Author: Rowan Kuminski

#StoryBehindThePaper, Guest post

Where do elephants go during drought? Lessons from 19 years of GPS tracking

This blog post is provided by Irene Bouwman and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the article “Elephant space use and habitat selection change across drought timescales“, which was recently published in Journal of Animal Ecology. This study examined how drought affects the spatial use and habitat selection of African elephants. As charismatic as elephants may be in David Attenborough documentaries, my first encounter with the elephant … Continue reading Where do elephants go during drought? Lessons from 19 years of GPS tracking

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#StoryBehindThePaper, Guest post

Same species, different life histories: how survival and age at first breeding vary across space

In this blog post, Matia Haïm Muller tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the article “Assessment of large-scale spatial variation in age-specific survival and age at first breeding in a long-lived species”, recently published in the Journal of Animal Ecology. The study uses long-term ringing, resighting and dead-recovery data from more than 90,000 white storks across Germany to reveal how survival and age at first breeding differ … Continue reading Same species, different life histories: how survival and age at first breeding vary across space

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#StoryBehindThePaper, Guest post

Arm-deep in Arctic rocks: what a changing Arctic means for Little Auks

This blog post is provided by Martyna Syposz and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the article “Snowmelt predicts earlier breeding across the latitudinal range of an Arctic nesting seabird, the Little Auk (Alle alle)“, which was recently published in Journal of Animal Ecology. This study examined how snowmelt timing is linked to breeding onset in several little auk colonies over time. The High Arctic is not … Continue reading Arm-deep in Arctic rocks: what a changing Arctic means for Little Auks

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#StoryBehindThePaper, Guest post

Ground-nesting birds in agriculture landscapes: what is the negative effect of forest patches and how can parents cope with it?

This blog post is provided by Guillaume Dillenseger, and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the article “Predator-guild-specific parental responses mitigate higher predation risk on ground nests close to forest patches in a mosaic landscape“, which was recently published in Journal of Animal Ecology. This study tested whether predation risk of experimental lapwing nests and aggressive responses by breeding lapwings to stuffed nest predators may depend on distance … Continue reading Ground-nesting birds in agriculture landscapes: what is the negative effect of forest patches and how can parents cope with it?

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#StoryBehindThePaper, Guest post

Plasticity in Parental Care

This blog post is provided by Casey Patmore and Per T Smiseth and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the article “Plasticity in parental care: Interspecific competitor cues shape biparental cooperation in a burying beetle”, which was recently published in Journal of Animal Ecology. This study examined how burying beetle parental care and breeding success was affected by interspecific competition. We investigated how perceived risk of interspecific … Continue reading Plasticity in Parental Care

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#StoryBehindThePaper, Guest post

The art of doing as little as possible: What howler monkeys can teach us about energy and time

This blog post is provided by Pedro A. D. Dias and Ariadna Rangel-Negrín from the Primate Behavioral Ecology Lab, Universidad Veracruzana, México, and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the article “Does energy minimisation constrain behavioural plasticity? Long-term activity budgets of a model folivore–frugivore“, which was recently published in Journal of Animal Ecology. This study examined how activity budgets of mantled howler monkeys in Los Tuxtlas, México, … Continue reading The art of doing as little as possible: What howler monkeys can teach us about energy and time

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#StoryBehindThePaper, Guest post

When temperature is not the whole story: Seasonality and human influence shape energy use in wild trout populations

This blog post is provided by Meng Xu and Ignasi Arranz and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the article “Season and human footprint weaken the negative effect of temperature on the intraspecific metabolic scaling exponent of wild brown trout populations“, which was recently published in Journal of Animal Ecology. This study examined how temperature and other environmental variables affect metabolic scaling in wild brown trout. Brown trout … Continue reading When temperature is not the whole story: Seasonality and human influence shape energy use in wild trout populations

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#StoryBehindThePaper, Guest post

Environmental phenology drives spring migration timing 

This blog post is provided by Oleg Bourski and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the article “Environmental phenology drives spring migration timing“, which was recently published in Journal of Animal Ecology. This study utilises long-term bird arrival data in central Siberia to demonstrate the effectiveness of utilising the environmental phenology index to predict arrival dates. In the context of increasing global warming, it is important to … Continue reading Environmental phenology drives spring migration timing 

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#StoryBehindThePaper, Guest post

Diving into a Quarter-Century of  Penguin Energetics

This blog post is provided by Benjamin Dupuis and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the article “Energetics link long-term environmental variations to breeding success in a wild penguin population“, which was recently published in Journal of Animal Ecology. This study used long-term bio-logging data to examine how individual responses to environmental variation affect Adélie penguin population dynamics. For the majority of time since humans have tried … Continue reading Diving into a Quarter-Century of  Penguin Energetics

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Associate editor post, Conference Report, Diversity in Ecology

Showcasing equitable collaborations at BES 2025

This blog post is provided by Rowan Kuminski (Associate Blog Editor, Journal of Animal Ecology) and features the work of three presenters at BES 2025 who are taking steps to form equitable collaborations in the field of ecology. This year BES (British Ecological Society) 2025 took place in Edinburgh from 15-18 December, and demonstrated a fantastic breadth of research being done in the field of … Continue reading Showcasing equitable collaborations at BES 2025

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