the 30th International Ethological Congress will be held August 15-23 2007 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The conference is the largest meeting of ethologists and there will be again a very stimulating program this year (see below for the list of plenary lectures and organised symposia). The call for abstract has now been extended and, if you have not already done so, you can register and submit abstracts online at the conference's website. More details are available there:

The conference will be preceeded on August 15 by a workshop by Hal Whitehead on Socprog.

P.S.: Please note that American participants will need a passport in
order to get back into the USA after the conference.

IEC Plenary Speakers

Opening Public lecture:

Hal Whitehead, Dalhousie University, Canada.
"Adventures of a marine mammalogist in the study of societies and
cultures of whales"

Plenary lectures:

Patrick Bateson, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, England
"Developmental Plasticity and Epigenetics".

Pat Monaghan, University of Glasgow, Scotland.
"Growth, lifespan and life history trade-offs"

Elisabetta Visalberghi, Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della
Cognizione, Rome, Italy
"Behavioral, cognitive and ecological factors affecting tool use in
wild capuchin monkeys"

Atsushi Iriki, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Japan.
“Brain mechanism for development and evolution of monkey tool-use as
a latent precursor of human intelligence”

Roger T. Hanlon, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, USA
"Masters of optical illusion: the neuroethology of rapid adaptive
camouflage and communication in cephalopods"

Horst Bleckmann, Institut für Zoologie der Universität Bonn, Germany.
"Neuroethology of Sensory Systems"

Rui Oliveira, Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, Lisboa,
Portugal
"From hormones to behavior and back: androgens, social context and
competition".

Hanna Kokko, University of Helsinki, Finland
"Love and hatred in a world of feedback"

Sara J. Shettleworth, University of Toronto, Canada
“Cognitive ethology in the 21st century”

Marian Stamp Dawkins, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford,
England
"The scientific basis for assessing suffering in animals"

Robert L. Trivers, Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University, USA
“Human Ethology / Genes in Conflict: The Biology of Selfish Genetic
Elements”

Maydianne Andrade, Department of Life Sciences, University of
Toronto, Canada.
"Sexual selection and the evolution of extreme reproductive strategies"

Symposia titles and organisers

“Prospective cognition and future planning by animals” Nicola Clayton
and Anthony Dickinson

“Integrative perspectives on animal contests” Ryan L. Early

“Behavioural epigenetics” Timothy Bredy

“Swarms of insects, fish, birds, and ungulates: models and empirical
data” Charlotte Hemelrijk

“Does paternal care require partner preference?” Katherine E. Wynne-
Edwards

“Maternal effects: evaluating maternal effects on the basis of
Tinbergen’s four questions” Jeff Graves and Ton Groothuis

“Acoustic communication in noise” Peter J. B. Slater and Henrik Brumm
“Uncertainty in animal cognition” Robert Biegler

“Social and cognitive convergence in vertebrates” Isabella Scheiber,
Robyn Hudson, Kurt Kotrschal

“Social networks: Patterns and Processes” David Lusseau & Jens Krause

“Allonursing: an adaptive behavior in mammals?” Beatriz Zapata and
Luis Ebensperger

“Avian social cognition: Do birds think about other minds?” Nathan J.
Emery and Shige Watanabe

“Developmental influences on behavioural phenotypes: implications for
animal welfare” Georgia Mason

“Physiology, Ethology, and Wildlife Conservation” Christina Buesching

“Welfare assessment: new ideas” Donald Broom