Thrilled to have the first project in my @snsf_ch Ambizione fellowship published in @PNASNews this week. With @VictoireMartig2, @Samellisq and @SavingGorillas, we asked, what is a good social environment for a gorilla? And the answer was complicated.

RT @SavingGorillas: 🦍 Friendship isn’t always simple – even for gorillas. New research shows that social ties can boost or hurt health and….

This finding is something that might help us explain why such a range of social strategies can seemingly exist within species! And you can read more here

Theres a lot to unpack but our overall message is that its not always as straight forward as strong and stable bonds -> better fitness. Patterns appear to be very context dependent and selection pressures on sociality likely vary considerably by age, sex, across groups and time!.

Moreover, we found that these patterns were HIGHLY dependent on social traits of the wider group, for example, whilst females with strong bonds usually showed fewer signs of illness, this pattern reversed in the largest groups.

Females with strong social bonds were generally ill and injured less, but for males there was a trade-off. Strong bonds were linked with considerably lower risk of injury but higher rates of illness

We wanted to understand the effect of individual's social traits e.g. their social bonds and network position as well as traits of their wider group e.g. group size, and composition, on patterns of illness, injury and reproduction

RT @padillaccc: Massive congrats to @DrRobinMorrison and @VictoireMartig2 on this super interesting paper on differences in social behavior….

RT @Will_0_Tree: BEHOLD THE FLAGSHIP PAPER OF MY PHD! 🚢 I trained wild and zoo housed Guinea baboons to pull a lever for peanuts to test wh….

RT @drchrisyoung1: Field based research assistants wanted to work on baboons in South Africa expenses paid. See below 👇 Might be of interes….

RT @ljnbrent: Less than 1 month left to apply for this PhD opportunity that asks how ecological disturbance shapes social networks with me….

RT @heeg_uzh: Proud of our brilliant lab members for their fantastic talks at the FRESH 2024 conference ! 👏🥂 @VictoireMartig2 @ChiragChit6….

RT @heeg_uzh: Wrapping up the conference with a group picture ✨ cheers to our incredible team 🎉🎉 . @andrea_migliano @VictoireMartig2 @seabl….

RT @ljnbrent: New PhD opportunity on social behaviour in the context of ecological disturbance. Sept 2025 start, funded by NERC @GW4plusDTP….

RT @jtung5: Post-doc opportunity to work with the fantastic not-on-X Linda Vigilant on great ape population genomics! Come join us at @MPI_….

I absolutely loved doing my postdoc with @SavingGorillas! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about what its like to work there.

POSTDOC ADVERT: The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund is hiring a postdoc on their NIH project examining how early life adversity influences aging. Particularly looking for someone who can support lab analyses of physiological biomarkers. Please share!

RT @LauraDBertola: 📢📢📢Great opportunity in South Africa 🇿🇦:.Workshop/Course on Conservation Genetics & Wildlife Management, 9-13 December.….

RT @mbchimp: 🚨Paid research assistant position with savanna chimpanzees in the incredible #MoyenBafing. Come work with us and help us get t….

RT @heeg_uzh: Proud of @VictoireMartig2 for presenting her first PhD chapter on female dispersal in mountain gorillas @LaSFDP in Toulouse 🦍….