When I was a kid I kept asking: why? Luckily, I never grew out of my childhood curiosity. Instead, it drove me to immerse myself in the world of evolutionary biology. At the end of the day, the theory of evolution tries to answer all the “whys” of life on earth.

The rural Bolivia of my childhood was an utterly inspiring place for a future evolutionary biologist: why do frogs sing when the summer rains arrive? Why do fireflies glow so vividly in the neighbour’s corn field? Why do the flowers in the garden seem to seduce hummingbirds?

With the bright lights of curiosity well lit, I embarked the journey that would lead me to start understanding the beauty and complexity of the natural world. During that journey, I fell in love with science as a way to achieve knowledge and I did a PhD in evolutionary biology.

Groups of ostriches can be of many different sizes, from pairs to around twenty birds. But why do ostrich groups vary so much? Here you can read more about what me and my collaborators did to answer this question: elifesciences.org/digests/77170/… Mads F. Schou

When is a social group too big, or too small? Is there an optimal group size? Me and my collaborators set up unprecedented behavioural experiments with ostriches to answer these questions. Check out our latest paper bellow! elifesciences.org/articles/77170 Mads F. Schou

In middle-sized ostrich groups, males keep thinking about sex, even when females are already incubating their eggs. The result? Lots of broken eggs! Read more about it on our latest paper. elifesciences.org/articles/77170 Mads F. Schou Charlie Cornwallis eLife - the journal

In the wild, animals live in groups of all sorts of sizes. A recent study on ostriches suggests this might result from the competing evolutionary pros and cons of group living between males and females. elifesciences.org/articles/77170…

The Costs Of Cooperation And Conflict In Group Living | study out of Lund University, published by eLife - the journal by The DeathCult Is Marching Us Off The Cliff 🇺🇦 via Forbes Science / Forbes #conservation #evolution #cooperation #conflict #group #ecology #breeding #behavior #ostrich #SciComm forbes.com/sites/grrlscie…

Come and work with me at Auburn Football SDS (Denmark) in a new PhD position on genetics of thermal adaptation of ostriches! Deadline: 1st August More info and apply here shorturl.at/qvQRU DM/email me if you have questions  #PhDChat #PhDLife #AcademicChatter #phd #PhDposition #Evol2023