Andy Radford

@andyradford

Professor of Behavioural Ecology @ Bristol | social behaviour, vocal communication, cooperation, conflict, global change biology | love teaching and mentoring | love family time more

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Andy Radford@andyradford· 3d

Motorboat noise playback during development affected fish in quiet conditions. Fish exposed as embryos and juveniles less likely to respond to predator attack. Juvenile exposure limited growth, whether exposed as embryos or not. Work done at #LizardIsland doi.org/10.1016/j.en...

Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia.

Andy Radford@andyradford· 3d

📢 Out NOW in #EnvironmentalPollution is work led by #PhD student #LauraVelasquezJimenez showing that motorboat noise during development limits reef fish growth & impairs subsequent anti-predator responses. 🐟 @sophienedelec.bsky.social @profstevesimpson.bsky.social doi.org/10.1016/j.en...

Graphical abstract for new paper in Environmental Pollution

Spiny chromis - fish species used in the new study.

Andy Radford@andyradford· 25d

The result of 10+ years of fieldwork & analysis of 1000s of data points is out now in @natecoevo.nature.com... and on the cover! Mongoose pre-emptive behaviour & intergroup conflict Congratulations @josharbon.bsky.social @juliekern.bsky.social #AmyMorris-Drake doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Cover of Nature Ecology & Evolution August 2026 issue featuring a dwarf mongoose

Andy Radford@andyradford· Jul 20

👏Congratulations @josharbon.bsky.social on a fantastic new #TREE review from #NERC funded postdoc. doi.org/10.1016/j.tr... #OpenAccess; please share. 💬If you're at #ISBE2026 & interested in #pre-emptive behaviour and/or intergroup #conflict, seek Josh out for a chat. @isbe2026.bsky.social

Meerkat acting as a sentinel looking out for danger, including rival groups.

Green woodhoopoe exiting roost hole that is the key resource defended against rival groups. Photo by Warwick Tarboten.

Andy Radford@andyradford· Jul 17

🤗Delighted our review on pre-emptive behaviour in a landscape of intergroup conflict is out now in @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social 🎓Resulting from endless fascinating chats with @josharbon.bsky.social #warfare #NERC #conflict #mammals #birds @bristolbiosci.bsky.social doi.org/10.1016/j.tr...

Dwarf mongoose acting as a sentinel looking out for rival groups in South Africa.

Green woodhoopoes allopreening one another in anticipation of conflict with rival groups

Meerkats standing together in the face of a threat from a rival group

Andy Radford@andyradford· Jun 30

Honoured & humbled to have won the global #KeystoneAward for 'Outstanding Teaching & Mentoring' www.keg.com/keystone-awa... A HUGE thank you to all the amazing #ECRs I have been privileged to work with & who wrote such heart-felt testimonials 🙏 @bristolbiosci.bsky.social @brisunipress.bsky.social

Andy Radford@andyradford· Jun 17

🎉Celebrating the brilliant, dedicated, inspiring #ECRs who made our new #paper possible: 🌟@juliekern.bsky.social set up the long-term project 🌟She & #AmyMorris-Drake helped manage it for a decade 🌟@josharbon.bsky.social wrangled the large datasets The wonderful result: doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Dr Julie Kern, founder of the Dwarf Mongoose Research Project weighing wild dwarf mongooses

Dr Amy Morris-Drake watching a habituated group of wild dwarf mongooses in South Africa

Dr Josh Arbon at the Dwarf Mongoose Research Project study site in South Africa

Andy Radford@andyradford· Jun 16

👏Our new paper uses #long-term data... 📚Over 1,600 daily movement tracks, 16,000 sentinel observations & 2,000 sleeping burrow returns 🙏HUGE thanks to the 83 research assistants, 12 field managers, 13 MSc students & 5 PhD students who contributed to the datasets. #awesome doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Dwarf mongooses climbing over data-collection notebooks at field site in South Africa

Andy Radford@andyradford· Jun 16

🎉Out today: the labour of love that's our NEW paper showing dwarf #mongooses pre-emptively change #behaviour in anticipation of #intergroup #conflict... & this depends on relative group size (threat level). 👥Led by the brilliant @josharbon.bsky.social @natecoevo.nature.com doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Andy Radford@andyradford· Jun 3

🤗 Delighted that a dwarf #mongoose has made the front cover of #ProcB 📑 Their #grooming & #sentinel exchanges inspired the modelling of biological #markets in our new paper: doi.org/10.1098/rspb... 👥 @beckypadget.bsky.social #AndyHigginson 🎓 @bristolbiosci.bsky.social @royalsocietypublishing.org

Front cover of issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society Series B featuring a dwarf mongoose acting as sentinel

Andy Radford@andyradford· May 20

Plural is mongooses. And they are great. ☺️

Andy Radford@andyradford· May 20

Public-goods scenarios include: #sentinel #behaviour #intergroup #conflict #collective #hunting Ideas ripe for #empirical testing #mammals #birds #fish Work inspired by dwarf #mongooses grooming groupmates as a reward for sentinel behaviour doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

Dwarf mongooses grooming one another in South Africa

Dwarf mongoose acting as a sentinel. Photo by Shannon Benson

Andy Radford@andyradford· May 6

🚨NEW paper today in @royalsocietypublishing.org #ProceedingsB 🔥A slow burner but worth it - CONGRATULATIONS #EmilyBell on #PhD output 📑Limits to behavioural plasticity in tropical paper wasps 👥 #ChrisWyatt #DaisyTaylor @waspwoman.bsky.social @bristolbiosci.bsky.social doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

Polistes canadensis paper wasps on a nest

Andy Radford@andyradford· Apr 10

⏰Time running out - deadline 19th April - to apply for funded #PhD: 🪶Quantifying animal movement patterns & behavioural interactions in a changing world 👥Joint with us @bristolbiosci.bsky.social & #SimonGriffith #MacquarieUniversity #modelling #birds #mammals #Australia ℹ️ tinyurl.com/343acaev

Andy Radford@andyradford· Apr 2

Simulated within-group aggression led to bystanders distancing themselves from aggressors & reduced cooperative vigilance. Increases in intergroup threat reset proximity between groupmates but vigilance remained impacted. Conflict in groups can thus impact both within- & between-group behaviour.

Andy Radford@andyradford· Apr 2

🚨NEW paper in @asab.org #AnimalBehaviour - field #experiments testing how elevated within-group aggression & intergroup threat combine to affect mongoose #behaviour Led by @josharbon.bsky.social with @juliekern.bsky.social & #AmyMorris-Drake #mammals #bioacoustics #conflict doi.org/10.1016/j.an...

Andy Radford@andyradford· Mar 27

📢Fully-funded #PhD opportunity with us ❓Quantifying animal #movement patterns & behavioural #interactions in a changing world 👥Joint position in @bristolbiosci.bsky.social & #MacquarieUniversity 📆19th April deadline tinyurl.com/343acaev #maths #modelling #data #fieldwork #Australia 🙏PLEASE SHARE

Zebra finches in Australia; one of the study organisms for the PhD

Dwarf mongoose staring at a camera in South Africa; one of the PhD study organisms

Andy Radford@andyradford· Mar 26

🥇Poster prize awarded to #AylaWebb at @asab.org #ASABSpring2026 🐝Reproductive hierarchies & queen succession in paper #wasps 🌟CONGRATULATIONS Ayla 🎉 @patrick-kennedy.bsky.social #ProudSupervisors @bristolbiosci.bsky.social @asab-meetings.bsky.social #fieldwork #ECR #PhD #experiments #evolution

PhD student Ayla Webb presenting her prize-winning poster at the ASAB Spring Conference in Bristol in March 2026.

Andy Radford@andyradford· Mar 25

CONGRATULATIONS to @laurenvane.bsky.social and #JamesRobertshaw on delivering such great talks at the #ASABSpring2026 conference. #ProudSupervisor #ECRs #PhD #Masters #meerkats #mammals #bioacoustics @asab.org @asab-meetings.bsky.social @bristolbiosci.bsky.social

Lauren Vane giving her talk at the ASAB Spring Conference 2026 in Bristol

James Robertshaw giving his talk at the ASAB Spring Conference 2026 in Bristol

Andy Radford@andyradford· Mar 20

Out NOW in #new issue of #BehavioralEcology is #PhD student #YouZhou's latest great work: To flee or wait and see? Response of incubating white-browed scrubwrens to information about danger With #RobMagrath #antipredator #playback #experiment #fieldwork #birds #bioacoustics doi.org/10.1093/behe...

White-browed scrubwren female acting cryptically on her hidden nest in Australia

Andy Radford@andyradford· Feb 25

📢NEW paper alert 📖How #aggression between groupmates can have lasting consequences both for #cooperative #behaviour & responses to #intergroup threats: doi.org/10.1016/j.an... 👑Led by @josharbon.bsky.social #fieldwork #experiments #mongooses #mammals #bioacoustics @bristolbiosci.bsky.social

Schematic of experimental design in new study.

Dwarf mongoose acting as a sentinel in Limpopo Province, South Africa

Andy Radford@andyradford· Feb 24

Lola's thesis was on 'Acoustic communication in choughs & a changing world: from functions to fitness'. One data chapter based on #fieldwork, including #experiments, with white-winged choughs. Another a systematic #review on consequences of noise-induced #vocal changes. @bristolbiosci.bsky.social

Andy Radford@andyradford· Feb 24

🥂CONGRATULATIONS to Lola von Kietzell on defending her #Masters by Research thesis with no corrections. 👏 🙏THANK you to @josharbon.bsky.social for cosupervising, #Chun-ChiehLiao & #RobMagrath for brilliant #fieldwork support, and @caglarakcay.bsky.social & @stephanielking.bsky.social as examiners.

Lola von Kietzell in Canberra collecting field data.

Lola von Kietzell with a group of white-winged choughs which she worked on for her Masters.

Andy Radford@andyradford· Feb 4

Delighted that a #trumpetfish has made the 🌟cover🌟 of @royalsocietypublishing.org journal #ProceedingsB. Read about how these predatory #fish hide against similarly coloured non-threatening species to #camouflage on the move in our #OpenAccess article: doi.org/10.1098/rspb... #behaviour #marine

Front cover of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B showing a trumpetfish shadowing a non-threatening species of a similar colour to aid its hunting success.

Andy Radford@andyradford· Feb 2

📢NEW paper: Out today in #BehavioralEcology is the latest result of dedicated #fieldwork by brilliant #PhD student #YouZhou from @biologyanu.bsky.social To Flee or Wait and See? Response of Incubating White-browed Scrubwrens to Information about Danger #birds #bioacoustics doi.org/10.1093/behe...

White-browed scrubwren in Australia looking to attend cryptic nest; photo by Robert Magrath

Andy Radford@andyradford· Jan 2

Lovely start to the year - 1st paper of #PhD student #NatalieTegtman out in latest issue of @asab.org #AnimalBehaviour How a novel #call changes responses to #alarms: doi.org/10.1016/j.an... CONGRATULATIONS Natalie; thanks #RobMagrath; Happy New Year all. 🎉 #animalcommunication #birds #fairywren

Superb fairy wren in Canberra, Australia.

Andy Radford@andyradford· Dec 30

🚨Roll up, roll up, fully-funded #PhD deadlines approaching... 6th Jan: tinyurl.com/aja54nr6 8th Jan: tinyurl.com/4jfy47pp Social monitoring & manipulation #meerkats #mongooses #macaques #fieldwork #long-termdata @patrick-kennedy.bsky.social @ljnbrent.bsky.social @bristolbiosci.bsky.social

Andy Radford@andyradford· Dec 17

🌟Huge CONGRATULATIONS to @patrick-kennedy.bsky.social who has won the @asab.org Christopher Barnard Award for Outstanding Contributions by a New Investigator. 🤗 Research on social evolution and what links climate & cooperation in a changing world, using #wasps as models. #worthywinner #ECR #proud

Dr Patrick Kennedy, winner of the ASAB Christopher Barnard Award.

Andy Radford@andyradford· Dec 10

Honoured & humbled to receive a #Nature #Award for #Mentoring in #Science yesterday. ☺️ Testament to the wonderful #ECRs I've been privileged to work with. THANK YOU to all who nominated me. 🙏 #proud #support @natureportfolio.nature.com @bristolbiosci.bsky.social www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2025/de...

Certificate for winning Nature Award for Mentoring in Science

Professor Andy Radford with some of his mentees at the University of Bristol

Andy Radford@andyradford· Dec 8

This #MongooseMonday, some brilliant folk: @juliekern.bsky.social: set up the Dwarf Mongoose Research Project & co-ran it for 7 years; Masters, PhD, PDRA #AmyMorris-Drake: RA, Masters & PhD, PDRA; co-managed for 6 years @josharbon.bsky.social: Masters, PDRA, database guru #amazing #priceless