Sophia Bullock
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soph-bullock.bsky.social
Sophia Bullock
@soph-bullock.bsky.social
45 followers 70 following 9 posts
PhD student at Newcastle Uni interested in improving the welfare of laboratory animals. Enjoys: animals, fungi, photography and baking.
Dislikes: aubergine.
Posts Replies Media Videos
soph-bullock.bsky.social
Tomorrow is Newcastle's Discover Festival!

You can find me at the Animal Emotions stand doing a demo of gentle handling with "robot" mice and you can see how we use thermal imaging cameras to detect health and welfare problems in animals! 🐁
#newcastle #discoverFestival #kids #science #NewcastleUni
June 6, 2025 at 4:40 PM
soph-bullock.bsky.social
I'm delighted to say I'll be delivering a short talk on the use of gradual decompression as an alternative to Schedule 1 using carbon dioxide for laboratory rats at this year's UFAW conference. There's still time to register your attendance! 🐀

#animalWelfare #labAnimals #animalScience #UFAW
ufaw.bsky.social Universities Federation for Animal Welfare @ufaw.bsky.social · May 29
📢 Less than 1 month to go!

The UFAW International #AnimalWelfare Conference 2025 is nearly here.

Don’t miss your chance to connect, learn & hear from global experts.

🔗 Check out the full timetable and secure your place today: ow.ly/pb6H50VX87m
May 30, 2025 at 9:44 AM
soph-bullock.bsky.social
Was invited to be part of a piece for BBC Look North news in an article about our fungi foraging and tattoo experience with Kezz from Cock A Snook Tattoo Parlour in Newcastle. That's my tattoo in the wee circle!
www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/...

#tattoos #fungi #foraging #mushrooms #newcastleUponTyne
Mushroom foragers scour Hexham woodlands for tattoos
Foraged from a forest floor, nature provides unique inspiration for custom tattoos.
www.bbc.co.uk
May 29, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Reposted by Sophia Bullock
zoophilosophy.bsky.social
Ever wondered what life is like for a crow or magpie? Check out our new paper on corvid consciousness

doi.org/10.1007/s100...
Dimensions of corvid consciousness - Animal Cognition
Corvids have long been a target of public fascination and of scientific attention, particularly in the study of animal minds. Using Birch et al.’s (2020) 5-dimensional framework for animal consciousne...
doi.org
May 7, 2025 at 8:40 AM
soph-bullock.bsky.social
Not science related but THE best underwear you can buy! 🙌
molkeofficial.bsky.social Molke @molkeofficial.bsky.social · Apr 27
Just a happy lil queer disabled bra maker trying to fight their way through the crowds and be heard, so they can show off the epic underwear we make here in Scotland.
If you love what we do, please help us have a voice and share the love!

#Disabled #QueerSky #Pride #Inclusive
Kirsty is in a wheelchair on a Catwalk wearing Molke bra and leggings in a pride fabric design.
April 27, 2025 at 1:19 PM
soph-bullock.bsky.social
I was excited to find some Scarlet/Ruby Elf Cup fungi yesterday 😄 I've seen lots of others find these and finally it was my turn 🙌

It is hard to identify the difference between Scarlet and Ruby Elf Cups without microscopy, hence the slightly dubious ID!
March 9, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Reposted by Sophia Bullock
birchlse.bsky.social
I've written a free and accessible guide to Cephalopod Sentience with Alex Schnell, Piero Amodio and Peter Morse, stunningly illustrated by Roksolana Tkach. Please download and share! It's worth it for the illustrations alone! 🐙 thebrooksinstitute.org/sites/defaul...
Common octopus
February 22, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Reposted by Sophia Bullock
raccoonologist.bsky.social
This comic is really making our whole lab crack up!
Birds! Dips! Everyone loves birds almost as much as we love dunking morsels of food in some delicious saucy business. Now science says birds love dip too Viennese researchers observed 2 Goffins cockatoos dunking bits of potato into blueberry soy yogurt and then eating it. Because bird scientists have nothing better to do (than more bird science) they decided to see what was going on. For all those fans of flavouring behaviour in nonhuman animals the results were very interesting. They did a bunch of trials in which Goffins cockatoos were given foods like pasta, cauliflower, potatoes and carrots along with 3 dips, blueberry soy yoghurt, plain soy yoghurt and fresh water. Pasta HIGH, BS yogurt HEAPS, Potatoes HIGH, PS yoghurt BIT, Carrots NEVER, Water No Gross, Cauliflower NEVER. Then they ate the blueberry soy right out of the dish by itself! Mad for it. It is suggested that dipping behaviour has 5 probable functions. Soaking Goffins cockatoos will soak a dry rusk in water before eating it Cleaning wild boars rinse dirty apples Drowning sparrowhawks drown larger prey like pigeons Transporting liquid useful for getting fluid to baby birds. Interestingly this is related to other kinds of problemsolving and tool use by birds which I find completely fascinating. For instance we know that Goffins cockatoos use cutlery (sticks of varying sizes) to eat sea mangoes. Herons throw bread in the water to catch fish. Kites & falcons deliberately start fires to get lunch. Crows can drive jeeps (coming soon). This kind of scientific research is more important than ever because we can no longer bear the knowledge of all the terrible things that are happening in the world we just want to know how clever birds are stop telling me things please stop. Yes civilisation is going to end blah blah so bird news only from now on thanks Of course when civilisation does end all these cockatoos will have to go back to finding their own blueberry soy yoghurt in the wild and good luck with that
February 14, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Reposted by Sophia Bullock
ufaw.bsky.social
📢 Registration is NOW OPEN for the #UFAW2025 International Animal Welfare Conference!

⏳ Today is also the final day to submit your abstract—don’t miss this opportunity to share your research with a global audience of animal welfare experts.

🔗 Visit: ufaw.org.uk/conf25

#AnimalWelfareScience
February 10, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Reposted by Sophia Bullock
flygirlnhm.bsky.social
New paper by @davegoulson.bsky.social & team

For those with pets that use pesticides every month to ensure that there ‘aren’t no fleas’, take a pause. We are doing a lot of harm to our garden communities..

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
High prevalence of veterinary drugs in bird's nests
The environmental impact of insecticides used as ectoparasitic treatments for companion animals is not well understood, since they are not subject to …
www.sciencedirect.com
January 28, 2025 at 8:35 AM
soph-bullock.bsky.social
Obligatory pic with my poster at the @newcastleuni.bsky.social SAgE PGR Conference last week! It was great speaking to people and seeing the other research happening in SAgE. 🧑‍🔬
#animalWelfare #laboratoryAnimals #labAnimals #animalScience #PhDStudent #NewcastleUniversity #newcastle
A photo of me in a black jacket and rainbow lanyard standing next to my research poster. Research poster is A1, portrait, entitled "Killing in the name of science - Surveying anaesthetic overdose practices in the UK". There's is some text about the background of my survey and some images depicting my key findings and future experimental research.
January 28, 2025 at 5:48 PM
soph-bullock.bsky.social
Failed Twitter numerous times, now attempting this... 😅

I'm a #PhDStudent at #NewcastleUniversity using #animalBehaviour, #neuroscience, #physiology and #socialScience to improve #laboratory #animalWelfare. 🐀

I enjoy hunting and IDing #fungi. I also like #photography and #baking vegan goodies 🍰
Photo of a rocky stack on a rocky beach with blue skies and white fluffy clouds. The sea is in the background and there are cliff faces in the background also.
January 9, 2025 at 11:49 AM