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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...

Competing through eating: lessons from a lizard

by Whiting | Sep 13, 2020 | Behaviour, Publications

Post by Isabel Damas One way invasive species can have a major impact on ecosystems, is by threatening native species, particularly through competition for resources. Animals typically use two strategies to out-compete their opponents: they can be directly aggressive...

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...

Tree skinks go to school: The complexities of social learning in lizards

by Fonti Kar | Jun 27, 2018 | Behaviour, Cognition, Egernia, Publications, Social intelligence, Sociality, Tree skink project

By: Fonti Kar & Julia Riley “Never study an animal that is smarter than you” – Dr Martin Whiting Animals learn about their environment and use what they have learnt while foraging, to increase mating success, avoid predators, and overall increase their...

Skinks and Ladders: A family-living lizard’s learning ability is not affected by their home environment

by Riley | Dec 30, 2016 | Cognition, Egernia, Herpetology, Publications, Social behaviour, Tree skink project

By Julia Riley A family-living lizard’s ability to navigate through a complex maze is not linked to how they were raised We have found that the learning ability of the Tree Skink, a lizard that lives with family, is not linked to growing up with others. These lizards...
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