ASAB Spring Conference
March 23rd-25th, 2026
University of Bristol
University of Bristol
| Home | Registration | Programme | Workshop |
| WORKSHOP DAY |
| Details of the workshop sessions are here |
| 09:00 | Registration opens |
| If you haven't registered already, please pick up your name badge at the registration desk in the Life Sciences Building |
| 09:25 | Welcome to the conference |
| 9:30 |
PLENARY TALK The biology and relevance of positive animal welfare: a work in progress |
|
Alistair LAWRENCE Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), UK |
| 10:30 | Longitudinal assessment of conflict behaviours between show jumping horses and riders during competition: evidence from a three-year study (2023–2025) |
|
Gábor TATAI, Liza Tóth & Ádám Miklósi ELTE University, Budapest, Hungary; Nuertingen-Geislingen University (HfWU), Germany |
| 10:45 | Farmer perceptions and management of lowland paca (Cuniculus paca) welfare: a qualitative investigation of Brazilian farming practices |
|
Lucas Pereira ROSSINI, Alison Bard, Selene Siqueira da Cunha Nogueira, Carole Fureix & Michael T Mendl University of Bristol, UK; Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Brazil |
| 11:00 | Coffee break |
| Life Sciences Building Atrium |
| 11.45 | Investigating the proposed affective motivations of facial expressions |
|
Julia M. MACHADO, Bridget Waller, Samantha Ward & Annika Paukner Nottingham Trent University, UK |
| 12:00 | Balancing act: the impact of community feeders on free-ranging dog populations |
|
Rubina MONDAL, Ayanika Das, Mainak Mitra, Sritama Banerjee & Anindita Bhadra Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata, India |
| 12:15 | From competition to computation: building “ground truth” for AI-based affective state assessment in ridden horses |
|
Gabriel C. LENCIONI, Camie Heleski, Carole Fureix, Natalie Waran, Rafael V. de Sousa & Adroaldo J. Zanella University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil; University of Kentucky, Lexington, United States; NavigateWelfare Consultancy, New Zealand; University of Bristol, UK |
| 12:30 | Starvation impairs mate acquisition but not post-copulatory allocation in Drosophila melanogaster |
|
Ashwin SURYANARAYANAN, Amy Mulholland, Lily Amos, Ana Marquez Rosado, Nicola White, Liam Dougherty & Stuart Wigby University of Liverpool, UK |
| 12:45 | The evolution of nervous systems and memory in Heliconius butterflies |
|
Amaia ALCALDE ANTON, Elizabeth Hodge, Laura Hebberetch, Owen McMillan & Steve Montgomery University of Bristol, UK; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama |
| 13:00 | Lunch |
| Life Sciences Building Atrium |
| 14:00 |
CHRIS BARNARD MEDAL LECTURE Life advice for selfish genes |
|
Patrick KENNEDY University of Bristol, UK |
| 15:00 | Tuesday Poster Session |
| Life Sciences Building Atrium |
| 15:45 | The enemy of my enemy is my friend: intergroup conflict and cooperation in the Pacific dampwood termite (Zootermopsis angusticollis) |
|
Jasmine LOWE, M Cant & F Thompson University of Exeter, UK |
| 16:00 | Effects of sociality on the gut microbiome in wild chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) |
|
Jemima FRAME, Tamsyn Uren-Webster & Ines Fürtbauer Swansea University, UK |
| 16:15 | Holding partners accountable: partner control as a mechanism for stabilising reciprocal cooperation in Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) |
|
Jose P TORRES-CAMPOS & Manon Schweinfurth University of St Andrews, UK |
| 16:30 | Social, behavioural, and morphological ontogeny of wild European rabbits |
|
Elisabeth G CHAPMAN, Lauren Brent, Andrew N Radford & Sam Ellis University of Exeter, UK; University of Bristol, UK |
| 16:45 | Predator strategies in response to a plastic collective prey defence |
|
Korbinian PACHER, David Bierbach, Yunus Sevinchan, Pawel Romanczuk, Lenin Arias-Rodriguez & Jens Krause Humboldt University Berlin, Germany |
| 17:00 | Inter-group conflict and pre-emptive behaviour in meerkats |
|
James F ROBERTSHAW, Lauren Vane, Josh Arbon, Marta Manser & Andrew N Radford University of Bristol, UK; University of Cambridge, UK; University of Zurich, Switzerland |
| 17:15 | Understanding the underlying factors of scent communication in the banded mongoose, Mungos mungo |
|
Lucie A MURPHY, Hazel Nichols, Barbra Caspers, Michael Cant, Francis Mwanguhya & David Wells Swansea University, UK |
| 17:30 | Conference day ends. External social event from ~18:30 |
| 09:00 | Registration opens |
| If you haven't registered already, please pick up your name badge at the registration desk in the Life Sciences Building |
| 09:25 | Introduction |
| 9:30 |
PLENARY TALK Dynamic inter-group cooperation in ant nest networks |
|
Elva ROBINSON University of York, UK |
| 10:30 | Vocal regulation of cooperation in meerkats |
|
Lauren S VANE, James F Robertshaw, Josh J Arbon, Marta Manser & Andrew N Radford University of Bristol, UK; University of Cambridge, UK; University of Zurich, Switzerland |
| 10:45 | Bold and bright or social and striped? Exploring the relationship between colour change, sociality, and boldness in a shoaling fish |
|
Ella ACKROYD, Mark Briffa, Katherine Herborn & Alex Wilson University of Plymouth, UK |
| 11:00 | Coffee break |
| Life Sciences Building Atrium |
| 11:30 | Do sublethal pesticides alter antipredator behaviour in wild insects? |
|
Emily R GILFORD, Miranda Johnstone, Mark Pitt, Rolando Rodríguez-Muñoz, Chris Bass, Tom Tregenza & Bram Kuijper University of Exeter, UK; University of Glasgow, UK |
| 11:45 | Gay moths: the role of social environment and chemical communication in same-sex sexual behaviours in Plodia interpunctella |
|
Erika KUPYROVA, Liam R Dougherty, Tabitha Beesley & Zenobia Lewis University of Liverpool, UK |
| 12:00 | Quantifying the impacts of cold snaps on bumblebee colonies |
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Victoria MALLINSON, Anne-Gaëlle Bouic, Zoe Body, Richard Comont, Christoph Grüter & Harry Siviter University of Bristol, UK; University of Rennes, France; Bumblebee Conservation Trust, UK |
| 12:15 | Simulated heatwaves differentially impact bumblebee sucrose responsiveness and memory |
|
Katherin M RODRIGUEZ LEON, Andres Arenas, Christoph Grüter & Harry Siviter University of Bristol, UK |
| 12:30 | Impact of farming practices on the cultural evolution of Corn buntings (Emberiza calandra) |
|
Marianne SARFATI & Robert F Lachlan Royal Holloway, University of London, UK |
| 12:45 | Lunch |
| Life Sciences Building Atrium |
| 13:45 | Nasonia vitripennis males exhibit greater effort and competency in detecting hosts with conspecific females than other Nasonia males |
|
TARUNA, Bharat K Sirasva, Satyjit Jena, Diptimayee Behera, Anoop Ambili, Ruchira Sen & Rhitoban Raychoudhury Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali, India; IndiaSri Guru Gobind Singh College, India |
| 14:00 | Exploring male and female mate choice using genetic algorithms and digital phenotypes |
|
Kathryn BULLOUGH, George Hancock & Laura Kelley University of Exeter, UK |
| 14:15 | Predation risk shapes among- and within-individual variation in behaviour in poison frog tadpoles |
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Josie McPHERSON, Patrick Walsh, Julien Martin & Eva Ringler University of Edinburgh, UK; University of Bern, Switzerland; University of Ottawa, Canada |
| 14:30 | Food supplementation alters the daily activity rhythms of wild wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus) |
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Aniela M DEXTER, Aidan O’Donnell, Sarah Reece & Amy Pedersen University of Edinburgh, UK |
| 14:45 | Why add an entrance tube to a nest? |
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Daniel C MARSH, Sally E Street & Susan D Healy University of St Andrews, UK; Durham University, UK |
| 15:00 | Wednesday Poster Session |
| Life Sciences Building Atrium |
| 15:40 | FILM COMPETITION |
| 16:10 | The forms and structures of chimpanzee algae fishing |
|
Charlotte WILTSHIRE, EG Wessling, L Samuni & C Hobaiter University of St Andrews, UK |
| 16:25 | Polyandry enhances fecundity but not lifetime fitness in female house sparrows |
|
Maria FILIPPOU, Jamie Dunning, Terry Burke & Julia Schroeder University of Oxford, UK; Imperial College London, UK; University of Sheffield, UK |
| 16:40 | Closing remarks and prizes |
| 17:00 | Conference ends! |