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Sarah Dalesman

@sarahdalesman.bsky.social
805 followers 830 following 29 posts

Researcher in animal behaviour and cognition, mostly working with aquatic snails and dogs. And sometimes both! Dog agility trainer, judge and competitor in my spare time. Lecturer at Aberystwyth University in Wales @aberdlsagb.bsky.social

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Sarah Dalesman @sarahdalesman.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
Cotton is excited about meeting some of our applicants today @aberdlsagb.bsky.social applicant visit day and showing off the sniffing skills she has been learning on the #OneZoo project to locate parasite intermediate hosts on farmland :)
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European Conference on Behavioural Biology @ecbb2026.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
Save the date for the next European Conference on Behavioural Biology! Animal Behaviour in the Anthropocene, 1-4 September 2026 at Anglia Ruskin University. Watch this space for updates on speakers, plenaries, and calls for abstracts! #AcademicSky #UpcomingConferences
Save the date information for the upcoming European Conference on Behavioural Biology: Animal Behaviour in the Anthropocene. 1-4 September 2026 at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK.
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Sarah Dalesman @sarahdalesman.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
We have a permanent vacancy for a lecturer in Zoology at Aberystwyth University jobs.aber.ac.uk/en/vacancy/l... Deadline 14th December!
jobs.aber.ac.uk
Aberystwyth University - : Lecturer in Zoology (6015)
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Rachael Shaw @wild-minds.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
PhD scholarship alert! Are you interested in cognitive evolution? Do you want to know how development influences cognitive traits? Do you love hanging out with birds in the forest? If the answer to these questions is yes, please apply to work with us! 1/2 🧪 www.wgtn.ac.nz/scholarships...
Ella holds a fluffy and sleepy looking toutouwai chick during banding and fits an orange band to its leg
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Sarah Dalesman @sarahdalesman.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
Cotton came to work to demonstrate skills taught by Eszter Monostori on her #OneZoo PhD project - teaching dogs to locate the intermediate hosts of parasites. She loved meeting our students, inspiring the next generation of scientists. @aberdlsagb.bsky.social @aberuni.bsky.social #OneHealth #UKRI
Person in a lecture theatre holding up a small piece of kong that the dog will be searching for. The border collie is focused on her rewards sat on the desk in front of her.
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Elli Leadbeater @ellileadbeater.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
PhD project on the evolution of animal memory now available in my research group, through the TREES DLA: www.trees-dla.ac.uk/projects/evo.... Come and join us if you're interested in the evolution of animal minds and you want to do some cool experimental evolution!
trees-dla.ac.uk
Evolutionary ecology of animal memory | TREES DLA
This project seeks to explore how memory evolves in response to the ecological tasks that animals face in their natural environment. Associative memory exists in some form in almost all animal species...
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Animal Behaviour Live @animalbehaviour.live · 12/11/2025
The program of day 2 of #ABL2025 is here! Another exciting lineup of plenaries, talks, poster sessions and exchanges on animal behaviour 🦋🐙 💻 Free, online & open to all worldwide 🚨Don’t miss it, it’s the last day to register! 🚨 🔗https://ablaoc25.sciencesconf.org/
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Andy Radford @andyradford.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
❓ Want to join us? 📢 Fully funded #PhD for UK-domiciled Black heritage candidates 🐵 Biological market monitoring & manipulation in social animals #mongooses #macaques #fieldwork 👥 With me, #LaurenBrent & #PatrickKennedy 🎓 @bristolbiosci.bsky.social ℹ️ www.findaphd.com/phds/project... 🙏Share widely
Dwarf mongooseRhesus macaques groomingMeerkat
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Sarah Dalesman @sarahdalesman.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Teamwork in action 😁 Reeling in 40 m of oxygen/temperature sensor cable on the @aberdlsagb.bsky.social Freshwater Field Course at Llyn Tegid. Love boat work in the sunshine! And we also found some of the very rare glutinous snails shore sampling which made my day 🥰 🐌
Students working together to reel in an oxygen sensor cable
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Sarah Dalesman @sarahdalesman.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
Fantastic new study by @meg-alicemay.bsky.social using eDNA to monitor marine biodiversity at Tristan da Cunha. It identified species missed by traditional surveys, and demonstrated the effectiveness of this technique for use in challenging remote locations. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
The First eDNA‐Based Assessment at the World's Most Remote Inhabited Islands: Investigating Marine Vertebrate Diversity at Tristan da Cunha
This study employed eDNA to characterize marine vertebrate biodiversity at Tristan da Cunha, the world's most remote archipelago. The multi-assay approach successfully detected 51 Operational Taxonom...
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Sarah Dalesman @sarahdalesman.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
I am really looking forward to the opportunity to talk about my favourite things at the University of Chester today. Animal cognition, snails, and dogs 😊
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Alicia Hidalgo Lab @aliciahidalgolab.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
Looking for an enthusiastic post-doc to investigate how experience shapes the brain. Drosophila neurogenetics, molecular and cellular mechanisms, imaging, optogenetics, neural circuits and behaviour will be used. At University of Birmingham campus, UK. Application deadline 19 March. Pls RT.
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Sarah Dalesman @sarahdalesman.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Fantastic PhD and Postdoctoral opportunities in aquatic animal welfare available at the University of West Scotland with Prof. Kath Sloman Postdoctoral position: Shrimp aquaculture www.timeshighereducation.com/unijobs/list... PhD position: Ornamental fish welfare www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
timeshighereducation.com
Post-doctoral Research Assistant, School of Health and Life Sciences - G72 0LH, Glasgow job with UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND | 387309
Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of the West of Scotland working in the research group ...
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Christos C. Ioannou @ccioannou.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Two more weeks to get your abstracts in: if funding the conference is an issue, check out @asab.org's conference attendance grants, open to ALL seniorities: www.asab.org/kolkata-conf...
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Will Allen @wlallen.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
New article by Roger Santer and myself 'Insect visual perception and pest control: opportunities and challenges' available to read in Current Opinion in Insect Science: doi.org/10.1016/j.co...
doi.org
Redirecting
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ASAB @asab.org · 17/01/2025
There’s a lot of important dates coming up for #ASABSpring2025 & #Behaviour2025 ASAB Grants: asab.org/grant-overview ASAB Spring: asabspring2025.github.io Behaviour: behaviourindia2025.in Make sure you also follow @asab-spring-2025.bsky.social & @behaviour2025.bsky.social for updates 😄

ASAB Important Upcoming Dates
Logo of animals crossing the street as in the Beatles Abbey Road
2025 Asab SPRING MEETING Liverpool, UK
Apr 23-25
Feb 1: ASAB travel grants due
Feb 12: Abstracts due
Apr 1: Registration ends
Logo of a stylised tiger looking up at a tree and sun
Behaviour Kolkata India 2025 Aug 25-30
Jan 31: Abstracts due
Feb 28: Early bird registration ends
Apr 1: ASAB travel grants due
Apr 30: Regular registration ends
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Corey Bradshaw @conservbytes.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
@nature.com is keen to find out how scientists are using @bsky.app and whether it has become their go-to social-media platform. Do you use Bluesky? Has it replaced Xitter? We want to hear from you. www.nature.com/articles/d41... #eXit
nature.com
Has Bluesky replaced X for scientists? Take Nature’s poll
The research community has flocked to the social-media platform Bluesky. Tell us about your experience.
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Martin Giurfa @martingiurfa.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
Check out our latest work on transitive inferences (A > B, B > C, therefore A > C) in honey bees, just published in Frontiers in Psychology: www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...
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UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) @ukceh.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
Did you know the study of environmental DNA (eDNA) of microbes could transform how we understand and protect freshwater ecosystems? Dr Amy Thorpe, a molecular ecologist at UKCEH, shares insights from the first national survey of microbial eDNA in English rivers 🦠🔬
buff.ly
Exploring the hidden microbial diversity of England’s rivers
In a blog, Dr Amy Thorpe, a molecular ecologist at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, discusses the findings of the first national survey of microbial eDNA in English rivers, involving the…
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Anna Landre @annalandre.com · 07/01/2025
Do you know a UK-based wheelchair user who works in a lab and would be willing to user-test our prototype of what is believed to be the first-ever lab coat adapted for wheelchair users? Please share far & wide! Interest form: forms.office.com/e/66FhcQjqRT More info: www.ucl.ac.uk/ucl-east/new...
Two photos of Anna, a young white woman using an electric wheelchair, wearing a blue lab coat that fits her well with tables and dry-lab equipment in the background. Text reads: "A team of researchers and designers led by UCL is looking for wheelchair users working in wet lab environments to user-test what is believed to be the first-ever prototype of a lab coat adapted for wheelchair users."
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Ned Dochtermann @neddochtermann.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
I have a PhD position open to start fall semester 2025! The position will include investigations of the structure of both phenotypic (behavioral) plasticity and genetic variation in behavior as well as lots of opportunity to develop your own project. #Evolution #evobio #evolsky #Ecology 🧪
Flier for PhD position. Text with a lab logo at the bottom with a cricket silhouette of a cricket with antenna that look like normal curves. Also has a picture of a cricket (Acheta domesticus) on a white background.
Text:
Crickets! Behavior! 
Genetics! Statistics!

The Dochtermann Lab in the Department of  Biological Sciences at North Dakota State University is seeking to fill a PhD assistantship examining how selection has shaped phenotypic plasticity and patterns of genetic variance. 
The position will start Fall Semester 2025 and the
incoming student will be joining a dynamic department (www.ndsu.edu/biology) and an interdisciplinary graduate program that provides a broad foundation for success (www.ndsu.edu/ecs).

For more information about the lab visit www.neddochtermann.com

If interested, please contact me at ned.dochtermann@gmail.com with a brief synopsis of your research interests.

@neddochtermann.bsky.social
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Behaviour 2025 @behaviour2025.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
📣🚨Call for Workshops: Behaviour 2025! 📣🚨 🗓️Last date for workshop proposal submission: 15 January 2025 Are you ready to share your expertise, spark meaningful conversations, and inspire change?
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Sarah Dalesman @sarahdalesman.bsky.social · 31/12/2024
Highlights of 2024 #6 Took the leap and deleted my Twitter account 🎉 Looking forward to the new year on 🦋🙂
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Sarah Dalesman @sarahdalesman.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
Highlights from 2024 #5 My first dog research project led by MRes student Nerys Mellor published www.mdpi.com/2656782 The data indicates scent work training can improve inhibitory control in pet dogs. Nerys is planning future work to carry out more manipulative research on scent work and behaviour.
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Julia Sigwart @sigwartae.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
Nominate your favourite mollusc for International Mollusc of the Year 2025 🐌🦑🐚🦪🐙🌀 A public vote decides the winner from 5 finalists and we sequence its genome! Just fill in this nomination form by 7 January docs.google.com/forms/d/1MRn... @cgreve.bsky.social @oceanspecies.bsky.social @sgn.one
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Sarah Dalesman @sarahdalesman.bsky.social · 28/12/2024
Hilights from 2024 #4 Re-homing a gorgeous border collie girl whose owner is no longer well enough to keep her. And most importantly my fussy dog reactive Welsh sheepdog boy has fully accepted her into our little family 😁
Border collie and Welsh sheepdog sitting in a wood
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Sarah Dalesman @sarahdalesman.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
Highlights from 2024 #3 Getting involved in the amazing world of Ecodetection Dogs www.ecologydetectiondogwg.org This has included helping Holly Peek training her dog Marnie to detect invasive Chinese mitten crabs (video) & starting an exciting new PhD, training dogs to detect parasite hosts 😁
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Julia Bandura @juliabandura.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
Pleased to announce that one of my first-author PhD works has been recently published in the Journal of Proteome Research! We used #proteomics to identify signalling pathways associated with successful long-term memory formation in the snail Lymnaea stagnalis. Read more: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
pubs.acs.org
Distinct Proteomic Brain States Underlying Long-Term Memory Formation in Aversive Operant Conditioning
Long-term memory (LTM) formation relies on de novo protein synthesis; however, the full complement of proteins crucial to LTM formation remains unknown in any system. Using an aversive operant conditi...
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Sarah Dalesman @sarahdalesman.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
Highlights from 2024 #2 Our study led by @drgdavidson.bsky.social in print. We showed antibiotics at environmentally relevant concentrations alter aquatic snail gut microbiome, disrupts memory formation and covariance among pace-of-life traits. Funded by @asab.org academic.oup.com/ismej/articl...
academic.oup.com
Antibiotic-altered gut microbiota explain host memory plasticity and disrupt pace-of-life covariation for an aquatic snail
Abstract. There is mounting evidence that intestinal microbiota communities and their genes (the gut microbiome) influence how animals behave and interact
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Sarah Dalesman @sarahdalesman.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
Highlights from 2024 #1 Learning hoopers with my retired agility dog Patrick. Starting his new sporting career aged 10 😁 Love teaching my old dog some new tricks. This is his winning run from our first competition 🥰
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Karen Siu Ting @telmatobita.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
#PhD 1: Effects of Mercury in Amazonian Amphibians 🐸 as part of BBSRC funded NorthWestBio DTP. Based at @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social Project: tinyurl.com/frogHg Apply: tinyurl.com/NWBapply Deadline: 06/01/2025
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Sarah Dalesman @sarahdalesman.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
Great to hear Malin Ah-King highlighting phylogenetic bias in science alongside sex bias at #ASABWinter2024 Often asked how is my research relevant to other species, read 'vertebrates'. More gastropod species on the planet than all vertebrate species combined @asab.org 🐌🐌🐌
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Chris Harrod @profchrisharrod.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
A very exciting PhD on the ecological implications of divergence & adaption to warm water habitats in 3-spined sticklebacks combining field work in Iceland, mesocosms, tank studies & lab-work in the UK. Great team, lots of exciting ideas and techniques to test them. iapetus2.ac.uk/studentships...
PhD Advert - title "Examining ecological shifts and impacts of adaptive divergence in response to geothermal habitats"

Climate change poses a major threat to biodiversity, but some populations will undergo ecological shifts to persist with impacts on the supporting ecosystem. How this will occur is unknown but in some areas of geothermal warming provides unique opportunities to investigate the ecological impacts of a warmed habitat.

In Iceland’s geothermally warmed habitats, we have discovered several populations of threespine stickleback. This has driven adaptive divergence in metabolism, morphology, and behaviour (Pilakouta et al 2020, 2023). However, evidence also suggests that ecological differences in diet occur. This could drive much of the adaptive divergence observed, while also impacting the broader community.

This project will look directly at the dietary changes that occur in these populations to better understand the ecological drivers of thermally-driven adaptive change. To achieve this the project will address three main aims:

1. Analysis of long-term dietary variation between populations from geothermal and ambient habitats (across multiple locations)
2. Assess ontogenetic variation in diet to determine at what life stage ecological divergence occurs
3. Tests of heritable divergence in diet preferences, performance, and bioenergetic partitioning through the use of lab-rearing and mesocosm experimentsimages showing a cleared and stained stickleback (above) from a geothermal habitat in Iceland (below)
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ASAB @asab.org · 10/12/2024
If you’re attending #ASABWinter2024 virtually, the links have been sent by email. Still want to join? You can still register: asabwinter2024.github.io Let’s learn more about animal behaviour!
asabwinter2024.github.io
ASAB Winter 2024
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Sarah Dalesman @sarahdalesman.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
Are you thinking of applying for a UKRI Future Leader Fellowship? We have potential for two positions here at Aberystwyth University across areas including biodiversity, climate change mitigation, animal health and parasitology. Expression of interest by 23rd Jan 2025 vethub1.co.uk/cms/events/
vethub1.co.uk
Events
Visit the post for more.
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Elli Leadbeater @ellileadbeater.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
PhD position available! Are you interested in how natural selection shapes the evolution of animal memory? Be part of our experimental evolution plans at UCL @ucl-pnl.bsky.social @treesdla.bsky.social , co-supervised by Flo Camus @fcamus.bsky.social. www.trees-dla.ac.uk/projects/evo...
trees-dla.ac.uk
Evolutionary ecology of animal memory | UCL Trees
This project seeks to explore how memory evolves in response to the ecological tasks that animals face in their natural environment. Associative memory exists in some form in almost all animal species...
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Neeltje Boogert @neeltjeboogert.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Come do a PhD with Sinead English @englishse.bsky.social , Dan Padfield @padpadpadpad.bsky.social and me on Gulls! GPS- and Bluetooth-tracking! Microbiomes & AMR acquisition & transmission! Human-wildlife conflict & mitigation! should be fun :-)
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ASAB @asab.org · 04/12/2024
We’ve listed a few starter packs that we thought might be interesting to our members/researchers in animal behaviour. Feel free to add on to the thread if you have more suggestions! 🦍🦒🐐🐕🐑🐋🐍🦗 ⬇️
media.tenor.com
a man wearing a sweater with a bird on it says i love making connections
Alt: David from Schitts creek wearing a sweater with a bird on it says i love making connections
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Sarah Dalesman @sarahdalesman.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Very proud of Lissa O'Reilly who successfully completed her PhD viva yesterday 😁 It's been a difficult journey, but hard work and determination won out in the end. A massive thank-you to the examiners, Lisa Leaver and Iain Barber, for providing a challenging and enjoyable experience for Lissa.
Lisa, Lissa and Iain Cake with stickleback fish decorating it and bottle of champagne
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Sarah Dalesman @sarahdalesman.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Having watched loved ones suffer horribly in the last stages of their lives, begging for an end, I am very thankful that the assisted dying bill has been passed for England and Wales. Not the first post I thought I would make on 🦋 But a positive one for the future from my perspective.
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Mariella Herberstein (she/her) 🌈 @mherberstein.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Help us understand how conspicuous butterflies are by playing this game! mferickson.github.io/findbutterfly/
mferickson.github.io
Find The Butterfly
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Sinead English @englishse.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
This looks like an important article (and great thread!), lots resonates for me here - I hope that the right people read this and pay attention, always helpful to see solutions proposed and not just the problem.
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Christos C. Ioannou @ccioannou.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
📢📢 PhD with #guppies in the ioannougroup.com @bristolbiosci.bsky.social ! 📢📢 Excellent initiative at University of Bristol: Fully funded PhDs for students of black / black mixed heritage @amydeacon.bsky.social Deadline 6th Jan 2025 #BlackinSTEM #fishsci www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
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Sinead English @englishse.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
4-year funded PhD: Urban green space as refuge for people and disease vectors under climate change: a double-edged sword Very interdisciplinary (topic, approach, team): vector ecology, human behaviour; mapping and modelling! www.findaphd.com/phds/project... Application deadline: 6 Jan 2025 (1/2)
Scene of lake in an urban context with sunset behind
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Lauren Brent @ljnbrent.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
New PhD opportunity on social behaviour in the context of ecological disturbance with me, @mdekauwe.bsky.social, and others. Sept 2025 start, funded by NERC Apply by Jan 13. Project and application details: www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...
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