Animal Ecology in Focus

This blog post is provided by Felicia Keesing and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the article “Climate warming, acorn masting, and the dynamics of rodent populations: Comparing long-term studies“, which was recently published in Journal of Animal Ecology. This study takes advantage of the accidental similarity between two long-term studies of acorns, rodents, and climate, exploring…

This blog post is provided by Meng Xu and Ignasi Arranz and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the article “Season and human footprint weaken the negative effect of temperature on the intraspecific metabolic scaling exponent of wild brown trout populations“, which was recently published in Journal of Animal Ecology. This study examined how temperature and other environmental variables…

Maria del Mar Labrador (she/her) provides the story behind her paper, “Host space, not energy or symbiont size, constrains feather mite abundance across passerine bird species“, which was shortlisted for this year’s Elton Prize. We also hear a little about her journey into animal ecology About the paper What is your shortlisted paper about, and what are you seeking to answer with your research? T…

Lucas Invernizzi (he/him) provides the story behind his paper, “The Expensive Son hypothesis“, which was shortlisted for this year’s Elton Prize. We also hear a little about his journey into animal ecology About the paper: What is your shortlisted paper about, and what are you seeking to answer with your research? In many species, males and females differ in size and developmental needs. Our pape…

Angus Mitchell (he/him) provides the story behind his paper, “Tropical fishes can benefit more from novel than familiar species interactions at their cold-range edges“ which was shortlisted for this year’s Elton Prize. We also hear a little about his journey into animal ecology. About the paper What is your shortlisted paper about, and what are you seeking to answer with your research? Our paper …

Marco Fioratti Junod (he/him) provides the story behind his paper, “Herbivory mediates the response of below-ground food-webs to invasive grasses“, which was shortlisted for this year’s Elton Prize. We also hear a little about his journey into animal ecology. About the paper: What is your shortlisted paper about, and what are you seeking to answer with your research? The study deals with the comb…

Ameli Kirse (she/her) provides the story behind her paper, “The clockwork of insect activity: advancing ecological understanding through automation“, which was shortlisted for this year’s Elton Prize. We also hear a little about her journey into animal ecology. About the paper: What is your shortlisted paper about, and what are you seeking to answer with your research? In this paper, we explore h…

Alex Maisey (he/him) provides the story behind his paper, “Foraging activity by an ecosystem engineer, the superb lyrebird, ‘farms’ its invertebrate prey“, which was shortlisted for this year’s Elton Prize. We also hear a little about his journey into animal ecology. About the paper What is your shortlisted paper about, and what are you seeking to answer with your research? Our paper,“foraging ac…

Jeremy Van Driessche (he/him) provides the story behind his paper, “Water economics of African savanna herbivores: how much does plant moisture matter?“, which was shortlisted for this year’s Elton Prize. We also hear a little about his journey into animal ecology. About the paper: What is your shortlisted paper about, and what are you seeking to answer with your research? Water is the only non-s…

Elizabeth Postema (she/her) provides the story behind her paper, “Eyespot peek-a-boo: Leaf rolls enhance the antipredator effect of insect eyespots“, which was shortlisted for this year’s Elton Prize. We also hear a little about her journey into animal ecology. About the paper: What is your shortlisted paper about, and what are you seeking to answer with your research? In this paper, I was intere…

This blog post is provided by Thomas Haaland and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the article “Eco-evolutionary dynamics of partially migratory metapopulations in spatially and seasonally varying environments”, which was recently published in Journal of Animal Ecology. This study models how coexistence of seasonal migration and year-round residence arises and is maintained in a metapopulation c…

Martin C. Arostegui (he/him) provides the story behind his paper, “Cranial endothermy in mobulid rays: evolutionary and ecological implications of a thermogenic brain“, which was shortlisted for this year’s Elton Prize. We also hear a little about his journey into animal ecology. About the paper: What is your shortlisted paper about, and what are you seeking to answer with your research? The abil…

The Elton Prize, awarded by Journal of Animal Ecology, is an annual award given to the best paper by an author at the start of their research career. The following 9 papers were shortlisted by our Senior Editors and span the 94th volume of the journal. Marco Fioratti Junod with “Herbivory mediates the response of below-ground food-webs to invasive grasses“ Angus Mitchell with “Tropical fishes can…

This blog post is provided by Arthemis Moraru, Stefano Anile, and Sébastien Devillard and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the article, “Global determinants of home range sizes in Felids: evidence of human disturbance impact”, which was recently published in the Journal of Animal Ecology. In their study, Moraru and colleagues conduct the first global meta-analysis of home range size across wild…

Join our Senior Assistant Editor and Associate Blog Editors in developing ‘Animal Ecology in Focus’, a dedicated blog for the Journal of Animal Ecology. The Animal Ecology in Focus blog supports the journal by acting as a platform to discuss the latest ecological research, debates in fields and general topics of interest to ecologists. It is the primary route the journal offers to authors and mem…

This blog post is provided by Oleg Bourski and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the article “Environmental phenology drives spring migration timing“, which was recently published in Journal of Animal Ecology. This study utilises long-term bird arrival data in central Siberia to demonstrate the effectiveness of utilising the environmental phenology index to predict arrival dates. In the context …

This blog post is provided by Benjamin Dupuis and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the article “Energetics link long-term environmental variations to breeding success in a wild penguin population“, which was recently published in Journal of Animal Ecology. This study used long-term bio-logging data to examine how individual responses to environmental variation affect Adélie penguin population d…

This blog post is provided by Rowan Kuminski (Associate Blog Editor, Journal of Animal Ecology) and features the work of three presenters at BES 2025 who are taking steps to form equitable collaborations in the field of ecology. This year BES (British Ecological Society) 2025 took place in Edinburgh from 15-18 December, and demonstrated a fantastic breadth of research being done in the field of e…

This blog post is provided by Adrián Colino Barea and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the article “Herbivore and mesocarnivore carcasses trigger divergent short-term changes in soil properties“, which was recently published in Journal of Animal Ecology. This study explored the differences in scavenger activity and soil properties at mesocarnivore and herbivore carcasses. At dawn in Sierra Espu…

This blog post is provided by Sofía Ten and Francisco Javier Aznar, and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the article “Long-term trends of epibionts reflect Mediterranean striped dolphin abundance shifts caused by morbillivirus epidemics”, which was recently published in the Journal of Animal Ecology. This study explores the epidemiology of dolphin morbillivirus (DMV) and the potential of epibio…