Cameron Blair and Jonah Walker have joined the African Cuckoos team! Cameron previously did his BSc(Hons) project on the development of the guiding call of the greater honeyguide with the African Honeyguides team, and he has just started his MSc at the University of Cape Town, looking at how brood-parasitic honeyguide chicks are able to acoustically deceive their host parents. He is currently in the field assisting Tanmay Dixit with his work on cuckoo finches and their hosts. Jonah has also joined the team, working on the thermal properties of the eggs of cisticolas and prinias in Zambia, which are hosts of the cuckoo finch. This work will incorporate existing data and field studies in the 2022 rainy season. Welcome to both!
Evolutionary Biology Crash Course
Tanmay Dixit was a member of a team organising and lecturing in the inaugural Evolutionary Biology Crash Course. This course, aimed at undergraduate or early-postgraduate students, teaches evolutionary principles to students who have had limited opportunities to be exposed to evolutionary ideas. The course is funded by the Equal Opportunities Initiative Fund of the European Society of Evolutionary Biology (ESEB). Tanmay presented lectures on behavioural ecology and evolution, focussing on kin selection, coevolution, and parasitism. Over 700 students, with the vast majority from the global South, attended the course, which was a resounding success!