used criterion & lived more than a decade past their age of last reproduction, representing at least a fourth of their adult lifespan"
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
October 15, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Post-reproductive lifespan in wild mountain gorillas: "Almost one third of females in our study population (7/25) were “postreproductive” according to a commonly used criterion & lived more than a decade past their age of last reproduction, representing at least a fourth of their adult lifespan"
Reposted by Chelsea Southworth
Ewe U15 is 10. She has weaned 3 lambs over her lifetime, 2 are still alive. This year she lost her lamb at or soon after birth and by mid-September she was 79Kg, 10 Kg more than last year when she weaned a son. #LongTerm
October 16, 2025 at 1:39 AM
Ewe U15 is 10. She has weaned 3 lambs over her lifetime, 2 are still alive. This year she lost her lamb at or soon after birth and by mid-September she was 79Kg, 10 Kg more than last year when she weaned a son. #LongTerm
Reposted by Chelsea Southworth
1. My first ever paper is out! With
@euantheyoung.bsky.social
@lummaalab.bsky.social
@erikpostma.bsky.social
@hannahdugdale.bsky.social
How do older siblings, and their sex and age, affect the survival of younger siblings? Find out by checking below.
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....
@euantheyoung.bsky.social
@lummaalab.bsky.social
@erikpostma.bsky.social
@hannahdugdale.bsky.social
How do older siblings, and their sex and age, affect the survival of younger siblings? Find out by checking below.
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....
Age- and sex-dependent associations between the number of older siblings and early-life survival in pre-industrial humans | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Siblings are an important part of an individual’s early-life environment and may therefore play an important role in shaping an individual’s survival. The quantification of sibling effects on survival is challenging, however, especially in long-lived ...
royalsocietypublishing.org
September 3, 2025 at 1:47 PM
1. My first ever paper is out! With
@euantheyoung.bsky.social
@lummaalab.bsky.social
@erikpostma.bsky.social
@hannahdugdale.bsky.social
How do older siblings, and their sex and age, affect the survival of younger siblings? Find out by checking below.
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....
@euantheyoung.bsky.social
@lummaalab.bsky.social
@erikpostma.bsky.social
@hannahdugdale.bsky.social
How do older siblings, and their sex and age, affect the survival of younger siblings? Find out by checking below.
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Chelsea Southworth
You know how there’s been this big push towards encouraging older people to do puzzles, cognitive games, and to learn new things to keep them from succumbing to dementia?
Wonder where that’s gonna go with the rise of “outsource your cognitive functions to AI, it’ll be convenient” culture
Wonder where that’s gonna go with the rise of “outsource your cognitive functions to AI, it’ll be convenient” culture
Cognition is like strength. Use is required to not just gain, but maintain. The more thinking and cognitive work we offload, the duller we become as a result.
It's like deciding you'll use a mobility scooter without need and then figuring out a year later that you can no longer walk.
It's like deciding you'll use a mobility scooter without need and then figuring out a year later that you can no longer walk.
October 9, 2025 at 9:52 PM
You know how there’s been this big push towards encouraging older people to do puzzles, cognitive games, and to learn new things to keep them from succumbing to dementia?
Wonder where that’s gonna go with the rise of “outsource your cognitive functions to AI, it’ll be convenient” culture
Wonder where that’s gonna go with the rise of “outsource your cognitive functions to AI, it’ll be convenient” culture
Reposted by Chelsea Southworth
Pumped to share our work on bird behavior and the 2024 Eclipse, in today's @science.org. 100k bird vocalizations + 10k continent-wide observations from the public = really fun collab led by Liz Aguilar, with @juncowren.bsky.social @mathcancer.bsky.social @imillercrews.bsky.social #NSF
October 9, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Pumped to share our work on bird behavior and the 2024 Eclipse, in today's @science.org. 100k bird vocalizations + 10k continent-wide observations from the public = really fun collab led by Liz Aguilar, with @juncowren.bsky.social @mathcancer.bsky.social @imillercrews.bsky.social #NSF
Reposted by Chelsea Southworth
Interesting post (and discussion in thread below....)
Y'all. I just got ChatGPT to do everything in R for this manuscript. I mean EVERYTHING. And it's all legit and reproducible. I'm shook.
How are we mentoring our trainees in statistics now? Who needs to learn coding in R line by line, and who doesn't?
scienceforeveryone.science/statistics-i...
How are we mentoring our trainees in statistics now? Who needs to learn coding in R line by line, and who doesn't?
scienceforeveryone.science/statistics-i...
Statistics in the era of AI
How do we mentor, teach, and do stats when AI can do so much of the work?
scienceforeveryone.science
October 10, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Interesting post (and discussion in thread below....)
Reposted by Chelsea Southworth
New from me and wonderful collabs!
🦎 Maternal glucocorticoids have persistent effects on offspring social phenotype irrespective of opportunity for social buffering ➡️ buff.ly/i2B2Fkw
October 1, 2025 at 3:02 PM
New from me and wonderful collabs!