XXII Congress of the Portuguese Society for Ethology concludes at the University of Algarve

The XXI Congress of the Portuguese Society for Ethology (#SPEetol2025), supported by CCMAR, gathered close to 100 participants at the University of Algarve’s Penha Campus for two days of scientific exchange focused on animal behaviour in a changing world. Approximately 28 oral communications and 15 posters were presented, spanning freshwater, marine and terrestrial animals.  

This year’s edition highlighted the breadth of ethology in Portugal and beyond, bringing together early-career scientists and senior researchers to discuss welfare, cognition, communication, climate impacts and social behaviour.

Pre-conference workshop

The meeting was preceded on 29 October by a hands-on workshop led by Ásgeir Bjarnason (Star-Oddi), who introduced participants to the use of advanced data loggers to monitor animal movements and physiology — a promising tool for ethological research.

Day 1 — Welfare & Acoustic Communication

The conference opened on 30 October with remarks from the Portuguese Ethological Society, followed by the first plenary talk from Melissa Bateson (Newcastle University, UK). Her talk demonstrated how behavioural principles can help explain variation in human and animal feeding behaviour and physiology, offering insights on why we behave and even look different under different perceptions of food abundance.

The opening session, Welfare, introduced key reflections on the importance of environmental enrichment and habituation in behavioural studies. Talks in this session explored how environmental enrichment and habituation shape behaviour and welfare across species, from gilthead seabream and seabass to nurse hounds. Presenters also showcased new tools such as deep-learning analysis for fish pose estimation, highlighting advances in behavioral monitoring.
The afternoon unfolded into the Acoustic Communication session, featuring sound-mediated behaviour, with research covering activities & acoustics of short-beaked common dolphins, variation in begging calls & offspring recognition, physiological stress & hearing loss in fish, behavioural responses to marine traffic noise, and collective anti-predator responses under noise exposure.

Together, these talks highlighted the widespread effects of anthropogenic noise pollution on communication and behaviour across taxa.
A poster session, followed by the SPE plenary meeting and a delicious social dinner, concluded the day.

Day 2 — Signals, Cognition, Climate & Sociality

The second day began with welcome remarks from Jorge Gonçalves (CCMAR), followed by a plenary talk by Sandra Trigo (CIBIO, Portugal) who presented new findings on how sex-differences in ornamentation are expressed and regulated in birds — offering a compelling view of the evolutionary mechanisms shaping signalling and reproductive strategies. Her talk offered an evolutionary perspective on how sexual traits develop, the physiological pathways that support them, and what they reveal about selection.

The first themed session, Evolution and Mechanisms of Signal Expression, focused on the development and function of signalling traits. Speakers discussed how communication systems evolve, how signals are produced and perceived, and what they reveal about fitness and species interactions. Talks explored how signals arise, vary, and influence species ecology.

Following the morning break, the focus turned to Cognition. This session showcased work on the evolution of cognition in fishes — highlighting variation across taxa and environments, and how cognitive traits influence survival and decision-making. The session highlighted the ecological relevance of mental perspective of animals and how environmental context shapes behavioural flexibility.

The final morning session, Behaviour in a Changing World, turned attention to global change, featuring studies on how extreme temperatures, heatwaves, and artificial light pollution influence behaviour. These talks underscored the vulnerability of behavioural processes to climate-driven pressures and urbanisation. Collectively, these studies emphasised how global change is reorganising behavioural processes, with consequences for survival and ecosystem functioning.

The last plenary, delivered by José Ricardo Paula (MARE / Universidade de Lisboa), explored complex behaviour through the lens of cleaning mutualisms — a field where behavioural dynamics unlock understanding of cognition, cooperation, and negotiation between cleaners and clients. This discussion sparked a lively and though-provoking discussion on the ability of fishes to be self-aware.

The congress concluded with the session Sociality and Behavioural Interactions, where researchers examined how social structure shapes behaviour over time and how individuals interact within dynamic group settings.

The final conference talk was delivered by Peter McGregor (ISPA) with an update on Acta Ethologica, reviewing the journal’s developments over the past year.