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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Meet Veronika the cow, clever octopuses, smart kunekune pigs, and the wonderful Goffin's cockatoos. A documentary by Feuer & Flamme Film for those of you with access to ORF 2. CC @auersperga.bsky.social

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

1/9 Ethnozoology of medicinal plants used by elephants on Mount Elgon (Kenya) The researchers interviewed 8 local experts on elephant behavior, all with more than 20 years of experience, and what they learned is astonishing. (paper) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Reposted by Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró)

ARAA @araa.at · 24/09/2026

#HotOffThePress 🔥🖊️ “Body awareness in Goffin’s cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana)” 🦜 Sept 2026. Scientific Reports. P. Hundegger, R. Folkertsma, @drracheldale.bsky.social, @auersperga.bsky.social & @biotay.bsky.social doi.org/10.1038/s415...

doi.org

Body awareness in Goffin’s cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana) - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - Body awareness in Goffin’s cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana)

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

1/7 What we know about aphantasia (review) Aphantasia could offer a useful approach to understanding how conscious experience arises. The authors propose that conscious mental imagery is an emergent property of multiple brain processes. (paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

1/6 The Rosetta Stone of chimpanzees is edible The sounds chimpanzees make when they find food, their “rough grunts,” contain information about the food they have found, and other chimpanzees can interpret it. (paper) link.springer.com/article/10.1...

https://www.science.org/content/article/chimps-learn-new-grunt-apple

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

1/3 1/3 Walking like a human Heel-striking appears to be an adaptation that saves energy during walking, but at the cost of much greater impact forces. The researchers compared humans and chimpanzees using heel strikes and midfoot strikes. (paper) www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

1/2 Pyrophilia in Australian raptors Some raptors, such as black kites, are around 20 times more abundant when fires are present. They walk over still-hot ground and catch 16 times more prey per hour than under normal conditions. (preprint) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

1/2 Kleptoparasitism in an Australian dolphin Researchers have documented the case of Bubbles, a dolphin that feeds by harassing horse mackerel until they regurgitate their food. It has not been observed feeding in any other way since 2017 (paper) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

1/10 Adapting the golf club task for children A few years ago, we showed that Goffin's cockatoos can innovate a solution to a task requiring them to combine the functions of two objects. Now the task has made the jump to humans. (paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

1/17 Body awareness in cockatoos For the first time, we have adapted the “body-as-an-obstacle” task to birds, a paradigm originally designed to study the development of body awareness in children. (paper) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

1/9 Not attacks This study brings together evidence suggesting that Iberian killer whales are not aggressively attacking boats. What is happening seems far more complex, and closer to a cultural tradition of play. (paper) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

1/3 Raccoon toys Researchers have documented two young pygmy raccoon sisters that soaked pieces of paper in water and shaped them into balls to play with. Across 14 documented attempts, they successfully produced 8 balls (Cozumel, Mexico) (paper) www.mdpi.com/3042-4526/3/...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

1/5 Shelling (the use of mollusc shells as traps to catch fish) may be more widespread among dolphins than previously thought. It has now been documented on the opposite coast of Australia from Shark Bay, in Queensland. (paper) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

1/3 Cognitive control in dogs appears to recruit brain activity strikingly similar to that seen in humans. Researchers recorded EEG from 14 dogs while they had to exert self-control and wait before receiving food or a toy. (paper) link.springer.com/article/10.1...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Ayer me entrevistaron en el programa Estiu XL de Joan Barutel (Radio 4) para hablar sobre las reacciones de los animales ante un eclipse total de sol. Aquí podéis escucharlo www.rtve.es/play/audios/... @rtvecatalunya.bsky.social

rtve.es

Com reaccionaran els animals davant l’eclipsi?

Estiu XL 10/08/2026

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

1/4 The development of intelligence in corvids We still know surprisingly little about how corvid intelligence develops as they grow. Of 139 species, this has only been studied in 16, and 45% of the studies focus on the common raven. (paper) link.springer.com/article/10.1...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

1/2 Long-chain omega-3 fatty acids (EPA) can make their way back into the water through “zombie” camel crickets manipulated by nematomorph parasites. This planet is much stranger than it looks at first sight : ) (paper) academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

1/7 Primate pets This review shows how non-human primates seem to have a certain ease in forming relationships with other species that are reminiscent of our relationships with pets. These interactions mainly involve play and grooming. (paper) link.springer.com/article/10.1...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Comportamiento animal ante un elipse total de sol Me ha entrevistado Samuel A. Pilar @rtvenoticias.rtve.es para que le hablase de cómo reaccionan otras especies ante un evento así. Creo que le ha quedado un artículo precioso. Es un tema interesante. www.rtve.es/noticias/202...

rtve.es

Curiosidad, indiferencia o necesidad de aparearse: así reaccionan los animales ante un eclipse solar

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

1/6 A desire for knowledge in mice Although the study has some limitations, it provides evidence consistent with specific epistemic curiosity, something that is extremely rare to demonstrate in non-human animals. (paper) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Reposted by Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró)

Christoph Völter @christophvoelter.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Join us in Vienna! We are looking for a #PhD student and a #Postdoc to investigate #innovation in great #apes: PhD ad: share.eva.mpg.de/index.php/s/... Postdoc ad: share.eva.mpg.de/index.php/s/... Application deadline: August 17th. Please share widely!

A chimp solving a puzzle box problem. Photo credit: MPI-EVA

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

1/8 Chimpanzees and bonobos seek physical contact when they anticipate a socially stressful situation. Physical contact reduces the tension that follows. The most interesting finding, however, is the importance of differences between groups. (paper) royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

1/2 Object play in mid-flight The behavior of dropping objects while in flight and catching them before they hit the ground has been documented in more than 25 species of birds, ranging from gulls to swallows, birds of prey, and corvids. (paper, 2013) www.researchgate.net/publication/...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

1/2 Cosmic Justice from Early Childhood In this experiment, 150 children aged 5, 9, and 14 months were less surprised when negative (unintended) events happened to bad (antisocial) people than to good (prosocial) people. (paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

1/4 Orcas making sunfish explode One orca firmly holds the carcass of a sunfish (whose viscera have already been removed) while an adult male crashes into it at high speed, making it explode into countless pieces. (paper) www.frontiersin.org/journals/eth...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Bouba and Kiki might be reversed in tortoises In this study involving 10 tortoises (T. marginata and a mix with T. graeca), they explored the opposite of what the effect predicts. Perhaps this is because they were exploring the unexpected alternative (paper) link.springer.com/article/10.1...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Adelaida, a subadult female chimpanzee, is seen wearing a leafy branch around her neck. This seems to be part of a cultural tradition in the Nouabale-Ndoki National Park (Republic of Congo) seen on: wcs_congo (Instagram) www.instagram.com/p/DaxFAnfDkri/ photo: G. Gaudin/WCS

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

1/7 Like us, bumblebees “lick their lips” when they drink something they enjoy After drinking a sugar solution, they repeatedly protrude their glossa, but they do not do so after tasting water. What is particularly interesting is that this response is flexible. (paper) www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Bumblebee displaying post-consumption glossal protrusions after consuming sugar water.
CREDIT: Cwyn Solvi

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

1/3 Cat allogrooming may conceal aggressive intentions It seems that grooming between cats is not always positive. In this study, the authors examine how cats may sometimes groom another individual in order to displace it from a preferred location. (paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

1/11 The dimensions of animal empathy In this study, the authors attempt to understand the different forms that empathy may take in other species. (paper) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

1/7 The evolution of sperm whale dialects Although Mediterranean sperm whales were thought to belong to a single vocal clan, it now appears that they have two dialects—one eastern and one western—that reflect their history. (paper) royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

1/10 What if the autonomous entities encountered on DMT were actually conscious? This is one of the wildest proposals I’ve come across in a long time. As outrageous as it is serious, and as unlikely as it is interesting. (preprint) osf.io/preprints/ps...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

I was interviewed by The Indian Express about recent interesting discoveries regarding communication in zebra finches, as well as our hopes of having a future conversation with another species. indianexpress.com/article/expl...

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Reposted by Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró)

Antonio Martínez Ron @aberron.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

El análisis de las 'carcajadas' indica que la risa de humanos y grandes simios tuvo un origen común hace 15 millones de años www.eldiario.es/1_cb6739?utm...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Opportunity to pursue a doctoral thesis in the Goffin Lab and the Kea Lab The research will focus on play, exploration, and problem-solving abilities in cockatoos and kea. If exploring the minds of other species fascinates you, I highly recommend this opportunity.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

1/10 Each species lives in a different temporal world. Just as each species lives in its own “Umwelt”, this Umwelt includes a “timescape”. The authors of this study (@singhal.bsky.social, J. Birch, and A. Seth) propose five “windows” to study it. (paper) linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii...

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/21/science/chameleons-sticky-spit.html

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

The enthusiasm with which Bernardo Kastrup (@bernardokastrup.bsky.social) talks about dreaming in Spiders is inspiring. Regardless of whether one subscribes to analytical idealism, I think it’s worth listening to him. (video) www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnDG...

youtube.com

Why even spiders dream

Next week's Q&A with Bernardo focuses on what we can learn from dreams, and what we learn in them. https://www.withrealityinmind.com/dreams/

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

1/16 Do other species understand death? In this study with cockatoos, we approach this question from its foundation, by studying one of its central components: sensitivity to the permanent loss of a function. I will explain it in this thread (with videos) (paper) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

1/8 Dreams and mind wandering are much more similar than they might seem This is a study I read several months ago and never shared, but I have found myself thinking about it many times since then. Let me explain why (paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

1/8 Attention and consciousness in bees They combined reversal learning, trace conditioning, and distractors, something that had not been tested in any animal until now. One of the strongest pieces of evidence for consciousness in insects. (paper) royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

1/4 The enormous complexity of algae fishing Researchers have studied in detail how chimpanzees in Guinea fish for algae. They prepare their tools (up to 4 m long) in advance, and use 22 different techniques. (paper) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

1/5 Goats and sheep pass the marshmallow test (with flying colors) In this study, goats were able to resist temptation for 63 seconds on average in order to obtain a better reward. Sheep waited 54 seconds. (paper) link.springer.com/article/10.1...

https://www.facebook.com/blackgoatsanctuary/photos/d41d8cd9/1062672579237357/?_rdr

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Butterflies sacrifice speed in favor of randomness This has been studied in Morpho menelaus butterflies. When they flee, they fly upward, turn erratically, and escape more slowly than they would if they flew in a straight line. (preprint) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

1/8 Psilocybin and Alzheimer’s A clinical case of a woman in her 80s with advanced Alzheimer’s disease who was given 5 g (a so-called “heroic dose”) of Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms, Enigma strain, and surprisingly recovered many of her functions. (paper) www.frontiersin.org/journals/neu...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

1/4 Bumblebees can solve a task inspired by Köhler’s famous test with chimpanzees. They had to reach an artificial “flower”, and to do so they had to integrate prior information about a ball that could be used to reach it. (paper) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... by @olliloukola.bsky.social

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

1/3 We reject the existence of magic, yet we act as if it were real Review. Children and adults claim not to believe in magical explanations, but when something important is at stake (and no one is watching), our behavior suggests otherwise (paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Wild birds masturbate more than captive birds The study examined 22 orders and 120 species. This behavior is strongly predicted by phylogeny (see graph), is not a result of captivity, and occurs in males (55%) and females (36%) (paper) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

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