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Social lizards know what is more but not what is bigger!

by Whiting | Jul 16, 2021 | Cognition, Egernia, Publications

This blog post was written by Birgit Szabo. Birgit did her PhD in the Lizard Lab, working on cognition in lizards, with a focus on behavioural flexibility. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bern in Switzerland, working in Dr. Eva...

Do I, or don’t I? Are lizards capable of inhibitory control?

by Whiting | Oct 1, 2020 | Behaviour, Cognition

Blog post by Sebastian Hoefer We often think of reptiles as somewhat simple – entirely driven by instinct and the basic need for survival. That is where the expression “Reptilian Brain” comes from. It is certainly true that the anatomy of the reptile brain is...

Dr. Birgit Szabo talks lizard smarts!

by Whiting | Oct 15, 2019 | Behaviour, Cognition, Egernia, Lab news

Birgit recently gave a public lecture about her research on lizard cognition at a mini-conference “The Future of Herpetology, Inspiring Women and Forgotten Frogs: A conference promoting women’s voices in herpetology”. Watch her talk (below) and find out...

Blue-tongue lizards are born smart, at least as smart as their parents!

by Whiting | Aug 29, 2019 | Bluetongue lizard, Bluetongue skink, Cognition

By Birgit Szabo As children we have much to learn after we are born. We learn to walk, to talk, to develop our social skills, and when we start school we learn how to read, write and do maths. ​Humans, and many other animals, are considered altricial, meaning that...

Hot off the press! An invasive lizard species can learn from other species

by Whiting | Oct 18, 2018 | Cognition, Conservation, Podarcis, Publications

Check out our new paper on social learning in the Italian wall lizard, Podarcis sicula. This work formed part of Isabel Damas’ PhD thesis, and it was a huge effort! The question of what makes an invasive species successful compared to other species, that may fail to...

What tree skinks know about change: A story in colour and shape

by Whiting | Sep 12, 2018 | Cognition, Egernia, Publications, Sociality

Note from Martin Whiting: This blog posts details a chapter of Birgit Szabo’s PhD recently published in Animal Behaviour and represents an enormous amount of work. Birgit did a 9-month cognition experiment, which could be the longest lizard cognition experiment...
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