Dr Fay Clark
Senior Lecturer: University of Bristol | PI: Comparative Challenge Lab | Co-Founder: ManyZoos | Finding Flow in animals | Primates | Cetaceans | 🧠🧩
- Reposted by Dr Fay Clark🐠 I’m hosting a paid summer research internship at Oxford on how fish communicate to manage cooperation and conflict 🐠 It’s part of UNIQ+ which is open to UK undergraduates from under-represented and disadvantaged backgrounds. ℹ️ More info & apply: www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/g... ⏰ Deadline: 18 Feb
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkThe #BiologyLetters Early Career Researcher Competition is back for 2026! You must be an #ECR to enter and submit your paper by 31 March 2026 for the chance to win £1000. Two runners-up will also receive £500 each. Find out more: ow.ly/aCgx50UCo2H #EarlyCareerResearchers
- Reposted by Dr Fay Clark🚨Roll up, roll up, fully-funded #PhD deadlines approaching... 6th Jan: tinyurl.com/aja54nr6 8th Jan: tinyurl.com/4jfy47pp Social monitoring & manipulation #meerkats #mongooses #macaques #fieldwork #long-termdata @patrick-kennedy.bsky.social @ljnbrent.bsky.social @bristolbiosci.bsky.social
- We’ve had fun in the Bristol Psychology & Neuroscience Comparative Challenge Lab in 2025. 🧵 🎲 We’ve been zoning into games as tools to study the relationship between animal cognition and emotion. lnkd.in/euyDE3D3 🎮 We published research on time distortion during human flow state. lnkd.in/e-satPgt
- 🐀 We’ve been busy designing and programming new games…. tangible and digital. 🐒 We got overwhelmed by big data sets but started to learn how to cope with them. 🎙️ We’ve spoken on podcasts, to book authors, and at conferences.
- 🐬 And we are taking a ‘deeper dive’ into flow next year! Thank you to Shivani Patel, my incredible undergrad students, and collaborators far and wide for making 2025 the year we levelled up this research.
- Reposted by Dr Fay Clark🚨 Our new paper is out!! A call for CARE in animal behaviour: an holistic ethical research framework 🐾💚 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
- ASAB is coming to Bristol!!!
- If 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-...
- A short but very sweet trip to Oxford to round off the year. Thanks to Beth Mortimer and colleagues for sharing their fascinating seismic sound work, which is a different flavour of bioacoustics for me. I’m taking photos of the gorgeous new building and the cube mics back to Bristol with me!!
- Reposted by Dr Fay Clark🌍📢 Postdoc alert | 3-yr starting early 2026 Please 🔁! Understand how ecosystem stability is changing across space and through time using niche modelling, pinpoint at-risk species/regions, and build tools that drive conservation action🌿🧭📈 👉 tinyurl.com/2mafwru3 #Ecology #Jobs #Biodiversity
- Just gave a lecture on how animals behaviouraly adapt (or not!) to human-induced rapid enviro. change. I really depressed myself & the class! Yes, cockatoos have learned to open bins and raccoons can thrive in cities, but urban adaptors are rare and animals shouldn’t need to adapt to our garbage.
- I don’t work with wildlife in situ much these days - I’ve been focussed on ex situ populations for many years. But today, I did reflect on a some human-baboon conflict work in Cape Town I was involved in, and how we haven’t seemed to get past the issue of how animals cope with our rubbish!
- In the immortal words of Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park, “Life Finds a Way” but he was talking about evolution, not rapid climate change.
- Reposted by Dr Fay Clark🚨RA/PhD position available in evolutionary neurobiology 🚨 Working on a deep dive into circuit changes during mushroom body expansion in Heliconius butterflies @camzoology.bsky.social - employment benefits - 4 years funding - 1000% fun Deadline: 14/1/2026 Details: www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkBeyond criterion: cognitive flexibility in wild striated caracaras: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... | #BiologyLetters #Behaviour #Cognition #Ecology
- Reposted by Dr Fay Clark📢Two fully-funded #PhD opportunities to work with us: Topic: Social monitoring & manipulation UK-domiciled black-heritage scheme: tinyurl.com/aja54nr6 NERC DLTP: tinyurl.com/4jfy47pp Cosupervisors: #PatrickKennedy @ljnbrent.bsky.social @bristolbiosci.bsky.social #bioacoustics #mammals #fieldwork
- Reposted by Dr Fay Clark🚨Who wants to work with Kalahari meerkats? A MSc project with @mathildemartin.bsky.social at the University of Zurich. #bioacoustics 🧪
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkPhD 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...
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkFully funded #PhDposition in Comparative Cultural Psychology @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social. We will use touchscreen experiments & eyetracking to study mental simulations in nonhuman apes & human children across different cultures. All info here: www.eva.mpg.de/career/posit... Please share / apply!🙏
- Reposted by Dr Fay Clark🐦 EcoBird is hiring a Postdoc in animal cognition! Join us + @themanybirds.bsky.social to investigate innovation & problem-solving in birds. 📅 Start: as early as Jan 2026 🌍 Funded through UGent’s international mobility scheme More info & how to apply ↓ www.ugent.be/en/work/scie...
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkUK publication day! www.littlebrown.co.uk/titles/chris...
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkLooking for a PhD opportunity? I'm hoping to recruit someone to my group at Durham University to work on a project combining fieldwork and labwork to study speciation in rubyspot damselflies: iapetus.ac.uk/studentships... Get in touch if you want to chat!
- Reposted by Dr Fay Clark#PhD position! Comparing #foraging and #cognition in #hummingbirds and #bumblebees Fieldwork in the Canadian Rockies, lab experiments at @newcastleuni.bsky.social, and ecological modelling at @uniofstandrews.bsky.social Details (including my email) here: iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...
- Reposted by Dr Fay Clark3 year postdoc funded by @ukri.org NERC on between-group cooperation in the Shark Bay dolphins is now live - please share widely 🙏 www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...
- Work is now well underway to assess if animals have the capacity for flow state (optimal activity-based experience). What a dream team of collaborators - Shivani Patel Alex Taylor Sara Hintze and Jeroen Lemmens (not on BlueSky yet!) spanning species, continents, settings, disciplines & approaches.
- Some of the initial work centres around developing highly responsive ‘games’ that can maintain a balance between skill and challenge. Ultimately, we are interested in whether and how skill development impacts animal welfare. (Photo credit Unsplash_Moises de Paula).
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkFancy joining us? Check out this excellent @royalsociety.org Career Development Fellowship: royalsociety.org/grants/caree... If you're eligible & are interested in social behaviour, vocal communication or anthropogenic impacts on wildlife, feel free to DM or email me. @bristolbiosci.bsky.social
- Reposted by Dr Fay Clark@durhampsych.bsky.social current has 5 (FIVE!!) PhD studentships being advertised! 3 to work with me on children as agents of cultural evolution 2 to work with @drboothroyd.bsky.social on examining school-based body image interventions. Please share and apply! www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...
- I'll be a speaker at this wonderful in-person event at the Zoological Society of London on 30 September! Tickets are FREE!
- 🐒 Can animals learn to adapt to changing environments through changes in behaviour, rather than depending on slower genetic adaptations? Join us on 30th September to find out! 🎟️ Book your ticket to this free event now: www.zsl.org/news-and-eve...
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkApplications open for fully funded 4-yr positions in the unique interdisciplinary program of the @maxplanck.de School of Cognition. Pursue a passion for science at the forefront of fundamental & applied research, mentored by a network of world renowned researchers.🧪 cognition.maxplanckschools.org/en
- It turns out an ideal place to rest and mend a broken foot is the Norwegian fjords (a little tricky to get there but worth it!)
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkFurther proof that quolls rule! 🌿🧪
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkDirector at Max Planck - a unique position! The Open Call for Expressions of Interest in Max Planck Directorships is open now and can be submitted by the 31st of October 2025. ➡️ mpg.de/directors - Please share the Open Call among potential candidates.
- A large benefit of an industry (enviro NGO) background is being able to get research done on a creative shoestring - begging, borrowing & building equipment/consumables. In academia, a large downside is trying to scale up operations & impacts in an equally dire funding landscape. Erm, how??!
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkNice mention of our Communications and Public Affairs Director @susierabin.bsky.social in this article from @audubon.org about the Gulls Eating Stuff citizen science project 👇 www.audubon.org/magazine/res... #GullsEatingStuff #CitizenScience
- Reposted by Dr Fay Clark1 To predict the behaviour of a primate, would you rather base your guess on a closely related species or one with a similar brain shape? We looked at brains & behaviours of 70 species, you’ll be surprised! 🧵Thread on our new preprint with @r3rt0.bsky.social , doi.org/10.1101/2025...
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkFirst copies of my book are here!! As a new faculty member, I realized that in addition to my research job, I also had a leadership job…and I wasn’t prepared for that. This book is the guide I wish I’d had then, with the goal of helping others now. jenheemstra.com/book
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkThe #CRAB2025 🦀 programme is out! Join us in Siena on Sept 3 at #CCS25 for the 2nd edition of the Complexity Research in Animal Behaviour satellite 🐜🐦🦋🐳🐙🐝 🧑🏫 Invited talks by S. Melillo & P. Bartashevich Full programme: sites.google.com/view/crab202... @jbbrask.bsky.social @saraneven.bsky.social
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkCambridge Elements are free to download until 7/25-check out my little book How To Study Animal Minds. I had fun writing this one, and I'll never forget how nervous I was in front of a bunch of scientist friends, including Sara Shettleworth, hearing their thoughts on the draft! tinyurl.com/3yy6a52c
- Such a pleasure to attend the Diverse Intelligences Summit in St Andrews. Making new friends, chatting with academic heroes, brainstorming Big Team Science & outreach, hanging out with old and new @divintelligence.bsky.social fellows, and basically having an epic week. My heart and brain are full.
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkAre you a PhD student, have an offer, or have had an offer recently rescinded from a US university? If so, Western (in London, ON, Canada) has a new scholarship program for you! Check out this news story. I can vouch for this university! You will love it. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkPlease repost. For those who might have missed it, our School has three ongoing positions advertised. The work environment here at Monash is top notch: supportive, collegiate and inclusive. And Melbourne is an awesome city to live in. Deadline fast approaching. Get cracking on those applications!
- The three academic positions (Lecturer/Senior Lecturer) in the School of Biological Sciences at Monash University are now advertised. Details here: Ecology: careers.pageuppeople.com/513/cw/en/jo... Genomics: careers.pageuppeople.com/513/cw/en/jo...
- My sound track for Bristol➡️St Andrews is all sorted! 🎧 @manymindspod.bsky.social was the obvious choice, given that I’m joining the @divintelligence.bsky.social and wider Diverse Intelligence gang for their annual summit 🙌 🧠
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkImportant new work (from Elisa Bandini, @ctennie.bsky.social, @sofiaforss.bsky.social et al.) addressing an elephant in the room - how weird are our weirdest apes, and how is that skewing research efforts? onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
- Jurassic World had some pretty cool speculative dinosaur skills. Mutualistic hunting, T-rex swimming… a possible hint at mirror self recognition!? I absolutely loved dinosaurs growing up, and never in 200 million yrs thought I’d get to study ‘living dinosaur’ cognition rdcu.be/evZCt
- Just returned from a @affect-evo.bsky.social in Latvia, where we discussed how to map out affective states across phylogeny. No easy feat! Very proud to co-lead the 'joy' subgroup & will try my best to represent captive wildlife. A super challenging yet exciting COST Action to be a part of!
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkWhat are we talking about when we're talking about "cognition"? Terminology in this field has become confused and confusing. While writing our recent review, we tried to structure terms for our own sanity, and provide a template in a Glossary royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkI've wanted to write this article for years. About my and other's struggles to even survive sometime in #academia. Thank you to the amazing editors at @plosbiology.org that gave me the forum to write this piece. #science
- The #UFAW2025 conference was 💯! Highly flexible for multiple time zones and balancing other work (you can still register post hoc to access the recordings, I believe). My talk on animal gameplay was a call to develop rule-based challenges for animals so they can play well & develop skills.
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkNEW PAPER🎺 How does cognition determine an individual’s fitness? A systematic review of the links between cognition, behaviour and fitness in non-human animals Lots of studies try to explain how cognition might evolve, by taking a behavioural ecology approach Has this approach made any progress?🧵
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkThe three academic positions (Lecturer/Senior Lecturer) in the School of Biological Sciences at Monash University are now advertised. Details here: Ecology: careers.pageuppeople.com/513/cw/en/jo... Genomics: careers.pageuppeople.com/513/cw/en/jo...
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkWe did some science. We found some things. Killer whales get by with a little kelp from their friends. Evidence of tool manufacture and use in resident killer whales - check it out! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkWe're hiring📢📢📢 To complement our team we're currently looking for a postdoctoral researcher with expertise in animal communication and behaviour, ideally canids but not a must! Position is based in Vienna, Austria, and available for 4 years. Please check the attachment for details 🐺🐶😊
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkNew PhD position in our group! Join us to study gull foraging ecology at sea using GPS and accelerometry data! You will be working here Amsterdam Movement Ecology group under supervision of @judyshamounb.bsky.social, @rooskentie.bsky.social and me. Apply here werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...
- Yes its a taxidermied badger on a skateboard. Incredible.
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkIn March we put on an insect cabaret show I developed with Cap-A-Pie Theatre about insects and the threats they face. We've now uploaded the songs and everyone can now see how brilliant the actors and song-writer were. Thread of songs below 👇🧪 #Insects #cabaret #theatre #scicomm #songs
- Wouldn’t it be cool if academics got a “reading week” in summer. And did nothing but read. I’d sign up! Or, everyone needs to turn their paper into a podcast so I can catch up on my commute.
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkWe are looking for a Research Assistant to contribute to our ongoing analysis of dolphin acoustic data from West Wales - collaboration between @wtsww.bsky.social @bristolbiosci.bsky.social 🐬 Deadline is 29th June - please share widely! www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkYou might have heard that psychology has a WEIRD problem. Though it aims to understand human minds, many of its studies have historically been skewed towards WEIRD minds. In this 🚨NEW PAPER🚨, @kristinandrews.bsky.social and I argue that comparative cognition also has a WEIRD problem. 👇🧵 1/17
- I will be talking about 'fun and games' at the @ufaw.bsky.social international research conference on 26 June. 🎲
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkJob alert! Assistant professorship in humanities (including cognitive science) at Lund University (deadline 17 Aug). lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/... See the Cognitive Zoology group: www.lucs.lu.se/research/cog... And the recent focus on Deep Time Cognition: www.deeptimecognition.lu.se/start
- On your to-do list today: Follow @laurasimonelewis.bsky.social on BlueSky immediately because she’s wonderful.
- Reposted by Dr Fay Clark🚨Anyone want a job?🚨 We have two #postdocs up for grabs! 🧪 - cell developmental biology/#evodevo/#neuroevodevo - bioinformatics and molecular biology Both working on brain evolution in Heliconiini butterflies Details below! Please repost 🙏 1/n
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkIt's CES election time! We have FOUR positions that have come up for renewal, so please consider nominating yourself or your colleagues. Nominations close June 20th, with voting from June 30th -July 4th.
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkWe are seeking a scientific coordinator for my research group at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig 😊🧠🌈 Could be ideal for a gap year between MSc and PhD or PhD and postdoc! Please out more here: recruitingapp-5218.de.umantis.com/Vacancies/43...?
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkInterested in unravelling the mysteries of animal sleep? We are hiring a postdoc for Niels Rattenborg's research group! The project will in particular investigate neural activity in sleep-swimming geese. More info's: www.bi.mpg.de/2764364/job_...
- Reposted by Dr Fay Clark🎉Exciting times ahead for @elmanubohn.bsky.social, Michael Franke, and me! We will soon be advertising 2 PhD positions (linguistics/biology/psychology) for our SFB subproject "Modeling Great Ape Signaling Behaviour" 🧮 🐵 Stay tuned!
- Die @dfg.de hat den linguistischen SFB Common Ground: Kognition – Grammatik – Kommunikation an der @unituebingen.bsky.social bewilligt! 🎉🥂Großer Erfolg der Kolleg:innen!! Herzliche Glückwünsche!! Hier geht es zur PM 👉👉👉 www.dfg.de/de/service/p...
- So excited to see that my June cover story in The Psychologist (British Psychological Society publication) is finally out! I talk all things animals - from the dry subject of Pavlov’s dog to the cognition of endangered species, and more. Free to read online www.bps.org.uk/psychologist...
- An interesting assumption by Google’s AI feature… (this is my research I asked it to summarise, btw!)
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkInterested in biology and comparative psychology, and working in an interdisciplinary project and research team? I’m advertising two PhD positions on the evolutionary origins of cooperative sociality and communication (start 1.10.) at the University of Konstanz👇 links below!
- LEMURS CAN PLAY CONNECT4! Not really... but the concept of animals 'playing games' is not as crazy as it looks and sounds. A game is a challenge with known parameters, and play develops skill. Levelling up the study of animal gameplay, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews (2025)
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkJoin the MacaqueNet family! We’re looking for a postdoc to study the link between social structure and lifespan across species, using MacaqueNet data and a new life-history database. Feel free to reach out—I'm happy to chat about MacaqueNet, CRAB, or living in Exeter. shorturl.at/xyNsL
- Postdoc job alert! I'm hiring a 3-yr postdoc to work on our Social Modifiers of Primate Lifespans grant. Job info and how to apply below. Deadline June 1. Pls share! jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...
- 🦤🧠
- Emus and rheas may be capable of problem-solving, suggests research in Scientific Reports. The findings indicate they demonstrated multiple problem-solving approaches to a cognition puzzle through individual trial and error learning: spklr.io/633237SWU @bristoluni.bsky.social #Zoology
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkFabulous discussion with Dr. Kate Nave - wide-ranging, nuanced, clear, smart thinking about agency, purpose, life, cybernetics, the FEP, process philosophy and lots more! open.spotify.com/episode/4PKy...
- A beautifully curated collection of articles on animal culture and conservation - really looking forward to reading them all
- Special Issue: Animal Culture: conservation in a changing world royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202...
- Reposted by Dr Fay ClarkExplicit value trade-offs in conservation: integrating animal welfare. Check out our latest TREE paper, led by Kate Lynch. Click here for free access to the article for the next 50 days: authors.elsevier.com/a/1kzlecZ3X3... #BobWongLab 📸 Patrick Tomkins
