Brenda de Groot

🐒 Primatologist, artist, and sentientist on a mission for a world beyond speciesism | PhD student @WRC_KyotoUniv 👉 Langurs, allomothering, animal ethnography

[Brenda de Groot @brendadegroot]

My advisor is answering questions about almost anything you want to know, such as about his research in proboscis monkeys! Yes you can submit in English 🐒

[京都大学 @univkyoto]

【動画シリーズ｜京大先生、質問です！ 質問募集】
野生動物研究センターの松田一希教授が、皆さんからの質問に回答します。
「テングザル」「生物多様性」「フィールドワーク」「ボルネオ島」などについて、質問をお寄せください！締切は10/30正午です。

▼質問フォーム
https://t.co/6g73E4C5ED

[Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI @DivIntelligence]

New postdoc positions at the (DISI-affiliated) Center for Possible Minds at Indiana University.

Looking for scholars interested in interdisciplinary research on the nature of biological, artificial, and collective intelligence.

Please share widely! https://t.co/NAhqr0qGHn

[The Japan News @The_Japan_News]

In response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to prevent Harvard University from enrolling international students, Kyoto University has announced its policy of allowing those affected to transfer
https://t.co/0Hr40pE2Fi

[Brenda de Groot @brendadegroot]

I'm on Bluesky now! https://t.co/gniGIqGh2W

[Brenda de Groot @brendadegroot]

Animal cruelty ordered by the one and only: the sickening US administration. Will the rest of humanity do something or not? Until that happens this is my last post here.

[PETA Asia @PETAAsia]

Macaques in Cambodia are a step closer to extinction🚨

The CITES Standing Committee has delayed a key decision on halting the corrupt trade of monkeys in Cambodia. This international body is ignoring evidence of illegal activity and safeguarding profiteering corporations rather than the animals they are charged with protecting 🐒💔

[Brenda de Groot @brendadegroot]

Not to sound cheesy, but DISI was life-changing for me—and a lot of fun. Can’t think of a better way to spend three weeks of your summer, so.. consider this call if this calls to you!

[Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute #DISI @DivIntelligence]

📣📣📣

Applications for DISI 2025 are now open!!

Interested in intelligence, mind, and cognition in all its forms? Early-career scholars from any discipline—and storytellers in any medium—are encouraged to apply!

More info: https://t.co/xR6lgTIvZ6

[Brenda de Groot @brendadegroot]

Well, at least we debunked the idea of human supremacy today.

[Brenda de Groot @brendadegroot]

@evan_westra Probably redundant because you’ve considered it already, but I’d definitely put some papers from Frans de Waal in there, on empathy, morality and/or fairness. And of course from Birte Wrage, Susana Monsó and Kristin Andrews, but again: good chance you already covered those! 😉

[Jeff Sebo @jeffrsebo]

The NYU Wild Animal Welfare Program is thrilled to be hosting an online talk by Natale Jacewicz on October 22 at noon ET on why and how to consider animal welfare in wildlife management.

The talk is free and open to all. Please RSVP and share widely!

https://t.co/d5kBP1vLTs

[Brenda de Groot @brendadegroot]

You go girl

[Brenda de Groot @brendadegroot]

@MariskaKret @tomhanks @CoPAN_Leiden @LeidenPsy One should not underestimate the power of great bu—apes! Great apes.

[Brenda de Groot @brendadegroot]

@Zoe_Sadokierski Look at them sitting there all neatly on their shelves. It's like.. feathery books, but better.

[Brenda de Groot @brendadegroot]

@ERoseEngland @WeAnimals ...and despite the fact that they are sentient and incredibly sensitive beings who were snatched from their families, robbed of their homes and freedom, and innocently sentenced to a life in a torture prison.

[Brenda de Groot @brendadegroot]

@09Kawaguchi @WallerBridget I have langur (Trachypithecus) infant faces--will shoot you an email now!

[Brenda de Groot @brendadegroot]

@geladas_bridges @IntJPrimatology @TheLeakeyFndtn Oh my, I loved that article! Congrats on the amazing work, I wish I was there to say it in person!

[Brenda de Groot @brendadegroot]

If you'd ask me, the man deserved therapy, not a trophy. We may partially blame it on the Zeitgeist, but I find the casual exploitation of animals very hard to ignore.

[Brenda de Groot @brendadegroot]

And of course, a speciesist fallacy by implying that the ethical concern of pigeons ("lower creatures") is not even worthy of discussion here.

[Brenda de Groot @brendadegroot]

As you read on, you find that Skinner’s project nearly failed if it wasn't for a young man who proposed using dogs in torpedoes (p. 29). Followed by disturbing descriptions and pictures of how the pigeons were trained, and more stories of war animal applications.

[Brenda de Groot @brendadegroot]

A statement riddled with fallacies: an appeal to fear by suggesting ethics are irrelevant in war, and a false dichotomy by implying we can only care about ethics in peace.

[Brenda de Groot @brendadegroot]

I just learned that B.F. Skinner posthumously won an Ig Nobel Peace Prize for experiments on the feasibility of housing live pigeons inside missiles to guide their flight path. How exploiting innocent animals to kill humans can win a prize, let alone a peace prize, is beyond me🧶

[Brenda de Groot @brendadegroot]

Skinner's own thoughts on the moral matter: "The ethical question of our right to convert a lower creature into an unwitting hero is a peace-time luxury" (p. 28) https://t.co/bsyczPyfnT