Cat Hobaiter
Primatologist studying communication and cognition in wild apes. Some time academic. Full time naked ape. PI Wild Minds Lab @ University of St Andrews. She/her.
www.wildminds.ac.uk
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterWe can all agree that metaphors are nice. But are they also sometimes necessary? Could there be ideas we simply can't approach literally, thoughts we can't think without metaphors? Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ @sflusberg.bsky.social! Listen: disi.org/the-aura-of-...
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterThrilled that our elephant gesture work got featured in the latest National Geographic PhotoArk edition @natgeophotos.bsky.social @angelastoeger.bsky.social @nakedprimate.bsky.social. Photo Ark uses the power of photography to inspire people to help protect at-risk species before it’s too late.
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterAn underexplored word order principle, swap distance minimization, constrains word variation even after controlling for the actual word order diversity. Joint work with @hectobreak.bsky.social and Arnau Martí Llobet Free <50 copies www.tandfonline.com/eprint/Y6CPR...
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterGreat piece on prioritizing quality over quantity in scientific publication. For those of us with labs, this necessarily involves shrinking our group size. After I got tenure I started to downsize my lab and have not regretted it one iota. More time for each student & more time to think & write.
- Gotta keep some of those eight legs up out the way when the safari ants are marauding… #bugomaprimates #bugomaforest #notachimp #tarantula #furryfriend 🧪
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterAfter reviewing nearly 200 applications from prospective grad students and postdocs over the past few months for a couple different 🧪⚒️ postings, here are some tips, at least as they apply to North American positions. I hope they help future applicants. Share with your networks. 🧵
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterI had the honour of working to bring @auersperga.bsky.social’s baby to life. It’s a VERY heavy baby - over 200 references (and yes I read them all) - but necessary to do justice to our new hypothesis of combinatory tool use origins 📝👶🛠️ onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterTake note! 📝 There are a lot of important dates coming up for #ASABSpring2026 and #ECBB2026 🗓️ More information here: www.asab.org/conferences-...
- fieldwork fairylights 💚💚💚 Happy Chimpmas Eve everyone! 🧪🐵
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterHad fun with this one! In which I discuss: dolphins, elephants, marmosets, teknonymy, necronymy, reciprocal names in New Guinea, nominative determinism, the Bob-Kirk effect, the face-name-matching effect, name signs, toponyms, dog names, name uniqueness, alexinomia, toponyms, name taboos, etc.
- New episode!! 🎉🎙️ An audio essay from @kensycoop.bsky.social about names in the natural world. The search for "name-like" symbols in animals is intensifying. But if the enterprise is to succeed, we first need to pause and ask ourselves: What even is a name? Listen: disi.org/in-search-of...
- just above the equator #wintersolstice is technically still the shortest day in #bugomaforest, but didn’t feel like it on a 13hr follow, light scrumping, rain dancing, shout at northern neighbours & a slow peaceful settling into the nest for well deserved sleep… not a bad welcome back furry fam 💚 🧪
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterWishing everyone a joyful holiday season ❄️🎄⛄ At @abcmicrogrants.bsky.social 🐝🐝🐝, we’re excited to support even more #AnimalBehavior students through #microgrants + #mentorship. Your generosity makes this possible - consider donating to help us keep this work going!
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterLinguaphile Magazine is crowdfunding printing for their first physical edition. It looks very beautiful. www.linguaphilemagazine.org This project received a 2024 #lingcomm grant commendation, it's exciting to see this turn into a physical product!
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterIf you’re sad #ASABWinter2025 is over, have no fear! #ASABSpring2025 🌼 is coming soon, from March 23-25 at Bristol University. It’s an especially fantastic meeting for students and ECRs 🤠 Don’t forget travel grants are due Feb 1! www.asab.org/conferences-...
- Reposted by Cat Hobaiter"misinformation is widespread in biological systems spanning levels of organization, and [...] is probably an inevitable property that inherits from fundamental constraints on biological communication systems, rather than a pathology" royalsocietypublishing.org/rsif/article...
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterI'm Kenyan. I Don't Write Like ChatGPT. ChatGPT Writes Like Me.
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterAttending #ASABWinter2025 this coming week? Feel free to stop by my poster and check out how we used novel visual field estimations for freely-flying hawkmoths to investigate lateralized sensorimotor control! Excited to share the results from the past two years of work 🦋👁️👅🦾 and happy to chat!
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterWe have already received many wonderful abstracts, thank you all! 🌟 For those who need a little extra time, we have good news: the #EHBEA2026 deadline has been extended to 9 Jan. ✍️✨ Add the finishing touches, hit submit, and join an exciting, inspiring conference! 👉 www.ehbea2026.com
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterThe deadline for abstracts for the 2026 European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association has been extended to 9 January 👇
- We have already received many wonderful abstracts, thank you all! 🌟 For those who need a little extra time, we have good news: the #EHBEA2026 deadline has been extended to 9 Jan. ✍️✨ Add the finishing touches, hit submit, and join an exciting, inspiring conference! 👉 www.ehbea2026.com
- Reposted by Cat Hobaiter[This post could not be retrieved]
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterPhD studentship on antimicrobial resistance in wild baboons! Fully-funded by @swbiodtp.bsky.social Application deadline: Wed 3 Dec 2025. More details: bpb-eu-w2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.bristo.... Apply here: www.swbio.ac.uk/programme/ho... @inesfuertbauer.bsky.social @xavh.bsky.social
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterCome and join our lab! We have TWO fully funded PhD positions AND a paid field assistant opportunity in our Behavioral Ecology group @uni-goettingen.de & @primatenzentrum.bsky.social. Projects will be part of @rtg2906-curiosity.bsky.social & @sfb1528.bsky.social!! Details in thread. Please re-post!
- Reposted by Cat Hobaiter🚨NEW PUBLICATION ALERT!🚨 The 'Design Features' of Language Revisited (w/ @mperlman.bsky.social @glupyan.bsky.social Koen de Reus & @limorraviv.bsky.social) Feature Review out now in #OpenAccess in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social! #language #linguistics Paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.ti...
- #teamSTRANGE goes to Switzerland! @mikemwebster.bsky.social talking @ Uni Bern about sampling biases in animal behaviour research and how acknowledging them helps us improve replications and ask cool new questions! www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪
- Such a dream to be able to contribute to the autumn issue of @orionmagazine.bsky.social Still can’t get over both the gorgeous artwork & that we get to be issue neighbours with @questlove.bsky.social & all these incredible musicians and poets 🥹🥰 🧪
- COVER REVEAL! Our Autumn issue, THE NATURAL RHYTHMS OF HIP-HOP, is almost at your doorstep. This issue is all about the role of hip-hop: in our imaginations, in our sense of place, in how it reflects the human/nonhuman rhythms of the world. orionmagazine.org/product/subs...
- Re-upping this thread because we just got word that 'Scrumping 2.0' has been funded 🥳 Now where to hold a workshop on the evolutionary origins of alcohol consumption...🍻
- It’s Friday night (somewhere) so settle in for a 🧵that combines fermented fruit, scrumping monkeys, etymology, Larson cartoons, & Gothic art to tackle the enduring mystery of why humans are so astoundingly good at metabolising alcohol! or read our new 🧪 paper ;) academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterAward alert! 🎖️🚨 Every other year, the Ethologische Gesellschaft awards the Niko Tinbergen Award to outstanding post-doc level researchers in Behavioural Biology (<=6yrs post PhD exam). ...and this year is one of these years! Please send us your nominations! 🫵 Infos: www.etho-ges.de/wordpress/aw...
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterHave you got your tickets to our 2025 winter meeting? Don't miss out on the chance to hear about cutting-edge advances in primatology in the amazing National Museum, Cardiff! Tickets are on sale on our website: www.psgb.org/pages/14-mee...
- Early Bird Tickets are now on sale for our 2025 winter meeting! Get yours now, and take advantage of our additional discounts for students and members! 👍 Tickets can only be purchased through our website: www.psgb.org/events/psgb-...
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterMore than two decades have passed since we discovered that rare disruptions of the FOXP2 gene disturb development of proficient speech/language skills. Today we know of multiple FOXP genes that are directly implicated in distinct brain-related conditions with differences in symptoms & severity.🧪 1/n
- Reposted by Cat Hobaiter🎉Welcome to the official Bluesky account for EFP 2026 !!! 🎉 Join us in sunny Montpellier from 29 June to 3 July 2026 for an unforgettable conference. Follow us for updates, sneak peeks, and all things EFP! ☀️📅🌿
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterNobody wants this shit, which is why they keep sneaking it onto our devices like some unwanted U2 album.
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterSuper chuffed that @mikemwebster.bsky.social @ellengarland.bsky.social @nakedprimate.bsky.social and I had our course 'The question of culture in animals' among this list! 🐳🧪
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterThe CogSci Society is accepting nominations for 🌟Fellows of the Society🌟 Fellows are individuals whose research has exhibited sustained excellence and had sustained impact on the #CogSci community. Visit cognitivesciencesociety.org/fellows/ and submit your nomination until November 1st!
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterUPDATE: The 2025-2026 list of faculty and postdoc positions in ecology and evolutionary biology is out! Be sure to check out this active and helpful community run resources! docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterAre you coming to our winter meeting in November? 😉 We've collaborated with local hotels to organize discounts specifically for conference attendees - check out three great options for your stay in Cardiff on the Meetings Page on our website: www.psgb.org/pages/14-mee...
- Reposted by Cat Hobaiter📢🚀 Are you an early-career researcher working on anything related to culture, behaviour or learning? 🧠🌍 Join ESLR, an interdisciplinary research community! We have a NEW website and our membership is now FREE. 👉 Sign up here to get updates and become a member: www.eslrsociety.com/membership
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterNew analysis of a 1-million yr old fossil skull captured worldwide media attention this week, with many headlines saying it requires a complete rewrite/rethink of human evolution. This is an intriguing study & it's brilliant to see so much public enthusiasm for deciphering our origins, but....1/n 🧪
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterJob Alert! Come and join our team at our field site CRP Simenti in Senegal. Julia Fischer @julxf.bsky.social (@primatenzentrum.bsky.social) is recruiting a #Research_Manager. Work with the wonderful lovely Guinea baboons and manage our long-term data collection. 👉 www.dpz.eu/karriere/ste...
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterOnly a bit more than 1 Week remaining to apply for this #multispecies #archaeology position with amazing people such as @nakedprimate.bsky.social and myself 👇 Post-Doctral Researcher (100%, 3 years) 🏺🐒🐻❄️🦥
- I am looking for a multispecies archaeologist with a strong theoretical and interpretive profile to join my group (100%, 3 years): uni.koeln/2E7CR Deadline: 30.09.2025. Apply here: uni.koeln/ZQMKA ("Wiss2508-21") @nakedprimate.bsky.social @mesh-research-hub.bsky.social @unicologne.bsky.social
- I present the duffel-in-duffel-in-duffel #turduffen !! A useful way to consolidate & segregate dirty but wearable clothes (protect at all costs chicken) from ‘field’ dirty (salvageable duck) from good god the smell (maybe we should burn it turkey) ☠️🧪 #fieldwork #gonechimping @mbchimp.bsky.social
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterWith students heading back to the classroom, a group of cognitive scientists and AI researchers has published one of the most forceful and evidence-backed calls yet to reject the "uncritical adoption of AI" in academia:
- Reposted by Cat Hobaiter“We will never know what diseases might have been cured or what advances in technology might have been invented had the lights not gone out in the labs.” 🧪 #giftarticle
- The trail in & out of camp is an old way b/w villages, walked for generations, deeply familiar but reworked anew each walking. Last night after fording the flooded river, dog tired, soaking wet, well past dark, we climbed up to the village under a lunar eclipse. Glad I get to carry this version 💚🧪
- Forget the sword in the stone, here @mbchimp.bsky.social it’s the machete in the mud that’s the rainy season hero! 😂 #fieldwork #gonechimping #moyenbafing #guinea #dontforgetyourmachete 🧪
- At least the #frogs of the #moyenbafing are living their absolute noisiest #rainyseason #bestlife 🛁🐸🧪 #fieldwork #gonechimping #guinea #maketherainstop #glowup @mbchimp.bsky.social
- Pleased to report that new roomie & I getting along just fine after coming to some basic agreements about no-no spaces (boots, bedroll) and yes-please activities (eating large invertebrates).. #fieldwork #herp #moyenbafing #guinea #gonechimping @mbchimp.bsky.social 🧪
- managed the unthinkable wet-season luxury of sunny late afternoon& got both socks & boots 85% dry.. the warm cosy feeling of 6am smugness walking in clearly alerted the fieldwork gods to this unacceptable fact, who placed a tiny extra slippery spot on the log we use to cross the v full river 🛁🙄🧪
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterI am looking for a multispecies archaeologist with a strong theoretical and interpretive profile to join my group (100%, 3 years): uni.koeln/2E7CR Deadline: 30.09.2025. Apply here: uni.koeln/ZQMKA ("Wiss2508-21") @nakedprimate.bsky.social @mesh-research-hub.bsky.social @unicologne.bsky.social
- Fieldwork lessons : we do not touch the sleepy hairy pretty ones… both because it would be impolite to wake them from their sweet reveries, and because it would hurt like a mo-fo.. 😳 #fieldwork #caterpillars #guinea @mbchimp.bsky.social #gonechimping 🧪
- I like Bay-oh babs, and I can not lie… #baobab #Guinea #moyenbafing #fieldwork #gonechimping 🧪 @mbchimp.bsky.social
- Good people of Bluesky.. it’s time for the classic rainy season fieldwork game of : river-or-road?! @mbchimp.bsky.social 😂⛈️ with bonus new was-road-now-river friend 💚 #fieldwork #rainyseason #gonechimping #guinea 🧪 #moyenbafing
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterIt is with a very heavy heart that we share the loss of a friend, colleague, mentor and leader in primate conservation, Prof. Augustin Basabose. We wish to extend our deepest and most sincere condolences to his family and to all who ever had the privilege and chance to know him.
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterZOOGESTURES has a web presence now! 🐒🦥🐻❄️ zoogestures.uni-koeln.de with @nakedprimate.bsky.social @mesh-research-hub.bsky.social 🏺🗃️📕
- Go figure that on the Micronesia-Scotland-Guinea turn around, Scotland was the only place it didn’t rain on me everyday 😂 #rainyseason #fieldwork #Conakry #gonechimping
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterHappy Birthday Gary Larson, 75 years old today. A perfect excuse to celebrate his tireless efforts documenting major breakthroughs in science, including this pivotal moment for language research:
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterAs always, Ted Chiang is great in this interview. cdh.princeton.edu/blog/2025/08...
- First we pile, then we pack, then we pile.. it’s the ciiiiircle of (field)life 😂 #fieldwork #guinea @mbchimp.bsky.social #gonechimping 🧪
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterThe #IsleofWight is a world famous dinosaur hotspot... and it's desperately in need of a new museum and Science Park. Help us by signing the petition (either via the QR or at chng.it/4CXPhKLQs2). Watch out for news in the coming weeks :) #dinosaurs
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterA new study adds support to the so-called “drunken monkey” hypothesis by examining just how often living apes indulge in fallen—presumably boozy—fruits. scim.ag/3UoyyO3
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterDo I take my ADHD meds to the field? What to put in a risk assessment w dyspraxia? How do I support ND students during fieldschool? If you ever wondered what fieldwork's like as a neurodivergent ecologist, this webinar by the @britishecologicalsociety.org is for you! tinyurl.com/yckyrf4r
- Reposted by Cat Hobaiter[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterHappy to share this article on @theconversation.com covering our study on elephant gestures 🐘👋 @angelastoeger.bsky.social @nakedprimate.bsky.social Lucy Bates, Josh Plotnik theconversation.com/do-elephants...
- Reposted by Cat HobaiterThe Linguistics Discipline at La Trobe University have developed a discipline-specific position statement on the role of generative AI in our classrooms. www.superlinguo.com/post/7908973...
- Appropriately one of the communities of chimps in this dataset has a generation of males named after single malt whiskies 😂🥃🙈🧪 Since I’m stuck in an airport for several more hours, one like = whisky chimp photo/backstory! #teamWaibira #whiskychimps
- It’s Friday night (somewhere) so settle in for a 🧵that combines fermented fruit, scrumping monkeys, etymology, Larson cartoons, & Gothic art to tackle the enduring mystery of why humans are so astoundingly good at metabolising alcohol! or read our new 🧪 paper ;) academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...
- Starting off with a classic : meet Macallan! Like his namesake he’s smooth and classy (and popular with the ladies!) #whiskychimps #teamWaibira
- Next up Fiddich (we need different letter codes for our IDs so we had to drop all the Glen’s) His nickname is chubby for obvious reasons, will never knowingly be early to leave any feeding situation 😂❤️ #teamWaibira #whiskychimps
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View full threadLafrog (the internationally acceptable spelling of Laphroaig), bringing a little je ne sais quoi with his pencil-thin moustache nose-line and super smooth centre part... #whiskychimps #teamWaibira 📷 @harmonieklein.bsky.social
- Lol.. Did not have ‘ @bsky.app algorithm flags classic art by Rubens as adult only content’ on my bingo card for this thread but I suppose it is technically correct 🤣
- It’s Friday night (somewhere) so settle in for a 🧵that combines fermented fruit, scrumping monkeys, etymology, Larson cartoons, & Gothic art to tackle the enduring mystery of why humans are so astoundingly good at metabolising alcohol! or read our new 🧪 paper ;) academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...
- 10yrs ago Carrigan & colleagues showed that only African apes (but not other primates, including orangutans) have a single mutation in their ADH4 gene that makes them 40x (!) more efficient at metabolizing alcohol www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1... 2/15
- We also know that all ripe fruits—especially very ripe ones—contain some quantity of ethanol. So they dropped the tantalising H0 that increased terrestrialism might have exposed them to fallen over-ripe fermenting fruits. But there’s always been a problem testing this H0... 3/15
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View full threadAlso massive appreciation to the editorial team at BioScience, who helped us publish the paper we really wanted–coming up with a new paper category & letting us start a para in a scientific paper with a gorgeous illuminated gothic letter 😍 15/15 @uniofstandrews.bsky.social @aibsbiology.bsky.social
