iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Contribute to research on cross-cultural variation in taste, voting, decision-making! it's #Eurovision #ESC final night and my queer half-Austrian dual-scientist household is excited to replace homemade scorecards with this #CitizenScience 🧪 rating app 12points.science ✨🪩❤️‍🔥👯❤️‍🔥🪩✨ @eurovision.tv

053

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

the ✨new✨ @ehbea.bsky.social website www.ehbea.org is live and looking great! The (opt-in!) member directory is a fantastic addition, such a nice way to find people and connect!

063

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

👇 interview on collaborative (research 🧪) cultures Thanks to @humboldt-foundation.de for funding my work on cooperative subsistence across cultures, w/ @sheinalew.bsky.social, and my network at @durhamdcerc.bsky.social: @mandolinguist.bsky.social @amandinevisine.bsky.social @chimpanzeve.bsky.social

Seven people standing outside Durham University's Department of Psychology, smiling for a group photo. Lab PI Sheina is on the right in wearing a mint green jumper; I am third from the left wearing a burgundy jumper

1226

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

Happy gotcha-day to our precious princess Mellori! 11 years of unmatched chaotic energy, yet the gentlest soul when it comes to people. These days, toys are safe. Not food though, nor lip balm or chewing gum or hand cream -- will. eat. everything. @wascherclaudia.bsky.social

chaotic family photo in a wildflower meadow — Mellori in the foreground mid-bark, showing her front teeth in a cutesy way; Siro and Claudia blurred in the background, Siro sniffing the ground and Claudia’s head cut off. beautiful but slightly unhinged.

chaotic energy levelled up. 1.5-year-old Mellori with floppy ears looks straight into the camera, innocently, while surrounded by the filling of a shredded soft toy. a still-very-black Siro inspects the destruction.

071

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

Happy birthday to our greying gent, Sir Siro! (the shelter set this former stray's birthday to 1 July 2011, but when we adopted him in 2013, we were told he was 3–4. whatever his true age, he’s still up to mischief with partner in crime Madame Mellori) @wascherclaudia.bsky.social

some fridge magnets including, centrally, a polaroid of two terriers in tall grass. next to it, out of focus, a photo of the same dogs from a few years ago. the black dog is a lot more grey now.

081

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

many thanks to @paddytkaczynski.bsky.social and @cebeardsworth.bsky.social for inviting me to contribute to your Research Culture Workshop series focused on improving reproducibility, research collaboration, and data management at @ljmuofficial.bsky.social 🧪

laptop a pub: presentation with title slide "Practical Skills for Teamwork and Reproducibility - Shifting from individual workflows to effective collaboration"

Slide titled Scenario 3. Text reads: “If you were leaving a project tomorrow, what do you prepare? What would you document? What would you share? What would you prioritise?”
Bullet points:
• A clear folder structure
• Sensible file names
• A README with notes on data and scripts
• A hand-over status-log document
• Contact information

simplistic slide with shaking-hands emoji: left "collaboration", right "reproducibility" -- practices that support one often also serve the other

Slide titled: Designing Projects for Teamwork

How can this project be cut into pieces?

And how do those pieces stay connected?

Foundational Practices: Clear planning, Simple standards, Useful documentation (Modular scripts, naming conventions, README files, change logs,...)

0111

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

everyone loves the vegan raspberry croissants 🤤 they were missed when the catering changed things around yesterday, though the ve gf brownies were delicious too also, praise for yum food each day at lunch, thank you @ehbea2025.bsky.social!

screenshot of a chat:
original post: photo of a raspberry croissant and a note saying „they are back!“
reply: on my way!! [half an our later] I had two

061

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

@ehbea.bsky.social president @rebeccasear.bsky.social invites ideas on how we (as a scientific society, but also more generally as scientists) can do individually and collectively to Stand Up For Science, and invited an inspirational group of researchers to kickstart the discussion

panel of five researchers plus and EHBEA president

0146

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

intense conferencing at #EHBEA2025: talked about "going-out" decisions, work w/ @babeheim.bsky.social @elspethready.bsky.social and stepped in presenting on food sharing networks in response to community expansion, part of the Sanguatsiniq project (github.com/sanguatsiniq/sharing_ontogenesis_public)

talk title slide: Linking weather to day-to-day food production activities: a “Going-Out Model“. Background shows two Inuit people from behind, wearing hooded parka and holding harpoons outlooking the sea while standing in a snowy landscape

Talk take-home: Summary of findings and implications and future directions
(1) Going-out behaviour shaped by season, wind, and socio-economic context
(2) Unequal going-out probabilities lead to unequal access to subsistence
(3) This has long-term consequences, too: skill development, cultural continuity, food sovereignty
(4) This is a deliberately simple model — but it’s flexible, and I’m building on it

Poster take-home: Applied implications and Theoretical significance
Ensuring country food access for all community members is a key goal of current community leadership. Fortunately, our analysis indicates that young "splinter" households do not appear to be isolated from sharing networks. Community efforts to promote country food access might be more productively focused on factors other than young household age. However, we find that the observed increase in sharing may not reflect a "true increase," i.e., there has been reorganization of sharing rather than an increase in it. This would imply that there was no improvement in country food access through sharing across the two time points, which may be a point of concern. In future work we will analyze country food harvest data to assess how the availability of country food has shifted over time.
Understanding the mechanisms driving change in cooperative norms is a central question in cultural evolution. Yet, there are few real-world empirical studies of longitudinal change in core adaptive cultural traits such as food sharing. Our analysis demonstrates the usefulness of the RTDICE approach, even qualitatively, to investigate change in cultural traits through ethnographic research. We find an increase in sharing in Kangiqsujuaq that is likely driven by changes in household composition. Future work will develop a more formal test of this hypothesis and investigate other possible drivers of change (e.g., household economic status).
Households are often the primary unit of resource and labour pooling in human societies, and consequently are frequently taken as the unit of analysis in research. Our analysis shows that comparative analyses of cooperation networks need to account for population structure, as household composition and demography have major impacts on network structure. Focusing on individuals is not a solution, as some cultural traits are expressed through activity coordinated at the household level.

1296

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

the amazing @heidicolleran.bsky.social from @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social highlighting the importance of using rich ethnographic knowledge to build better generative models of complex processes such as demographic outcomes (Agent-Based Model work led by @verwirrt.bsky.social)

Heidi in front of a slide titled Building better causal foundations, shows a circular flowchart: Ethnography as hypotheses, not data > Causally explicit models > more informative data collection > more ethnographic fieldwork > back to Ethnography as hypotheses

slide shows a flowchart of an agent-based model simulating different scenarios of fertility using first principles

concluding slide titled "Cultural organisation of reproduction has been central to human evolutionary success". Huge diversity in how we do this, only beginning to understand what that means

070

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

I believe both the video and the interactive page linked in the original post are meant to show average counts relative to 2024, but the figures don’t seem to match up

composite image of 10 screenshots from the video summarising the garden watch results: photos of the ten most reported species and how much more or less they were reported in 2025 compared to 2024

screenshot of the RSPB website showing the Big Garden Birdwatch results. it's an interactive page, allowing to filter for year and region (UK-wide, or only England, Scotland, Wales, N.Ireland). Results for 2025 show that the top ten species didn't actually move much or at all from the previous year

000

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

FYI, the numbers in the video don’t match those reported on your website, probably a bug in the data feed? @rspb.bsky.social @rspbengland.bsky.social @rspbscotland.bsky.social

110

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

update: they've now settled into a cluster. it's been absolutely fascinating to watch this past hour!

110

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

what's happening at the back of our East-England garden right now 👀 looks like mason bees to me which are a solitary bee species but it's thousands of them, the whole garden is buzzing! -- mass emergence? drone congregation? video 2/2 🧪 @beeresearchpapers.bsky.social @theapiarist.org @bbka.org.uk

100

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

181

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

love bookshop but a signed copy and photo with the amazing author at the release tour? unbeatable! thank you @dfdubz.bsky.social for a fantastic night and all you do through @theguiltyfeminist.bsky.social, including writing this book! Six Conversations We're Scared to Have available at @bookshop.org

Claudia next to Deborah Frances-White, author of "Six Conversations We're Scared to Have", holding up her newly released book

blurry selfie while the theatre is filling up for the book release event. stage set up with two chairs: for the author of the book and for the host of the evening. screen shows a photo of the author, Deborah Frances-White, and the title of the show "The Road to Gilead". context from the event's page: Rapid changes in the US have us on the road to Gilead (the dystopian future Margaret Atwood laid out in her novel turned TV show The Handmaid's Tale). That road is headed through Europe & the UK and we must decide what practical and strategic steps we might take to fight it.

Why have divisive conversations become so flammable?
Is there any value in cancelling historical figures?
How has the so-called 'transgender debate' become so toxic and what can we do to genuinely help?
Why are the most progressive people calling for censorship in comedy?
Is cancel culture real and, if so, can shaming and shunning really work?
How do we achieve progress in today's, y'know, screaming hellscape?
We are understandably scared to have some of these conversations. But Deborah Frances-White is even more scared of not having them.

Having grown up in a cult, she knows the value of freedom of speech, critical thinking and the ability to disagree while really fighting for change. In her new book, she encourages us to ask difficult questions, really listen and know when to negotiate and when to resist. Most importantly, she explores how to change minds, including our own. And she argues that we don't need to agree on everything in order to find a way out and a way forward on some of the biggest issues in today's world.

Are you ready to talk?

030

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

[at]womensartbluesky.bsky.social cleared their blog of TERF dog whistles (see rationalwiki.org/wiki/TERF_glossary) but still no distancing from TERFs or clarification of trans-inclusivity - 🚩🚩🚩 better alternatives exist: @womensart1.bsky.social and @womensart2.bsky.social bsky.app/profile/wome...

screenshot of a post on another social media platform, dated 30 Sep 2020. The post reads "My tweet about womensart being a TERF account is still making the rounds. If there's still any doubt in your mind after their repeated refusal to feature trans women, this is from their about page. Please stop promoting this trans-exclusive project, friends." and it shows a screenshot of the website womensartblog.wordpress.com: "specific exploration of the artwork of women has enabled insights into areas including capitalism, migration, class, globalization, ethnicity, disability and so on, from an unusual, uniquely female perspective. In doing so this has exposed a subtext of experiential and biological connections between women, as
issues relating to girlhood, motherhood, abortion, body image, pregnancy, infertility, social role, violence against women and so on, are highlighted as common historic and global themes in their work."

screenshot of a bluesky post by @womensart2.bsky.social, date: Nov 17 2024. It clarifies confusion about the various accounts with similar names. Along with a photo of the account with the handle "womensartbluesky", it says "This is the TERF account. Their original username was womensartl and this page was created as a parody, now both @womensart1.bsky.social and @womensart2.bsky.social are run at least in part by trans women."

1107

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

had such a great visit to @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social last week, co-working and catching up with friends, and celebrating Dr @pablovarase.bsky.social

Pablo in front of his PhD defence title slide: VARIABILITY, RESOURCE DYNAMICS, AND THE HUMAN LIFE CYCLE, by Pablo J. Varas Enríquez

a tiny polaroid photo of myself holding a glass of bubbly and my friend Elena

selfie in front of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig

screenshot of a WhatsApp conversation. my message includes a photo taken inside the airport gate waiting area, showing a Ryanair plane through the window and a seating area with a sign that reads ‘Berlin Pub’, my text reads ‘don’t mind if I do.’, the reply says, ‘be rude not to.

0102

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

writing is hard. science is a collaborative effort. writing as big team? not straightforward either some excellent tips for common challenges when leading a many-author non-empirical paper: osf.io/preprints/os... ..and for co-authoring one: osf.io/preprints/os... 🧪 @tweissgerber.bsky.social

Abstract
Many-author non-empirical papers include recommendations or consensus statements, catalogs of ideas, roadmaps for future research, calls to action, or "how to" articles. These papers have great potential to change the conversation or address unmet needs within research communities. Large, diverse authorship teams can create valuable resources that no individual co-author could create independently. Achieving these goals, however, requires a very different approach than researchers typically use to prepare papers with fewer authors. A small team of lead writers typically leads the content generation and writing processes. Many co-authors collaborate to create content and provide feedback throughout the writing process. Lead writers face many challenges, including defining the content and structure of the paper, coordinating complex logistics, preparing themselves and co-authors for a unique writing experience, and managing high-volume feedback. Here, we outline ten simple rules for leading a many-author non-empirical paper. These rules guide readers through the content generation and writing processes and highlight practical solutions to common challenges. While these rules were developed by preparing non-empirical papers with at least 30 authors, some rules may apply to research papers, or non-empirical papers with fewer authors. Lead writers can also use our companion paper, which shares ten simple rules for being a co-author on a many-author non-empirical paper, to prepare co-authors for an efficient and effective collaborative process.

0194

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Corvids cache food—surprisingly much in equatorial zones! breeding system, trophic niche, and habitat breadth not found to affect whether a species is a specialist or generalist cacher specialist caching (seasonal, seeds/nuts for long-term retrieval) likely ancestral state #BehCog behav eco evo 🧪

corvid phylogenetic tree, i.e. graphical representation of the evolutionary relationships among species, showing the outcome of ancestral state analysis, with probability of classification as generalist cacher, specialist cacher, or non cacher shown as pie charts. Specialist caching was estimated to be the ancestral state of caching in corvids with a scaled likelihood of 69%, compared to generalist caching (31%) and non-caching (0%)

1133

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

enttäuscht über problematisch oberflächliche Betrachtung und Verbreitung von Wahlkreiskarten die Stereotype über Ostdeutschland verstärken, mit paternalistisch Ton. ich empfehle DVPW: Die Macht der blauen Karten, 08/24: shorturl.at/DmSbZ dpd: Populismus – in Ost und West, 09/21 shorturl.at/3YHms

Europawahl 2024: Verbleibende AfD-Präferenzen nach Einbezug demografischer und ökonomischer Merkmale

"Abbildung 2 stellt die Verteilung der Residuen der OLS-Regression dar. Sie kann als jener Teil der regionalen AfD-Präferenz interpretiert werden, der nicht durch die verwendeten demografischen und ökonomischen Merkmale erklärt wird und daher möglicherweise als kulturelle Prägung einer Region betrachtet werden kann. In der Karte fällt auf, dass die Ost-West-Unterschiede zwar weiterhin bestehen, jedoch deutlich schwächer ausgeprägt sind."

Quelle: Bunte Karte, bunte Wahlen? AfD-Präferenzen jenseits von Ost und West. Von Alexander Kopka, Petrik Runst. 2024. Wirtschaftsdienst. Heft 9, S. 614–617

Bundestagswahl 2017: Effekte auf den AfD Stimmenanteil in West-und Ostdeutschland. Quelle bpb Deutsche Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung.
Abbildung zeigt dass die Faktoren Arbeitslosigkeit in 1998, Arbeitslosigkeit in 2017, reguläre Beschäftigung in 2017, und Einkommenssteuer 2017 in beiden Landesteilen in die gleiche Richtung wirkten bei der Bundestagswahl 2017, wenn auch der Effekt auf den AfD-Stimmenanteil zT nicht statistisch signifikant ist

Screenshot eines Blog Beitrags auf storymaps.arcgis.com. Zu sehen sind zwei Karten der USA, links eine klassische Wahlkreiskarte in der jeder Wahlkreis in der Farbe der jeweils stärksten Partei eingefärbt ist, rechts eine Karte in der die Wahlkreise auch in der jeweils stärksten Partei eingefärbt sind, aber Wahlkreise sind als Kreise dargestellt die nach Größe skaliert sind, also Anzahl der Wählenden/Stimmen.
Darunter der Titel des Artikels: Land Doesn't Vote...People do.
Unsere Methoden der Wahlkartografie sind fehlerhaft. Wahlkarten sind oft irreführend, indem sie die Fläche eines Gebiets mit der Anzahl der Stimmen verwechseln.

030

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

P.S. Anyone got a “cross-eyed blue bird on its back” icon!? jk, I’ll remove the link from my website now; that profile has been inactive for a while now (not deleting that profile because I want to protect my handle) 🧪scifeed

000

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

old BlueSky icon was a blue-gradient square, rounded corners—easily hacked. now I use the butterfly svg path from their web source code—shoutout to open-source licenses! @support.bsky.team, can I provide the svg to academicons github.com/jpswalsh/academicons? pretty sure it'll be popular 🧪 scifeed

screenshot of my website in inspection mode. left pane shows the website’s header/contact section with social media link icons, the BlueSky butterfly icon is highlighted. right pane is the website source code with the svg path for the BlueSky butterfly icon

1121

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Thanks both! read Barnes’ comment before—it captures the sentiment (screenshot) and maybe I misremembered the quote and reworded it in my head? plausible! @jorgeapenas.bsky.social not sure where you got that quote from, but it’s not in Barnes' piece -- @sobchuk.bsky.social ChatGPT phantom quote?! 😅

screenshot from "Publish your computer code: it is good enough" by Nick Barnes. highlighted section reads: That the code is a little raw is one of the main reasons scientists give for not sharing it with others. Yet, software in all trades is written to be good enough for the job intended. So if your code is good enough to do the job, then it is good enough to release — and releasing it will help your research and your field.

210

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

interested in vocal communication in corvids? don’t miss this work led by @wascherclaudia.bsky.social: • a new review of 130 studies doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.123073 • an invitation to submit your research to a Special Issue. more details here: link.springer.com/collections/icghgfcfcd

silhouette of a Carrion crow with plastic colour ring on a fence pole, cawing in golden hour light, fields and mountains in the distance

screenshot of the Animal Cognition special issue announcement; reads:

Vocal communication in corvids
In the field of vocal communication, research has mostly focussed on birds because of their vocal learning capacity and non-human primates due to their phylogenetic proximity with humans. Both models are key to understand the driving factors in the evolution of communicative systems. Among birds, corvids occupy a large diversity of environments, and their social systems can vary, for example in the number of social bonds individuals maintain, which, according to the socio-complexity hypothesis, could influence characteristics of vocal communication.

Despite more than 40 years of research on the behaviour and cognition of corvids, their potential value as an alternative model to primates in understanding the evolution of vocal communication has only emerged recently. Understanding and measuring various characteristics of vocal production and perception of signals could be key to further understand the evolution of sociality as well as cognition in different taxa. Further, understanding of vocal communication can also aid conservation efforts for species of conservation concern.

In the proposed Special Collection, we aim to synthesize current knowledge and develop a joint vision for the future direction of research on evolutionary drivers of vocal complexity and cognitive underpinnings of vocal communication.

Note: Open for submissions, Submission deadline 31 March 2025

060

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

very proud to be involved in this project, expertly led by Rowan Bird ringing offers valuable ecology skills but concerns about accessibility arise from hierarchical training structures and insufficient safeguarding against misconduct, disproportionately affecting marginalised groups.

screenshot from the conference abstract booklet, summarising Rowan's presentation:

In the UK over 2,600 volunteers participate in bird ringing, which allows nature enthusiasts of various backgrounds to gain field-based skills that can benefit their professional aspirations. Anyone can participate, but trainees are supervised by licensed trainers, and obtaining a permit requires years of working closely with a trainer to learn proper handling and identification techniques; the trainer is also responsible for deeming trainees fit to obtain a permit. This hierarchy requires trainees to work in small groups with their trainers, often in remote locations, and in some areas there is only one trainer available. As a result, trainees who have negative experiences with their trainer or group may not have feasible alternatives to remain involved in ringing, and there is no clear process to report misconduct. We focus on LGBTQIA+ ringers to identify barriers and develop recommendations for a safer and more inclusive ringing environment, by developing and distributing a survey about LGBTQIA+ ringers’ experiences. Understanding barriers experienced by LGBTQIA+ ringers is imperative to addressing these issues and improving the accessibility of ringing and similar activities.

1101

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

thanks #ASABwinter2024 for a fantastic meeting this marks the end of my term as ECR rep on ASAB council 🥲 staying connected with the ASAB community while I focus on human behavioural ecology—plans for more research on FEASTs (Foraging Ecology And Social Ties) in non-human systems already brewing 🤓

selfie with my favourite, large to-go coffee mug, featuring my design: a carrion crow wearing a crown, in bold letters underneath the pun “keep calm and carrion”. in front of a banner advertising ASAB with reasons to join the society

1101

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

the fantastic Antica Čulina's plenary "Doing credible science – why would you care?" covering struggles with first meta analyses as a PhD student, issues with the current research and reward system, and challenges and benefits of transitioning to a new, open, and more reliable system #ASABWinter2024

full lecture room for Antica Čulina's plenary on Doing credible science – why would you care? Slide show's how she struggled with her first meta analyses -- values don't match, missing information, unclear methods

another slide summarising issues, including issues with data collection (incorrect control group, no blinding of data) etc

02811

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

L: pupdate from our dogsitter looking after Siro and Mellori back home -- those attending virtually, are your pets attending #ASABWinter2024? R: from the archives; pups loved their people staying home for a virtual 2020 ASAB conference (click the photo for a bonus chuckle kudos to David N. Fisher)

two terriers, black/grey Siro and tri-colour Mellori, sitting next to each other on the red carpet in our home office, looking at our dog sitter who's sat at the desk and took the photo. dogs are clearly demanding attention, they're starring

a screenshot from a twitter tweet by Claudia Wascher: a photo showing the dogs sat on their beds, a desk and a laptop in the background, the tweet says "Siro and Mellori are thoroughly enjoying their first ASAB conference", someone made a comment "more of a comment than a question coming from the doggo on the right based on their expression" -- yes, that dog has a certain look on her face

2142

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

#ASABwinter2024 welcome note. Left: organising committee Cédric Aumont, @cbenvenuto.bsky.social, @nicolakoyama.bsky.social, @viveknityananda.bsky.social, @wascherclaudia.bsky.social Right: social media secretary @raccoonologist.bsky.social providing useful info on how to interact via BlueSky

welcome note in the lecture hall; the organising committee standing up for a well-deserved round of appreciation, in front of the meeting’s title slide: ASAB Winter 2024 Addressing Biases in the field of Animal Behaviour

ASAB social media officer Jen introducing BlueSky as a great platform for interacting with ASAB, slide says “find us at @asab.org” and provides tips such as using starter packs to find relevant people

0215

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

noticed our ridiculously cute personalised jumpers?! 💕 design by www.sydandco.uk (Naturally, we flip a fair coin to decide who wears which dog's face on a given day)

another photo of Claudia and me wearing the jumpers with our dogs' faces on them, wearing them in another configuration though. We're sat on a sofa with a glass of bubbly and the dogs -- a cosy winters' evening

an easy R script for a fair coin flip, nothing fancy, if there's a tie we need to flip the coin again

2120

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

On my way to Edinburgh for #ASABWinter2024 with organiser @wascherclaudia.bsky.social! Excited for constructive discussions about various biases in Animal Behaviour research -- more on asabwinter2024.github.io

Claudia Wascher and Friederike Hillemann at the train station, wearing matching jumpers with their dogs' faces

screenshot of the meeting website (asabwinter2024.github.io/) summarising the purpose of the meeting:
Addressing biases in the field of animal behaviour
Animal behaviour research is affected by researchers' assumptions and expectations, impacting how the research is conducted, interpretations of behaviours, the research questions addressed, and taxonomic representation. In addition, the choice of which animal subject to include is not random, as recently summarised by the STRANGE framework. The robustness of research findings can also often be unclear without replications and open science practices. Finally, like other academic fields, animal behaviour is also shaped by historical biases influencing whose research is recognised as influential and skewing the scientific discourse.

Recognising the impacts of these biases presents an opportunity for positive change. At the ASAB Winter Meeting 2024, we explore biases in animal behaviour research, and discuss a comprehensive system change towards fairness and inclusion of diverse perspectives. To ensure new insights and more robust science, this transformative shift involves evaluating community needs, fostering cultural changes, and implementing explicit policies.

4293

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 01/10/2024

Huge thanks to Sheina Lew-Levy and @durhamdcerc.bsky.social for a warm welcome, and @humboldt-foundation.de for funding my research on socio-economic correlates of individual foraging decisions, and how social ties buffer environmental risks and food insecurity in subsistence communities

view onto Durham cathedral from a hillside

smiley selfie with Sheina Lew-Levy in front of the Durham University Department of Psychology building sign

1171

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 18/07/2024

All eyes on the legendary Tim Clutton-Brock; plenary titled "A short history of long term studies" shout-out to other key characters caught here too: #ECBB2024 co-organiser @damienfarine.bsky.social #ECBB2026 co-organiser Jacob Dunn, and the fantastic @asaborg.bsky.social communications team!

plenary speaker Tim Clutton-Brock and conference audience

150

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 18/07/2024

thoroughly enjoying #ECBB2024 @asaborg.bsky.social -great science and plenty time to socialise here to represent @spibirds.bsky.social, a resource hub and network facilitating collaborations and cross-study analyses for improved generalisability. Join and use! Maybe start your own SPI initiative?!

SPI-Birds: Studies of Populations of individuals, connecting researchers working on populations of individually-marked breeding birds.
What do we do?
• aggregate metadata
• standardise data
• quality control
• facilitate cooperation

What's in it for you?
• visibility & findability
• preservation & re-use
• sharing & synthesis
• new collaborations

063

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 18/07/2024

How do birds feed in urban areas — do they go for ultra-processed junk, or prefer unprocessed food? Shana Caro (shanacaro.weebly.com/contact.html) is looking for collaborators to repeat her neat and simple experiment. #ECBB2024 @asaborg.bsky.social

presentation slide says:

What don't we know?
• Most studies are done on humans or rodents...
> Do birds show the same tendency to prefer ultra-processed foods?
• Most studies on anthropogenic bird foraging compare urban to rural sites...
→ How do birds forage in suburban settings?
→ How effective are conservation efforts, such as sanctuaries, at affecting bird behavior?

presentation slide reads:
Future directions
• Expand to more sites
• Longitudinal studies
• Health impacts of processed food in birds
• Get in touch if you'd like to chat collaborating!

012

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 05/06/2024

ASAB members, please self-nominate by 14th June! There are several important council roles to fill, supporting @asaborg.bsky.social and its diverse key initiatives My 3-year term as ECR rep is coming to an end, and I’ve really enjoyed contributing to a creative, constructive, and welcoming council.

Several positions are available on ASAB Council to begin in January 2025 (or earlier).

The positions are: Secretary of the Ethics Committee, Secretary of the EDIA Committee, Secretary of the Education Committee, Meetings Secretary and two Ordinary Members of Council (one of which should be an Early Career Researcher).

If you are interested in being nominated for one of these positions, and contributing the work of ASAB, please send a 150-word statement outlining your motivation, experience and suitability for the role, to the current ASAB Secretary, Sasha Dall (s.r.x.dall@exeter.ac.uk) by June 14th 2024.

Your nomination should be supported by at least two members of the Association, also by email to s.r.x.dall@exeter.ac.uk by June 14th 2024.
Nominated candidates will be put forward for an online election by the membership.

036

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 03/06/2024

Happy Pride! May any rainbow you see remind you of the courage and resilience of those who've been fighting for LGBTQIA+ rights

collage of rainbow street art: top image is a circular decal on a traffic light, showing a rainbow flag in the style of red and black "Antifaschist Action" decal, it says "No Techno For Facists". bottom image is a simple but messy black graffiti saying "chaos", a tiny rainbow decal next to it.

inclusive rainbow flag overlayed with colourful flowers

030

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 24/05/2024

In our new paper, @wascherclaudia.bsky.social and I report on a female crow mounting her male partner. We summarise potential adaptive social functions of non-conceptive socio-sexual behaviours and call for more consideration of these in social behaviour research doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2024.105055

screenshot of the paper's abstract:
In the biological sciences, sexual behaviours in non-human animals are traditionally investigated in the context of reproduction and direct fitness benefits. While the evolutionary functions of non-conceptive sexual behaviours ('socio-sexual') remain less well explored, these interactions and displays have been suggested to be important for shaping and maintaining social relationships.
Here, we report an observation of a captive female carrion crow, Corvus corone corone, mounting her co-housed male partner. We highlight the importance of more systematic research and discussions of rarely observed behaviours in social evolution research, including considerations for behaviours that transcend binary or heteronormative frameworks, to provide a more comprehensive understanding of non-conceptive socio-sexual behaviours.

081

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 01/03/2024

🙃 icymi, it's "Friederike Hillemann", but I go by "freddy" [she/her]

left: screenshot of a tweet by Crypty-Calli, handle: @ I will leave now:
to the tune of Destiny's Child's "Say My Name"
SPELL MY NAME, SPELL MY NAME IT'S RIGHT THERE IN THE EMAIL IT'S NOT A HIDDEN DETAIL THE SPELLING DOESN'T CHANGE

right: collection of screenshots showing my name misspelled in eight different ways, including "hello frankie"

020

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 01/02/2024

btw, my new colleagues will be hiring soon, for FAIRBiRDS: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable Bird Research Data and Software watch this space if you too want to contribute to pioneering Open Science projects tweets by @szymekdr.bsky.social twitter.com/szymekD/status/1736372455306919941

screenshot showing a series of tweets by Szymek Drobniak, incluging a graphical summary of how study sites across the world contribute data to the SPI-Birds data hub, and how users can access the data

tweet #1: We’re slowly finalizing the administrative steps and soon will start our FAIRBiRDS project (with Warsaw University, Uni of Antwerp, Montpellier University, Univ Federal de Viçosa and NIOO-KNAW. Stay tuned for post-doc announcement @ Jagiellonian Uni + others smiley face @JagiellonianEco

tweet #2: We’ll bring @SPIbirds to a new level - making its rich data transparent, discoverable, and more usable. Hopefully more updates soon!
@m_e_visser @AnneCharmantier @antica_c + all of whom Twitter’s I do not know smiley face

tweet #3 explains the FAIRBiRDS acronym: FAIR is for the principles of findability, accessibility, interoperability, reusability, BiRDS is for
Bird Research Data and Software

022

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 01/02/2024

Now very excited to get involved with spibirds.org (Studies of Populations of Individual Birds) Over the next few month I'll help develop a github-implemented infrastructure for FAIR data and code, building pipelines for standardising data, analytical steps, and code peer-review hosted @ NIOO-KNAW

Selfie in front of the the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) building in Wageningen, the Netherlands, where the pioneering SPI-Birds project is hosted.
SPI-Birds Network & Database, or the Studies of Populations of Individual Birds, is a grassroots initiative connecting those working on populations of individually-marked breeding birds.

170

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 01/02/2024

Grateful for all I've learned at the Dept of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture MPI EVA Leipzig, for friendships and for continuing collaborations, with the most special thanks to my postdoc advisor @elspethready.bsky.social!! @rmcelreath.bsky.social, thx for a wild Statistical Rethinking journey!

Selfie of me carrying a box of office stuff including dog toy and bowl (thanks for allowing me to bring my terriers to work!), including a monstera plant sticking out of my backpack. Taken in front of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

161

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 11/11/2023

I made a bsky icon-link for my website using the css code below. full source code on my github or visit fhillemann.github.io .custom-bluesky-icon {color: #8AADB8; width: 1em; height: 1em; border-radius: 0.25em; background: linear-gradient(to bottom, #8AADB8, #A4C4D0); display: inline-block;}

1112

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 20/10/2023

Sanguatsiniq is a community-driven research project exploring links between economic change, cultural practices and values, and well-being in two Inuit communities in the Canadian Arctic. sanguatsiniq.github.io/ The project is recruiting a PhD student w/ Elspeth Ready @ MPI EVA tinyurl.com/5f9a7wy5

screenshot of website header: The Sanguatsiniq research project focuses on food security, economic change, cultural practices and values, and well-being in two Inuit communities in the Canadian Arctic, Kangiqsujuad and Ulukhaktok (left). The project name refers to turning in a new direction when traveling. For our community partners, the concept is a metaphor for having new ideas, with traveling set in contrast to being "stuck in one place, which is how Inuit often describe stressful experiences.
The project focus has emerged through extensive consultation and long-term collaboration and participant observation with the study communities, and combines longitudinal observational studies with community programming. Our theoretical aim is to develop new approaches to understanding processes of cultural adaptation and determinants of well-being in populations experiencing social and economic upheaval, including those related to climate change.

025

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 20/10/2023

I’m currently at the community of Kangiqsujuaq in Nunavik, Québec, CA for a few weeks of Arctic social science field work on Inuit harvest activities, food sharing, and access to country food, as part of The Sanguatsiniq Project, w/ Elspeth Ready MPI EVA sanguatsiniq.github.io/ /introduction.end()

smiley selfie with snowflakes in my hair on the day I arrived

ots of gas-powered equipment needed for hunting and fishing here: boats, canoes, skidoos, sleighs, …

a classic street scene in Kangiqsujuaq on a grey but calm day: an ATV drives past houses in beautiful colours, the bay in the background

beautiful Aurora Borealis caught with long-exposure

130

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 20/10/2023

current research: The impacts of climate change threaten food security and require Inuit to adapt their subsistence practices. However, social and economic structures impose different constraints and may intensify existing inequalities. doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0395

visual abstract for our paper on SOCIO-ECONOMIC CORRELATES OF INUIT HUNTING CHOICES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR RESILIENCE.
Includes an illustration of different harvest activities, e.g. marine winter hunting for seals on the ice floe edge, marine summer fishing and hunting for Beluga whale using larger boats, inland summer hunting for caribou and geese. Activities differ in their required inputs, success probability, and return. Climate stressors also increasingly affect access to subsistence resources. Understanding the relationships between socio-economic factors and foraging activities allows us to develop informed predictions about how people will be differently affected by changing conditions.

Also the main plot of the manuscript is shown: the probability of patch choice as a function of harvest success. We find that Inuit patch choice is affected by income and other socio-economic factors. Economic barriers to hunting may intensify socio-economic inequalities.

120

Friederike [freddy; she/her] Hillemann @fhillemann.bsky.social · 20/10/2023

Academic work in Germany is predominantly fixed- and short-term, which affects both research and researchers. We (postdocnet.mpg.de) summarise postdoc working conditions and call for intersectional approaches to EDI (Equality, Diversity, Inclusion!) doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1217823

screenshot of a section from our paper „Postdoctoral researchers’ perspectives on working conditions and equal opportunities in German academia“, with some highlighted bulletpoints, summarised as:
While the need to address different forms of discrimination is stipulated in both the Basic Law and AGG, beyond gender, other aspects of diversity, such as race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, continue to receive insufficient attention and action in Germany. Large academic institutions struggle to comprehend the personal concerns and challenges faced by each type of employee. Therefore, target-group networks and surveys provide benefit to researchers and institutions. However, we highlight some potential biases and concerns when using surveys.

Figure from the paper summarising levels of actions for structural changes, from individual-level to research institution-level, to governmental. Actions include establishing accountability measures, creating and strengthening local structures, and learning and awareness training

120