iulia bădescu
@iuliabadescu.bsky.social
primatologist | associate prof at université de montréal | chimpanzees, colobus | still figuring out what I’m doing here 🌍🏳️🌈🖤
Pinned
Young chimps play weird with tools and other objects & this can lead to innovation! Moss sponging, doll play, leaf clipping to ask for carrying. If copied and retained, rare kid innovations can contribute to cultural complexity 🧪🔬🐵
My fav article I've ever worked on: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
My fav article I've ever worked on: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Saw my old friend, Shelob, in Aarhus 🕷️🖤
November 9, 2025 at 11:18 PM
Saw my old friend, Shelob, in Aarhus 🕷️🖤
Reposted by iulia bădescu
1/2 Lethal violence in bonobos
On February 18, five females fatally beat a male at the LuiKotale Bonobo Project (Congo). The authors believe this may have been due to a minor attack on a baby two days earlier. The details are horrific.
(paper) www.cell.com/current-biol...
On February 18, five females fatally beat a male at the LuiKotale Bonobo Project (Congo). The authors believe this may have been due to a minor attack on a baby two days earlier. The details are horrific.
(paper) www.cell.com/current-biol...
November 8, 2025 at 7:53 PM
1/2 Lethal violence in bonobos
On February 18, five females fatally beat a male at the LuiKotale Bonobo Project (Congo). The authors believe this may have been due to a minor attack on a baby two days earlier. The details are horrific.
(paper) www.cell.com/current-biol...
On February 18, five females fatally beat a male at the LuiKotale Bonobo Project (Congo). The authors believe this may have been due to a minor attack on a baby two days earlier. The details are horrific.
(paper) www.cell.com/current-biol...
"A pair of Macrauchenia, four guanacos and a patagonian mara are seen among the grass. A Megatherium walks by further away and a crested caracara flies over the scene."
I had to look all these up. What perfect talent for someone to have, at intersection of Art and Evolutionary Biology.
I had to look all these up. What perfect talent for someone to have, at intersection of Art and Evolutionary Biology.
November 8, 2025 at 10:41 PM
"A pair of Macrauchenia, four guanacos and a patagonian mara are seen among the grass. A Megatherium walks by further away and a crested caracara flies over the scene."
I had to look all these up. What perfect talent for someone to have, at intersection of Art and Evolutionary Biology.
I had to look all these up. What perfect talent for someone to have, at intersection of Art and Evolutionary Biology.
Reposted by iulia bădescu
New paper! We found that intensifying market integration in Rep. Congo does not uniformly shape BaYaka and Bantu adolescent behaviour and consumption, and that adolescents may be contributing to shifts in norms regarding the sharing of money.
rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
BaYaka forager and Bantu fisher‐farmer adolescent engagement with intensifying market integration in the Republic of the Congo
A substantial body of anthropological research has investigated how subsistence communities engage with market-based economies. In this study, we contribute to this body of work by examining adolesce...
rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 3, 2025 at 8:21 AM
New paper! We found that intensifying market integration in Rep. Congo does not uniformly shape BaYaka and Bantu adolescent behaviour and consumption, and that adolescents may be contributing to shifts in norms regarding the sharing of money.
rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by iulia bădescu
Super proud to have hosted at @aiasdk.bsky.social an excellent group of researchers to think through all things play, childhood, and innovation. I'll be buzzing about this for a while!
November 7, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Super proud to have hosted at @aiasdk.bsky.social an excellent group of researchers to think through all things play, childhood, and innovation. I'll be buzzing about this for a while!
Reposted by iulia bădescu
The Nausicaä print that kicked off my monthly riso print thing, before I had the foresight to add a border. Maybe I’ll have to revisit it for a future month, but in the mean time I’ve got something else more fall-themed in the works for this month instead
November 3, 2025 at 3:37 PM
The Nausicaä print that kicked off my monthly riso print thing, before I had the foresight to add a border. Maybe I’ll have to revisit it for a future month, but in the mean time I’ve got something else more fall-themed in the works for this month instead
Happy to be back at AIAS in Aarhus, Denmark to discuss, write and innovate new ideas about Object Play, Tool Use and Innovation with awesome researchers from very different fields. Feeling inspired!!
November 5, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Happy to be back at AIAS in Aarhus, Denmark to discuss, write and innovate new ideas about Object Play, Tool Use and Innovation with awesome researchers from very different fields. Feeling inspired!!
Reposted by iulia bădescu
#PRIMATES Studying young chimpanzees in Uganda, Canadian anthropologist @iuliabadescu.bsky.social finds that children have a "repertoire of skills that adults can pick up on, and that's how culture evolves." @nature.com
nouvelles.umontreal.ca/en/article/2...
nouvelles.umontreal.ca/en/article/2...
The kids are smarter than you think
Using tufts of moss as sponges, improvising play dolls from tree stumps, clipping leaves to signal wanting to be picked up – child chimpanzees are savvy technologists and communicators, a study finds.
nouvelles.umontreal.ca
November 4, 2025 at 1:35 PM
#PRIMATES Studying young chimpanzees in Uganda, Canadian anthropologist @iuliabadescu.bsky.social finds that children have a "repertoire of skills that adults can pick up on, and that's how culture evolves." @nature.com
nouvelles.umontreal.ca/en/article/2...
nouvelles.umontreal.ca/en/article/2...
Reposted by iulia bădescu
#xenovember begins! Kicking it off with a more or less traditional ‘big Chap’ and am already bored bwahahah. So it’s clearly time to get weird. #darkart #alien
November 1, 2025 at 3:30 PM
#xenovember begins! Kicking it off with a more or less traditional ‘big Chap’ and am already bored bwahahah. So it’s clearly time to get weird. #darkart #alien
Being a grown ass parent is realizing that the best part of Halloween is right after your sweet innocent child falls asleep and you raid their candy loot like a dirty dog.🍬🎃
November 1, 2025 at 1:52 AM
Being a grown ass parent is realizing that the best part of Halloween is right after your sweet innocent child falls asleep and you raid their candy loot like a dirty dog.🍬🎃
Throwback to this Ghanaian hit 🇬🇭
youtu.be/FRPCBg1N4Yo?...
youtu.be/FRPCBg1N4Yo?...
AKWAABA - GuiltyBeatz, Mr Eazi, Patapaa & Pappy Kojo ( Official Audio )
YouTube video by Mr Eazi
youtu.be
October 31, 2025 at 12:57 AM
Throwback to this Ghanaian hit 🇬🇭
youtu.be/FRPCBg1N4Yo?...
youtu.be/FRPCBg1N4Yo?...
Ethnology-primatology parallel for kinship is illuminating. Even in primates, kin ties are learned and don't overlap perfectly with genetics. In colobus a while ago, I found that genetic relatedness btwn individuals did not predict a kin-biased behavior, but the lived, learned kin relationships did!
Kinship terminology rarely perfectly reflects biological kinship. The root meaning of the Indo-European word "mother" isn't even "biological mother". The ancestral Indo-European system, the patrilineal Omaha system, calls your mother's sister and all women on mother's side "mother" (B in diagram).
October 29, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Ethnology-primatology parallel for kinship is illuminating. Even in primates, kin ties are learned and don't overlap perfectly with genetics. In colobus a while ago, I found that genetic relatedness btwn individuals did not predict a kin-biased behavior, but the lived, learned kin relationships did!
Reposted by iulia bădescu
QRP your dark art 🖤
October 28, 2025 at 6:04 PM
QRP your dark art 🖤
When you're trying to get motivated to work amidst Canada-US trade issues and tariff escalations: youtu.be/nd98mR4z900?...
Cargo Frakt
YouTube video by Apparat Organ Quartet - Topic
youtu.be
October 28, 2025 at 12:14 PM
When you're trying to get motivated to work amidst Canada-US trade issues and tariff escalations: youtu.be/nd98mR4z900?...
Reposted by iulia bădescu
A call for mercy: Ban Wild-Caught Primate Trade
Stop the import of wild primates for the research and testing industries. Please sign & share
action.humaneworld.org/page/179952/...
Stop the import of wild primates for the research and testing industries. Please sign & share
action.humaneworld.org/page/179952/...
Canada must ban wild monkey imports
Urge Canadian lawmakers to ban the import and exploitation of wild primates for the research and testing industries.
action.humaneworld.org
October 27, 2025 at 7:04 PM
A call for mercy: Ban Wild-Caught Primate Trade
Stop the import of wild primates for the research and testing industries. Please sign & share
action.humaneworld.org/page/179952/...
Stop the import of wild primates for the research and testing industries. Please sign & share
action.humaneworld.org/page/179952/...
Reposted by iulia bădescu
Reposted by iulia bădescu
#WyrdWednesday
Arianrhod, daughter of Dôn, mistress of the fortress of Caer Arianrhod... Often portrayed as a wicked witch who thrice cursed her own son. More fairly, perhaps, viewed as a strong, defiant woman, who refused to bow in a world controlled by the men around her.
Art by Margaret Jones.
Arianrhod, daughter of Dôn, mistress of the fortress of Caer Arianrhod... Often portrayed as a wicked witch who thrice cursed her own son. More fairly, perhaps, viewed as a strong, defiant woman, who refused to bow in a world controlled by the men around her.
Art by Margaret Jones.
October 15, 2025 at 11:37 AM
#WyrdWednesday
Arianrhod, daughter of Dôn, mistress of the fortress of Caer Arianrhod... Often portrayed as a wicked witch who thrice cursed her own son. More fairly, perhaps, viewed as a strong, defiant woman, who refused to bow in a world controlled by the men around her.
Art by Margaret Jones.
Arianrhod, daughter of Dôn, mistress of the fortress of Caer Arianrhod... Often portrayed as a wicked witch who thrice cursed her own son. More fairly, perhaps, viewed as a strong, defiant woman, who refused to bow in a world controlled by the men around her.
Art by Margaret Jones.
"We can trace complex behaviors like nuptial gift-giving in flies back to their genetic roots to understand how evolution can create entirely new behavioral strategies that are very different from even closely related species."
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Cross-species implementation of an innate courtship behavior by manipulation of the sex-determinant gene
In accepting a courting male, Drosophila subobscura females require nuptial gift giving in which a male gives regurgitated crop contents to her mouth to mouth. No similar behavior is found in D. melan...
www.science.org
October 25, 2025 at 8:36 PM
"We can trace complex behaviors like nuptial gift-giving in flies back to their genetic roots to understand how evolution can create entirely new behavioral strategies that are very different from even closely related species."
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by iulia bădescu
For what seems like forever, I've wanted to know what benefits we get from our friends - or in other words, why these relationships evolved.
tinyurl.com/55dnkeh7
tinyurl.com/55dnkeh7
Quality, quantity, and the adaptive function of social relationships
Affiliative social relationships have clear links to fitness in many species, yet
exactly why that is the case remains elusive. We unify theory from socioecology and
network science to set forth testa...
tinyurl.com
October 16, 2025 at 8:43 AM
For what seems like forever, I've wanted to know what benefits we get from our friends - or in other words, why these relationships evolved.
tinyurl.com/55dnkeh7
tinyurl.com/55dnkeh7
Reposted by iulia bădescu
the IUCN have passed the Longevity Conservation motion put forward to them by @kellerfish.bsky.social and @pili-scotland.bsky.social and based on the paper we wrote on the value of older individuals in animal societies.
www.cdu.edu.au/news/global-...
www.cdu.edu.au/news/global-...
Global body adopts policy to protect Earth’s old, wise and large animals | Charles Darwin University
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has recognised Charles Darwin University-led research into the Earth’s oldest animals with the adoption of the ‘Longevity Conservation’ global...
www.cdu.edu.au
October 24, 2025 at 8:28 AM
the IUCN have passed the Longevity Conservation motion put forward to them by @kellerfish.bsky.social and @pili-scotland.bsky.social and based on the paper we wrote on the value of older individuals in animal societies.
www.cdu.edu.au/news/global-...
www.cdu.edu.au/news/global-...
Reposted by iulia bădescu
People on twitter are losing their minds over this, including several scientists who I have to assume have either brain poisoned themselves or were always like this. People don't always cite what's best; they cite what they know & researchers from historically excluded communities get the short end.
October 24, 2025 at 1:58 PM
People on twitter are losing their minds over this, including several scientists who I have to assume have either brain poisoned themselves or were always like this. People don't always cite what's best; they cite what they know & researchers from historically excluded communities get the short end.
Reposted by iulia bădescu
#overthegardenwall #fanart
And that’s a rock fact!
#art #artist #wirt #gregory #illustration #halloween #otgw #otgwfanart
And that’s a rock fact!
#art #artist #wirt #gregory #illustration #halloween #otgw #otgwfanart
October 24, 2025 at 3:08 PM
#overthegardenwall #fanart
And that’s a rock fact!
#art #artist #wirt #gregory #illustration #halloween #otgw #otgwfanart
And that’s a rock fact!
#art #artist #wirt #gregory #illustration #halloween #otgw #otgwfanart
Reposted by iulia bădescu
Excited to share our new paper on the #social #structure of Rwenzori #colobus multi-male, multi-female core units! We found 3 different patterns but close #male #relationships in all that were long lasting! Paper is behind a paywall but contact us if you want a pdf. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
October 21, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Excited to share our new paper on the #social #structure of Rwenzori #colobus multi-male, multi-female core units! We found 3 different patterns but close #male #relationships in all that were long lasting! Paper is behind a paywall but contact us if you want a pdf. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
I know @teichroeb-lab.bsky.social would appreciate these. I think someone also needs to make primatology versions of costumes 😂
October 23, 2025 at 2:32 PM
I know @teichroeb-lab.bsky.social would appreciate these. I think someone also needs to make primatology versions of costumes 😂
Reposted by iulia bădescu
Mt. Kilimanjaro Guerezas (Colobus caudatus) are found at the Kenya-Tanzania border in montane forests that include Mt. Kilimanjaro and Arusha National Parks. They occupy a severely fragmented geographic range. Threatened by habitat loss, fragmentation, and human population expansion. Vulnerable.
October 22, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Mt. Kilimanjaro Guerezas (Colobus caudatus) are found at the Kenya-Tanzania border in montane forests that include Mt. Kilimanjaro and Arusha National Parks. They occupy a severely fragmented geographic range. Threatened by habitat loss, fragmentation, and human population expansion. Vulnerable.