Clemens Küpper

✨ Happy International Women’s Day. ✨

Today, we celebrate the power, courage, and impact of women around the world. Let’s continue to create space where women feel seen, valued, and unstoppable. May we continue to challenge stereotypes, support one another, and inspire the next generation.

1/ Remember when Ted Cruz went to Cancún as the Texas power grid failed? It wasn't just the people of TX left behind, it was also the wildlife. Out now @natecoevo.nature.com, our paper led by @mstager.bsky.social & @treeswallows.bsky.social documents how bad the storms were for birds.

rdcu.be/e7aUy

And of course, this implies that for Ruffs the sample size of ringed birds in the UK is much smaller, i.e. <1% than dunlins, for example.

The longevity table in the blog is very useful, indeed. Interesting bit that I learned: For Ruffs, the British record is about 9y 1m, the EURING record is more than 16y 2m, almost twice as long. I guess that reflects the UK being just at the edge of their distribution.

New Paper alert 📄

Rüppel et al. 2026 - "movetrack: An R package to model flight paths from radio-telemetry networks"
-> this makes it possible to transform station-based radiotelemetry data into actual flight path, validated with a plane flight.

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Ready to start your own lab? Interested in #GlobalChange,#Biodiversity and #Ecosystem#Resilience? Join us in Göttingen - we are looking for a (female) Junior Research Group Leader in #EcologicalNovelty.
Attractive conditions, see euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/415857 - please share widely if you can!

Leipzig U and the MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA) have an open faculty position (W2) in evolutionary population genetics! This position is tenured and comes with generous core funding. We are eager to welcome a new colleague! Deadline March 11.
www.uni-leipzig.de/en/newsdetai...

📢 Hiring: Tenure Track Professor of Flyway Ecology & Scientific Director of BirdEyes, the Centre for Global Ecological Change

Apply before 31 Mar 👇
werkenbij.rug.nl/vacature/ten...

#Hiring #Vacancy #ScienceJobs #SciComm

Job Alert
Help monitor breeding Black-tailed Godwits at WWT Welney
• Colour-ring reading
• Nest monitoring
• Trail cameras
• Predator surveys
Closing date: 6 March
Photo © Astrid Kant

More details here!!
vacancies.wwt.org.uk/vacancies/77...

Be #inspired by #waders or #shorebirds

When pets devour biodiversity. My new article on the European edition of @uk.theconversation.com about the impacts of pet-wildlife interactions and the opportunities for their legal regulation in the EU. theconversation.com/our-pets-are.... Related paper: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

And the defense @oulu.fi with very thorough but cordial opponent Terje Lislevand (right) was a special experience! Supervisor @koivulakari.bsky.social looks ecstatic (🇫🇮❄️).

Congratulations 🥂, Dr. Hanna Algora! Thesis on nesting ecology featuring Finnish #waders, ruffs and dunlins, defended convincingly today. Another fledgling 🪺🐦🐣 from @oulu.fi and @mpiforbi.bsky.social

Really grateful to be able to interact and work with some of these #WomenInScience, they are wonderful colleagues. Our research has benefited immensely from their unique perspectives.

The Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) is seeking a scientist in wildlife biology, ecology, or a closely related discipline, with a focus on movement ecology, spatial data analysis, and/or scavenger and carnivore systems.

Read and apply here: tinyurl.com/mr3x7uwk

Join us in Sheffield this April to celebrate 70 years of the Ecological Genetics Group
Abstract submission is closing soon!

Please repost! We are looking for two field technicians to work on our deer mouse project in the Colorado Rockies this spring-fall. Learn about physiology, ecology, and evolution, all in one project! Not to mention that you get to be in the ⛰️. Reach out if you have any questions.

Shout out to Lisa, who has been an amazing fieldworker over the last few years at our field site at #Liminganlahti, Finland. On this picture, she is (probably) returning freshly hatched #Ruff chicks to their nest after ringing. #WomenInScience #ornithology #conservation

Who benefits from mating with multiple partners? Darwin suspected that in some cases, it may be the females rather than the males. A new long-term study on African coucals shows: when males provide all parental care, females can have more offspring by competing for and mating with multiple partners.

black coucal perching in vegetation

and this is how sex-role reversed black coucals actually look like...

doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

Sex-role reversal and the Bateman gradient in coucals—females benefit from mating with multiple partners Abstract. Conventional sex roles imply that males compete more vigorously with each other for fertilizations, whereas females are more selective in choosin

Our new paper on Bateman gradients in black coucals and white-browed coucals is out. Females of both species outperform males in mating and reproductive success - confirming the generality of Bateman's principle when sex roles differ.
Check it out: royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

This study matches my own experiences. Experienced local fieldworkers are essential for the scientific quality and often also the successful continuation of long-term ecological studies. Do we appreciate them enough?

One of the coolest parts of tracking birds is getting to see those individuals in the wild again. Yesterday, near São Luis, Brazil, we saw a Whimbrel tagged in TX by Manomet and U. of OK in 2022! Since then it's been to the MacKenzie Delta & Southampton Island + Cape Cod, MA! Photos: Alan Kneidel

Globally, no single day in 2025 was cooler than its 1991-2020 average.
climate.copernicus.eu/global-clima...

Fieldwork is essential to understand ecological complexities but I sadly agree that it is not a career booster. Even for ecologists: ‘I rarely get outside’: scientists ditch fieldwork in the age of AI www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The University of Vienna awards at least 20 four-year and full-time (40h/week) postdoctoral positions to outstanding female scientists in natural sciences, life sciences, and economics.

Adaptive spread of a sexually selected syndrome eliminates an ancient color polymorphism in wall lizards Genetically determined color morphs are found in many animals. Polymorphism can be maintained by social selection if competitive interactions allow each morph to increase in frequency when rare. This ...

And another cool lizard paper featuring the very SPR gene: Adaptive spread of a sexually selected syndrome eliminates an ancient color polymorphism in wall lizards www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The genetics, evolution, and maintenance of a biological rock-paper-scissors game Side-blotched lizards (Uta stansburiana) play a biological rock-paper-scissors game in which three differently colored male morphs utilize alternative mating strategies. We identified the genetic basi...

Great paper! Two not three alleles of a single gene explain blue, orange and yellow morphs that are maintained by the rock-paper-scissors principle www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Please repost: 🚨Field assistant position 🐧

We offer a 14-months field assistant position through the French Polar Institute to work on king penguin ecophysiology and behavioral ecology.

Requirements: EU citizen < 30yo having experience with harsh fieldwork & wild bird/mammal handling/sampling.

Thanks to all of you who shared this advert or applied. We got so many great applications meaning that we decided to close this call. We'll ponder next who to interview, difficult decisions.

We're hiring! The Dept. of Environmental Conservation @umassamherst.bsky.social is looking for an Extension Professor in Biodiversity Conservation. Reviews start Feb 1. I am on the SC and absolutely love working in the ECo Dept. Come join us! DM me with questions. careers.umass.edu/amherst/en-u...