A busy week in Cairns: UoN researchers present at the International Ethology Conference

The 34th bi-annual International Ethology Conference was held last week (9-14th August) in Cairns on the northern East coast of Australia. The combination of a society renowned for its outstanding quality of animal behaviour research combined with a magnificent and warm location proved to be convincing. The meeting drew nearly 800 delegates from 43 countries around the world, and hosted a total of over 800 talks and posters over the 5 day conference. Symposium sessions covered a host of topics from the use of virtual technology to study animal behaviour, the genetics of invasive species, novel approaches to exploring how what non humans understand about the minds of social companions, all the way through to comparative brain evolution. The largest 1-2 days symposiums included that organised by Dr Carel Ten Cate & Dr Healy on the cognition of birds and that on the effects of human-induced environmental change on the behaviour and cognition of animals, co-organised Dr Griffin from our School of Psychology, and a small team of Australian and international researchers. Significant research focus on the impacts of human-induced environmental change has the attention of publishers with requests from two international journals for dedicated edited special issues.

The School of Psychology was very well represented at the conference with seven delegates, five from Dr Griffin’s Comparative Cognition Lab and Dr Burke and PhD student Danielle Wagstaff. Dr Griffin presented recent research using computational modelling to determine whether animals need to be smart to solve novel problems, or just persistent. PhD student Marie Diquelou delivered a talk on how control practices are causing common myna to change their behaviour and Francoise Lermite talked about the behavioural traits that might facilitate the range expansion of this invasive species in Australia. UoN conjoint lecturer UoN visiting post-doc Dr Ira Federspiel discussed the behavioural adaptations that allow mynas to thrive in human-dominated environments, while Dr David Guez spoke about the most approproiate methods for determining why animals change their willingness to solve problems when they are in groups. Dr Burke and PhD student, Danielle Wagstaff spoke about mate choice in humans.

This international gathering of leading behavioural scientists has provided invaluable networking opportunities for UoN PhD students. International bonds have been created, future collaborative research plans have been made and scientific articles and special issues initiated. There is no doubt that the conference was a huge success and UoN researchers wish to thank the Macquarie University organising team.


 PHOTO: Dr Andrea Griffin along side collaborators Dr Healy and Dr Guillette from University of St Andrews, Scotland, and Dr Federspield, postdoc in Dr Griffin's Comparative Cognition Lab in 2014, now back at University of Vienna. (courtesy of P. C., 2015)