Ioan Smart

Male Strategic Association With Mating Partners Under Varying Social Contexts in a Livebearing Fish We found that in halfbeaks, a shoaling fish species, males preferentially associated with an opposite sex pair (i.e., a female and a male) over rival males, but showed no preference when choosing bet....

Do males strategically associate with mating partners, and how does social context influence their choices?

Excited to share my first publication!🎉
It’s been an amazing journey and thanks to @lennartwinkler.bsky.social, John Fitzpatrick & all co-authors for your hard work!

doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

Our BehaveAI paper has just come out!

Easy & effective tracking & behavioural classification, even with tiny (2px), fast moving, camouflaged objects.

Paper: doi.org/10.1371/jour...
Download: github.com/troscianko/B...

@uniexecec.bsky.social @kevinjgaston.bsky.social @jimamclgalloway.bsky.social

Predators hide against similarly coloured species to camouflage on the move Abstract. Many predators aim to approach prey without being detected or identified. Ambush predators often achieve this through camouflage, such as backgro

Work brilliantly led by #ECR @sammatchette.bsky.social

With @nadia-hamilton.bsky.social @christiandrerup.com
#JeroenSchneider @sandrawinters.bsky.social @marinebehavecol.bsky.social

@camzoology.bsky.social @bristolbiosci.bsky.social

#predator #marine #fish #ocean

doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

A u shaped structure made out of sticks called a bower, built under a small tree. In front of the bower is a pile of grey, white and green objects that make up the display court. The whole scene is in dappled sunlight and shade created by the tree above.

New bowerbird paper out, we asked whether male great bowerbirds care about the light environment around the bower where they display to females. Short answer: not really. What they do care about is having a display arena with strong visual contrast on the ground. 🐦 tinyurl.com/2v7rycdz

A long blue-brown trumpetfish swimming above and close to a blue stoplight parrotfish

🚨NEW PAPER🚨 Need to #camouflage on the move? Easy - simply seek out something that's coloured like you and move along with it! 🐠 Read the latest #trumpetfish instalment here: tinyurl.com/4tb5h5hk
@royalsociety.org
#shadowing #predator #experiment #marine #movement

🚨NEW paper alert🚨

Latest instalment in the #trumpetfish story: colour polymorphic individuals choose to ‘shadow’ non-predatory fishes of similar colour, gaining them a hunting advantage

Led by the wonderful @sammatchette.bsky.social
Out today in @royalsocietypublishing.org

doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

Had a great first day at #ASABWinter2025! Many fascinating talks and intriguing posters. If you didn’t manage to swing by and see me and have any questions about the recent research I’ve been doing, please get in contact!

ECBB 2026 logo above header that reads ECBB 2026 Plenary Speakers Photo includes Prof Tim Caro, blue shape with name, and title, and University of Bristol. Text reads: -Studies evolution of coloration in mammals from several angles - Comparative methods to uncover the ecological drivers of camouflage, warning coloration, signaling and physiological factors in driving coat coloration in many mammalian orders - Community-based and government-led conservation schemes in Zanzibar 1-4 September, Anglia Ruskin University

We are delighted to announce our second ECBB 2026 Plenary Speaker!
🥁
🥁
🥁
The amazing Professor Tim Caro!
#ecbb #ecbb2026

Larger frogs are better mimics but are more risk-averse in a nontoxic poison frog
#Aposematism #WarningSignals #Ampibian

doi.org/10.1093/behe...

Very happy to see our opinion article out in @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social today. 🥳 We ask whether sexual signals can influence the evolutionary trajectory of naturally selected adaptations, such as protective colouration, for better or for worse 🧐 1/n
doi.org/10.1016/j.tr...

Picture of Innes Cuthill, ASAB logo. "Animal camouflage: Evolutionary biology meets neuroscience, art and war“

We hope everyone is getting excited for #ASABWinter2025 !
 
To kick off the conference on Dec 15, we will be having a public lecture by Prof. Innes Cuthill about an interdisciplinary approach to the study of camouflage. So make sure you’re not late ⏰

The sensory ecology of caterpillars - Journal of Comparative Physiology A Caterpillars (larval Lepidoptera) are one of the most ecologically and evolutionarily significant taxa on Earth. As both feeders and food, they shape the dynamics of enumerate ecosystems on land. Key ...

Do you work (/want to work) with caterpillars? Or sensory systems? Or BOTH?! Well good golly do we have the paper for you! We explain the senses that caterpillars have, what they use them for, and how anthropogenic sensory pollution might be messing it all up 🐛 doi.org/10.1007/s003...

Evaluating the roles of signaling and camouflage in the evolution of iris color in Tyranni passerines Abstract. Iris color is a conspicuous and diverse trait across animals, but its evolutionary drivers are poorly understood. In over 1000 species of Tyranni

Evaluating the roles of signaling and camouflage in the evolution of iris color in Tyranni passerines. Evolution
doi.org/10.1093/evol...

BehaveAI is live!

Our biologically inspired video analysis tool sees motion as colour. Track animals or objects, classify their behaviour, and handle complex natural scenes with ease.

Semi-supervised annotation, no GPUs required, user-friendly, free & open source.

Pre-print tinyurl.com/BehaveAI

Functional and evolutionary synergy of trait components can explain the existence of leaf masquerade in katydids The evolution of complex adaptations often involves synergistic changes in multiple traits that lack standalone function. This study shows that leaf masquerade in katydids evolved through concurrent m...

Leaf? 🍃 Or katydid? 🦗
Our new
@plosbiology.org paper sheds light on how these incredible mimics evolved their disguises, and what this reveals about how complex adaptations arise. We find that coordinated evolution between traits might be the answer… plos.io/4oUE741 1/n

#ISBE2026 Call for Abstracts is now open! Submit your abstract by 15 December 2025 on www.isbe2026.com

@behavecol.bsky.social

White-winged choughs in Canberra, Australia - the bird species studied in the newly published work.

Interested in vocal #communication? How animals provide referential #information about danger? Then see our 🌟NEW🌟 paper by brilliant ANU #PhD student Chun-Chieh Liao out today in @asab.org Animal Behaviour. 🎉👏

#birds #choughs #fieldwork #ECR
With Rob Magrath and Rob Heinsohn
doi.org/10.1016/j.an...

A white-fronted bee-eater (Merops bullockoides) decides whether to consume a warningly colored white-barred acraea butterfly (Telchinia encedon). Photo (c) Mike Rowe

📢🦋 Our paper ‘Global selection on insect antipredator coloration’ is out and featured on the cover of @science.org

We ran a huge experiment to find out how ecological context favours camouflage and warning colouration as antipredator strategies. 1/6

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Exciting news for #ASABWinter2025 !

🚨Abstract deadline extension for Sept 12 !!!!🚨

🚨Our new paper is out NOW in @jexpbiol.bsky.social 👀 Here we show that cuttlefish use visual contrast cues to inform their 3D camouflage, but these contrast cues can derive from true background features as well as exposure to dynamic lighting patterns. 🦑🔆
🔗 doi.org/10.1242/jeb....

Winter ASAB 2025 December 15-16 Edinburgh How sensory information affects behaviour.

ICYMI : #ASABWinter2025 will take place from December 15-16, once again in lovely Edinburgh!

Registration is now open 🎉 Abstract submission deadline for posters and talks is August 29 🏃‍♀️🏃🏃‍♂️

More information here: asabwinter.github.io/2025/

Winter ASAB 2025 - 15th-16th of December in Edinburgh - with a special theme of "How sensory information affects behaviour". Register at https://asabwinter.github.io/2025/ deadline for abstract submission 29th of August.

Winter ASAB @asab.org on *Sensory Ecology* register and submit your abstracts now (abstract deadline just a month away)!

I'm organising the conference this year with @lauraakelley.bsky.social and Innes Cuthill

Register & get more info here: asabwinter.github.io/2025/

Electroreception in treehoppers: How extreme morphologies can increase electrical sensitivity | PNAS The link between form and function of an organism’s morphology is usually apparent or intuitive. However, some clades of organisms show remarkable ...

Why do treehoppers look so weird?! Our latest paper, out this week in @pnas.org, suggests a perhaps unexpected reason - static electricity ⚡ We show that treehoppers can detect the electrostatic cues of predators and that their crazy shapes may boost their electrosensitivity! doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Antagonistic effects of predator color morph abundance and saliency on prey anti-predator responses Predators can have different color morphs, but whether morph abundance or saliency is more influential in shaping antipredator behavior in prey remains unc

🔴New #trumpetfish content!🔴 This species is colour #polymorphic so we dove (pun intended) into how the relative abundance and saliency of each morph influences the #behaviour of their prey. Find out more via the link below! 🎺🐠
🔗 tinyurl.com/39vn5skp #behavioralecology

So very excited for the magnum opus of my #PhD to finally be out in @pnas.org. 🎉🎉 We demosntrate that mutualistic co-mimicking tropical butterflies not only converge in light microhabitat but, as a consequence, have also converged in visual system morphology! 1/n😀
www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Tactical deception in cephalopods: a new framework for understanding cognition Many animals rely on deception, including signalling misinformation, to gain advantages over others. While many deceptive strategies rely on deterministic patterns or conditioning, some taxa can flexi...

🚨 New paper alert! 👀 In our new opinion piece in TREE @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social, we propose #cephalopods as model systems to investigate the link between tactical #deception and #cognition in animals 🐙🦑🪄✨🧠
Read the paper here:
🔗 www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

The Adaptive Significance of Tail‐Flagging: A Test in European Rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) European rabbits use their white tails to warn others of danger and ward off predators, revealing the dual function of a single animal signalling behaviour. Using both field observations and phylogen....

Was great to be involved in such an interesting paper, now published in @ecol-evol.bsky.social!

dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

Mapping the adaptive landscape of Batesian mimicry using 3D-printed stimuli - Nature Birds have an excellent ability to learn to discriminate harmless insects from those that they mimic on the basis of subtle differences in appearance.

Why do imperfect mimics (such as many hoverflies) exist? We created 3D printed replicas of flies, wasps and our own custom intermediates and then "asked" various predators what they thought of our 3D stimuli. Read all about it here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Motion After‐Effects Induced by Dynamic Illumination in Crab Vision While in humans, background motion can disrupt the detection of visual cues even after the moving background component has ceased, it remains unknown whether natural forms of background motion might ...

🚨Our new paper is out NOW in @ecol-evol.bsky.social 👀 Here we show that prior exposure to dynamic illumination can have a persisting effect on the visual perception of 🦀, reducing their ability to detect predators even after the dynamic illumination has ended.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

The flexibility of social learning and its conservation implications in mammals and beyond | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Conservation strategies seek to ensure that populations persist and are resilient to environmental change. As learning from others can shape the development of skills that help animals survive, reproduce and respond to changing conditions, understanding ...

The flexibility of social learning and its conservation implications in mammals & beyond.

New paper, led by Josh Arbon with fab collaborators Neil Jordan & @neeltjeboogert.bsky.social.

doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2024.0136

@uniexecec.bsky.social @bristolbiosci.bsky.social @royalsocietypublishing.org