A local Cambridge Brownie group (girls aged 7-10) spent a session with Mairenn Attwood, learning all about African cuckoos. Alongside discovering the tricks used by brood parasites, the Brownies also had a go at creating their own egg spoons. In the field, these are used to reach eggs in nests which are high and far out along tree branches. The outcome is shown in the photo above – despite their varied appearance, all were successful at extracting chocolate eggs from pretend nests!
The Society for the Study of Evolution has awarded Jess Lund an R. C. Lewontin Graduate Research Excellence Grant, which will enable her to expand her investigations into the fascinating lives of honeyguides. This grant is awarded to students early in their PhD programmes to assist them in enhancing the scope of their research. Thank you to the SSE for their generous support of our work!
Tanmay Dixit will again be a member of a team organising and lecturing in the Evolutionary Biology Crash Course 2023.
Stephanie McClelland’s paper entitled “Eggshell composition and surface properties of avian brood-parasitic species compared with non-parasitic species” has been published in the journal Royal Society Open Science. This study measured structural properties of the eggshells of brood parasites and their hosts around the world. The study found that…
Dr Gabriel Jamie is currently visiting the Evolutionsbiologisk centrum (EBC) at Uppsala University, Sweden, where he is collaborating with Professor Per Alström. On Wednesday 17 May he gave a research seminar to the department on research into mimicry, speciation and...