Weaving the MacaqueNet 3.0
MacaqueNet (https://macaquenet.github.io/) is a global grassroots network, whose mission is to encourage and facilitate collaboration between macaque researchers. This workshop will highlight how a standardized, collaborative, cross-species database—comprising behavioural data from over 3,000 individual macaques across 14 species and more than 50 field sites—has been built to facilitate research collaboration worldwide. The workshop is intended to act as a hub for the macaque research community, where current MacaqueNet members and newcomers alike will be welcomed. Ongoing collaborative projects will be discussed, future directions will be explored, and opportunities for participation—particularly by early career researchers—will be promoted. Special emphasis will be placed on integrating voices from underrepresented regions and fostering new connections.
The session will also feature updates on MacaqueNet activities and two focused lightning talk segments: Indian Macaques and Early Career Research on Macaques. These sessions are designed to give doctoral and postdoctoral researchers a platform to present their work and engage with the wider community.
Organisers: Macaela Skelton, Anindya Sinha and Delphine De Moor
Affiliations: University of Exeter, UK; National Institute of Advanced Studies, India; Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany
Price: TBA
Duration: 2 hours
Understanding animal communication, integrating bioacoustics and Artificial Intelligence
Across taxa, animals use acoustic cues for communication. Understanding the behavioural context behind these signals is key to gaining insights into animal interactions. Our workshop aims to highlight the use of bioacoustics to assess animal behaviour. Participants will be introduced to key aspects of study design in bioacoustics research, along with the use of appropriate hardware. Further, we highlight analytical tools and frameworks using open-source software to analyse acoustic data.
Organisers: VV Robin, Chiti Arvind and Isha Bopardikar
Affiliations: Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Tirupati, India
Price: TBA
Duration: 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM
Introduction to Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Evidence synthesis, which includes systematic maps, research weaving, and meta-analysis, enables researchers to identify patterns across studies, assess generalisability, and understand context-dependent effects. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses have become a standard approach for qualitatively and quantitatively synthesising evidence across fields, and their use has increased exponentially in the last decade.
This workshop offers an applied introduction to the basics of evidence synthesis, focusing on systematic reviews and meta-analyses. We will explore what makes a strong systematic review and introduce some tools for literature search and screening. Next, we will focus on the meta-analytic process, including effect size selection, conducting multilevel meta-analyses and meta-regression in R, interpreting results and visualisation with some common plots. We will also explore heterogeneity and publication bias, which are essential for a comprehensive understanding of meta-analytical results. The session combines lectures, small hands-on exercises, and discussions, using real meta-analytic datasets. It will be ideal for PhD students, postdocs, and early-career researchers, but everyone is welcome. No prior experience with meta- analysis is required. Some basic statistical knowledge will be assumed for the workshop. Although this is not an R programming course, some familiarity with R is necessary. The workshop will use examples from behavioural ecology and evolution, but the methods are generally applicable across research fields.
Organisers: Shreya Dimri
Affiliations: Universität Bielefeld, Germany
Price: TBA
Duration: 4.5-5 hours
Mics & behaviour – extracting the most of your audio data to reliably study animal behaviour
How to get the most from your audio data to figure out what the animal is doing? How do you convert your microphone from just a 'recording' device to a quantitative 'measuring' device? This workshop will go through how microphones work, audio recording and analysis best-practices and finally end with a practical demo on how to characterize microphone frequency-responses and sensitivity to generate sound-pressure-level measurements. This workshop is aimed at Master, Ph.D. students and above, and most relevant for those with some kind of audio recording experience already at hand.
Organisers: Thejasvi Beleyur, Lena de Framond and Manjari Jain
Affiliations: University of Konstanz (Germany), Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour (Germany), Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence (Germany); Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence (Germany); Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali, India
Breaking down science communication
This workshop focuses on empowering researchers to effectively communicate their science beyond academia. In an era overwhelmed by misinformation and media noise, there is a growing need for credible, accessible storytelling that bridges the gap between scientific research and the general public- especially in diverse linguistic contexts. This session will unpack the fundamentals of science communication, exploring formats such as text, video, photography, and social media. Participants will engage in hands-on exercises and receive practical guidance on collaborating with journalists to craft compelling, accurate narratives. Open to researchers across disciplines, the workshop aims to foster a culture where scientists view outreach not as an add-on, but as an integral part of their work.
Organisers: Kartik Chandramouli and Shailesh Shrivastava
Affiliations: Mongabay India
Social Learning in Primates: Networks, Innovation, and Cultural Transmission
Social learning is a key driver of cultural transmission in primates, yet not all individuals contribute equally. Some serve as knowledge hubs, others as learners or bridges within the social group. This workshop introduces participants to social network theory as a powerful tool to analyse learning roles and knowledge transmission in primate societies. We will explore core concepts like in-degree/out-degree (learners vs. teachers), in-strength/out-strength (engagement in learning/teaching), and betweenness centrality (bridge individuals), using real-world examples and hands-on exercises. Participants will engage in building and analysing primate social networks, gaining practical skills in data interpretation and network-based behavioral analysis.
This workshop is ideal for students and early-career researchers in primatology, behavioral ecology, and animal cognition. No prior knowledge of network analysis is required, though participants are requested to bring their own laptops with RStudio installed.
Organisers: Jayashree Mazumder
Affiliation: Indian Institute of Science, India
Prerequisites: Laptops with RStudio installed
Amplifying global voices: removing language barriers in student conferences
International conferences are key spaces for students and early career researchers to share their work and build networks. However, the dominance of English can create significant barriers for non-native speakers, often limiting participation and confidence, especially early in a research career. This interactive workshop, led by Dr Janire Castellano Bueno, Alexandros Vezyrakis and Chris Miller (organisers of the 2023 International Student Symposium on Animal Behaviour and Cognition), will explore how we can make student-led conferences more inclusive and accessible for multilingual audiences.
We will discuss practical solutions such as allowing presentations in the local language, using bilingual slides, pre-recorded talks with subtitles, and multilingual name badges. We will also explore how hybrid formats and translated content can improve accessibility before, during and after the event. Participants will be invited to share their own experiences, reflect on common challenges, and work in groups to assess possible solutions. The insights gathered will be used to propose actionable recommendations for future student organisers, with the goal of fostering more inclusive international events that truly reflect the diversity of our global research community.
Whether you have experienced language barriers yourself or are interested in inclusive event design, this workshop offers a space to connect, collaborate and contribute to positive change.
Organisers: Janire Castellano Bueno, Alexandros Vezyrakis and Chris Miller
Affiliations: Newcastle University, UK; Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology (Germany), University of Potsdam (Germany); Newcastle University, UK
Into the Swarm-Verse: a new R package to analyse trajectories of animal groups on the move
Collective motion, the coordinated spatial and temporal organisation of individuals, underlies various aspects of social behaviour (e.g., foraging, migration) and can impact many ecological processes such as land-use and predator-prey interactions. This workshop aims to introduce and guide participants through the swaRmverse package: a new R package for the identification and analysis of collective motion. The package handles trajectories of several individuals moving in space (t, id, x, y) and provides a pipeline for the calculation of many metrics of collective or social behaviour, supporting comparisons across species or groups under different experimental treatment or environmental conditions.
Participants are encouraged to bring their own datasets. We hope that apart from a good understanding of how to use the package to quantify spatiotemporal dynamics of groups and investigate inter- and intra-specific variation, the workshop will foster discussions and spark collaborations among participants. This workshop is open to students and early career researchers. Some experience with R programming language is required.
Session overview:
- Introduction: package overview, defining metrics of collective motion, setting up research questions
- Computer Practical: interactive step by step practical through the package pipeline, data visualization, discussing common issues and decision-making during analysis
- Interpretation & Outlook: comparative investigation of participants' output, interpretation of results, discussion about future development.
Requirements:
Laptop with R and R studio installed (mandatory)
Dataset you wish to work on (optional)
Organisers: Marina Papadopoulou
Affiliations: Tuscia University (Italy), Swansea University (UK)
Wild Animal Welfare and Animal Behaviour: a Global South Perspective
Join our workshop to explore how animal behaviour research and wild animal welfare science intersect, with a special focus on challenges and opportunities in the Global South.
Join us to explore how animal behaviour research and wild animal welfare science come together to better understand and improve the lives of wild animals. We will focus on the Global South, where researchers and practitioners face unique challenges but also have important opportunities to shape this growing field.
We'll be discussing:
- The emerging field of Wild Animal Welfare Science (WAWS)
- Behavioural and physiological measures as indicators of welfare
- Integrating welfare to enhance the quality and interpretability of behavioural and ecological studies
- The challenges and opportunities of integrating welfare into research
- Case studies from projects in India and the Himalayas
- Practice looking at projects from a welfare perspective
Organisers: Tanya Payne and Janire Castellano Bueno
Affiliation: Wild Animal Initiative
Understanding journal publishing
Learn more about the publishing process in an interactive workshop. This session will include aspects such as how to select the right journal to submit to, preparing the paper for submission, what happens during the review process, publishing ethics, open science and promoting your research. This session is aimed at early career researchers but we also welcome more experienced authors and reviewers.
Organisers: Helen Eaton
Affiliation: The Royal Society
