David Sherry is the recipient of the Comparative Cognition Society’s 2021 Research Award, presented to honour “scientists who have made major contributions to our understanding of animal cognition during their career”. The award was presented at the 28^th Annual Conference of the society April 7-10 2021, held virtually this year and featuring a symposium of invited talks by David’s colleagues and former students. Talks will be published in a forthcoming special issue of Learning & Behavior.

Congratulations to Maddie Brodbeck and Jeff Martin (co-chairs), and Tanya Shoot (fund raising & program) on the success of the 2^nd International Student Symposium on Animal Behaviour and Cognition held May 17 – 20, 2021 and hosted by Western University. This year’s virtual meeting was attended by 76 participants from 15 countries and featured 39 talks plus 4 plenary speakers, including Avian Cognition Lab alumna Dr. Caroline Strang from the University of Texas at Austin.

Welcome to all! pic.twitter.com/NXDYXtSo1D

— Mélanie Guigueno (@MelanieGuigueno) January 27, 2021

David is the 2020 recipient of the Society of Canadian Ornithologists’ – Société des Ornithologistes du Canada Doris H. Speirs Award for outstanding lifetime contributions to Canadian ornithology.

AFAR is in the process of a phased return to research activity following Western’s Return to Campus Plan and the Western Animal Care Committee’s Research Recovery Plan.  Some behavioural research has resumed along with some histology and microscopy work.

Congratulations to Gloria on a successful defense today of her Master’s thesis in Psychology on dominance rank and cognitive ability in flocks of black-capped chickadees.

A new paper has just been published with colleagues at the Instituto Federal de Educação Ciência e Tecnologia do Pará and the Universidade Federal do Pará – including Cristovam Diniz, Nara Magalhães, Cristovam W.P. Diniz, and others – in which they show that hippocampal astrocytes are differentially affected during autumn migration in two long distance migratory shorebirds, a trans-Atlantic migrant, the semipalmated sandpiper (Calidris pusilla) and an overland migrant, the semipalmated plover (Charadrius semipalmatus).

Henrique, E.P., de Oliveira, M.A., Carvalho Paulo, D., Pereira, P.D.C., Dias, C., de Siqueira, L.S., de Lima, C.M., de Almeida Miranda, D., do Rego, P.S., Araripe, J., de Melo, M.A.D., Diniz, D.G., de Morais Magalhães, N.G., Sherry, D.F., Diniz, C.W.P., Diniz, C.G. (2020). Contrasting migratory journeys and changes in hippocampal astrocyte morphology in shorebirds. European Journal of Neuroscience doi: 10.1111/ejn.14781

Sophie Edwards, Tanya Shoot, and Jeff Martin’s new paper with Sue Healy on nest building has just appeared online.  They show that zebra finches not only build larger nests at low temperatures but also modify their nest building according to previous breeding success.  Unsuccessful birds build larger warmer nests on their next attempt regardless of temperature and have greater breeding success as a result.

Edwards, S.C., Shoot, T.T., Martin, R.J., Sherry, D.F. & Healy, S.D. (2020). It’s not all about temperature: breeding success also affects nest design. Behavioral Ecology doi:10.1093/beheco/araa052

Jordan Phelps and Caroline Strang’s new paper has just been published in which they show that  bumblebees exposed to field realistic levels of the neonicotinoid pesticide imidacloprid are slower to learn a task that simulates flower handling.

Phelps, J. D., Strang, C. G., & Sherry, D. F. (2020). Imidacloprid impairs performance on a model flower handling task in bumblebees (Bombus impatiens). Ecotoxicology, 29, 359-374. doi:10.1007/s10646-020-02182-8

Jeff Martin and Charlotte Kruger’s new paper has appeared in which they show that over-winter temperature can modulate the onset of reproduction in photostimulated  black-capped chickadees.

Martin, R. J., Kruger, M. C., MacDougall-Shackleton, S. A., & Sherry, D. F. (2020). Black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) use temperature as a cue for reproductive timing. General and Comparative Endocrinology, 287. doi:10.1016/j.ygcen.2019.113348