Call for abstracts and symposia

Symposium organisers: Dr Karendeep Sidhu and Dr Berta Canal Domenech

University of Turin, Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology
European Thermal Fertility Network

Description: Behaviour is often the first response to rapidly changing environments, and traits under sexual selection are particularly sensitive to environmental change. Pre- and post-copulatory reproductive behaviours play a central role in individual fitness and population persistence, yet we still have a limited understanding of how increasing temperatures affect sexual selection processes.

This symposium aims to highlight how thermal stress alters key pre-copulatory traits, including mate choice, sexual signalling, and courtship displays, as well as post-copulatory mechanisms such as sperm competition and cryptic female choice. We will examine how changes in these sexually selected traits influence reproductive success, sexual selection dynamics, and fitness under ongoing anthropogenic environmental change.

More broadly, the symposium will integrate behavioural and evolutionary perspectives to address how thermal stress shapes sexual selection across biological levels, including sex- specific responses, interactions among multiple stressors, and the roles of plasticity versus adaptive potential in a rapidly changing world. We envision both empirical and theoretical contributions and will particularly encourage early-career researchers to participate.

Keynote speakers: Dr Chiara Morosinotto (University of Padova) and Dr Liam Dougherty (University of Liverpool)

Symposium organisers: Joachim Frommen¹, Adam Reddon² and Will Swaney²

¹Manchester Metropolitan University
²Liverpool John Moores University

Description: With more than 30,000 species, fishes are the largest vertebrate group and are found in hugely varied habitats, from alpine rivers to the deepest ocean floor. However, no matter the environment, fishes are increasingly confronted with human-induced environmental change, from light and sound pollution, to warming water temperatures, microplastic accumulation and changes in water chemistry and turbidity. These changes all have the potential to impact fish behaviour, for example through effects on communication and competitive interactions, on sex development and mating behaviour, and on conspecific and heterospecific social structures. Understanding the full effects of human-induced environmental change on fishes is often challenging, as the environments in which they live are so fundamentally distinct from our own. In this symposium we will highlight research that is exploring the behavioural impacts of human-induced environmental change on fishes, and that sheds light on how fish behaviour is changing in their often rapidly changing habitats.

Keynote speakers: Dr Erin McCallum (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) and Prof Christos Ioannou (University of Bristol)

Symposium organisers: Dr Tiago Monteiro¹ and Dr Victor Ajuwon²

¹University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna
²University of Cambridge

Description: Curiosity, the motivation to investigate and learn, is fundamental to human intelligence. However, like other cognitive capacities that were thought to be unique to humans, evidence is beginning to emerge that other animals also possess an intrinsic tendency to learn, challenging conventional thinking about the evolution of decision-making mechanisms that operate in animal brains. The neuroscience and psychology of curiosity has recently received increased attention because of its importance in cognitive function and its implications for the development of artificial general intelligence. Despite recent advances in our understanding of curiosity, fundamental questions remain about the cognitive mechanisms, neural substrates, and evolutionary origins that underpin this enigmatic ability.

In this symposium we aim to highlight novel research investigating curiosity-like behaviour across taxa, shining a light on a variety of experimental methods that promise to refine our understanding of curiosity, the cognitive substrate that underpins it, and its evolutionary origins.

Keynote speakers: Dr Sofia Forss (University of Zurich) and Dr Megan Lambert (University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna)

Symposium organisers: Elias Garcia-Pelegrin¹ and Alizée Vernouillet²

¹National University of Singapore
²University of Vienna

Description: Human influences on the environment are everywhere, ranging from the incidental in the form of urbanization and habitat fragmentation, to the intentional influences of zoo settings and animal farming. Both wild and captive animals need to adapt to these human-induced rapid environmental changes. Not only are animals faced with threats such as pollution, climate change, and increased likelihood of human interactions, they also need to deal with increased competition due to higher densities of conspecifics and heterospecifics in the ever-dwindling suitable habitats. Nevertheless, certain species appear to adjust more successfully to these challenges than do others. This symposium explores how social cognitive abilities may facilitate the exploitation of new resources, and likewise, how human influence on the environment – from the incidental influence of urbanization, pollution or habitat loss to the intentional influence of zoo settings and intensive farming – affects social cognition.

Keynote speakers: Dr Fay Clark (University of Bristol) and Dr Lisandrina Mari (University of Jyväskylä)

Symposium organisers: Dr Francisco Ruiz-Raya and Dr Arianna Passarotto
University of Glasgow

Description: Human activities are inducing unprecedented transformations in the environments animals occupy. These changes, whether caused by anthropogenic noise, artificial light at night, habitat modification, and/or chemical pollution, alter the natural sensory landscape, with multifaceted impacts on the availability, reliability, and transmission of cues and signals used for reproduction, navigation, foraging, predator avoidance, and social interactions. Animals typically integrate information across different sensory modalities, making them particularly vulnerable to sensory mismatch and ecological traps in human-altered landscapes. This symposium brings together empirical and theoretical work examining how altered sensory environments affect behaviour across taxa and ecological contexts, addressing pressing questions such as, but not limited to, disruption of acoustic and chemical information in noisy and polluted habitats, or changes in the use of visual cues and coloration in modified light environments. By integrating research across sensory modalities and behaviours, this symposium aims to advance our understanding of how animals cope with rapidly changing sensory landscapes.

Keynote speaker: Dr Ulrika Candolin (University of Helsinki)

Symposium organisers: Emmanuelle Briolat and James Galloway
University of Exeter

Description: Artificial light at night (ALAN) is a growing anthropogenic threat, causing rapid changes to natural cycles and nighttime lighting on a global scale. In the past 20 years, an explosion in research has uncovered harmful effects in plants, animals and microbes, in terrestrial and aquatic environments, at all levels from individual physiology and behaviour to ecosystem function. Invertebrates have long been a key focus: besides the well-known attraction of nocturnal insects to lights, ALAN is now known to affect invertebrates in a myriad ways, disrupting key behaviours and ecological interactions, including in unexpected places, from zooplankton in the water column to soil-dwelling earthworms. Alarming evidence of recent insect declines creates urgency to better understand the impacts of ALAN on invertebrate behaviour, and its long-term consequences for populations and ecosystem services. A vibrant community of researchers in diverse fields, from neurobiology to macroecology, has emerged to tackle this challenge. This symposium will provide a forum to discuss new findings and their implications for mitigation strategies, as well as connect with other behavioural biologists.

Keynote speakers: Prof Dan-Eric Nilsson (Lund University) and Dr Bridgette Farnworth (Victoria University of Wellington)

Symposium organiser: Dr Holly Root-Gutteridge
University of Lincoln

Description: Conservation of endangered species is often challenged by a lack of understanding of their behavioural ecology, particularly habitat use, dispersal, and inter-group interactions. Fragmentation of populations may be the result of behavoural disturbances (both anthropogenic and intraspecific) as well as habitat disruption. As endangered species often occupy remote and inaccessible areas, with small population sizes mean that a comprehensive understanding of their behaviour ecology is rarely easy to achieve.

Recent technological advances in the acoustic monitoring of wildlife populations have dramatically enhanced the ability to process large amounts of recorded data, using AI to detect and classify animal sounds. Using multiple recording devices to triangulate sound locations, and integrating cellular and radio communication channels means that animal activity can be monitored in real time.

This symposium will allow researchers using bioacoustics for conservation behaviour research to present their new developments, learn from each other’s techniques, and to synthesise new approaches that will leverage the power of new artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms.

Keynote speakers: Dr Arik Kershenbaum (University of Cambridge) and Dr Angela Dassow (Carthage College)

Symposium organisers: Sue Anne Zollinger and Selvino de Kort
Manchester Metropolitan University

Description: Can animals communicate effectively when exposed to the various pollutants? Air pollution may interfere with pheromone communication, light pollution may affect multimodal signals and anthropogenic noise masks the sounds of many animals. Research in this area has been prolific in the last 3 decades and has focussed on aspects of detection, ie can animals hear each other when exposed to noise. In this symposium we would like to go beyond detection and ask how pollution may be changing or restricting the complexity and nuances of communication, or shifting the markers of quality that signals have evolved to convey.

Keynote speakers: Prof Elizabeth Derryberry (University of Tennessee) and Dr Henrik Brumm (Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence)

Symposium organisers: Dr Adria LeBoeuf and Arthur Matte
University of Cambridge

Description: Socially transferred materials (STMs), like eggs, milk, ejaculates, social regurgitates, are substances transferred between conspecifics that shape recipient phenotypes through nutrients, genetic material, symbionts, hormones, and immune factors. As global change accelerates, understanding how these private physiological channels mediate adaptive and maladaptive responses becomes urgent. We invite abstracts addressing: (1) how environmental stressors (temperature, pollution, habitat change) alter STM composition and function; (2) theoretical frameworks for STM evolution, including indirect genetic effects and sexual conflict; (3) the origins and diversification of social transfer behaviours; (4) transgenerational plasticity mediated by STMs; (5) STMs as biomarkers for environmental stress; and (6) conservation implications of STM disruption. We welcome contributions across taxa and approaches, from molecular mechanisms to evolutionary theory, that advance our understanding of how STMs shape adaptation in a rapidly changing world.

Keynote speakers: Prof Elva Robinson (University of York) and Arthur Matte (University of Cambridge)

Symposium organiser: Adrian A Barnett
University of Greenwich

Description: Primates are one of the world’s best-studied animal groups in Behavioural Ecology terms. This, plus their intelligence and adaptability, allows nuanced and in-depth studies of how member of this group have adapted their interactions with human-mediated impacts and what this bodes for primate biology and conservation in the future. Six speakers cover a diverse range of topics that will both inform attendees and be the basis for a journal special edition or book.

Keynote speakers: Prof Bruna M Bezerra (Universidade Federal de Pernambuco) and Prof Tainara V Sobroza (Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará)

Symposium organiser: Dr Nishant Kumar
National Centre for Biological Sciences and University of Oxford

Description: The Anthropocene represents a global ecological experiment, subjecting animals to unprecedented environmental transformations. While some species face collapse, others – synanthropes and exploiters – thrive in the 'human niche'. This symposium explores the mechanistic pathways driving these divergent outcomes by tracing the functional links between individual cognition, behavioural flexibility, and demographic responses. We shall prioritise examining and discussing how decision-making processes – such as innovation, tool use, risk-taking, and movement strategies – scale up to shape population dynamics and species persistence, moving beyond descriptive studies of urban adaptation.

Bringing together perspectives on diverse taxa, this session investigates how animals perceive and navigate human-modified landscapes. We examine the role of phenotypic plasticity and 'cognitive buffering' in mitigating anthropogenic stressors, from fragmented habitats to novel cues and food-subsidies. Key discussions will focus on the behavioural filters that determine whether human-nonhuman interactions result in coexistence or conflict. We shall showcase integration of fine-scale behavioural data with long-term demographic trends, aiming to deconstruct the successful strategies of “urban winners” and the maladaptive ecological/evolutionary traps faced by the rest.

This holistic approach offers a predictive framework for understanding biodiversity shifts, ensuring that conservation/management interventions are grounded in the fundamental principles of animal behaviour and evolutionary ecology.

Keynote speakers: Prof Christian Rutz (University of St. Andrews) and Prof Aldina Franco (University of East Anglia)

Symposium organiser: Dr Francesca Maura Cassola¹ and Prof Anna Wilkinson²

¹Anglia Ruskin University
²University of Lincoln

Description: Cognitive research in herpetology has grown rapidly, yet it remains affected by theoretical, methodological, and practical challenges. Many paradigms were originally developed for mammals and birds, raising questions about their validity for ectotherms and their relevance to ecology and fitness in natural settings. Empirical work is also constrained by limited access to study populations, small sample sizes, welfare considerations, and the lack of standardised protocols.

This symposium will bring together researchers to critically reflect on both the solutions already developed and the remaining obstacles. We welcome contributions that: (i) present innovative experimental designs tailored to reptile and amphibian biology; (ii) link cognitive performance to ecologically relevant traits; (iii) address issues of individual variability, motivation, and the effects of captivity; and (iv) discuss practical challenges related to funding, infrastructure, training, and collaborative networks. By integrating empirical and theoretical perspectives, the symposium aims to identify priorities and promote more integrative, comparable, and impactful studies on reptile and amphibian cognition.

Keynote speakers: Dr Stephan Reber (Lund University) and Dr Robin D. Johnsson (Franklin & Marshall College)