WAMBAM is a small international workshop that happens (roughly) every two years and provides a forum for discussion and collaboration for researchers interested in applying quantitative genetic techniques to natural populations.
The next meeting is not yet scheduled. Stay tuned.
Past meetings
WAMBAM 8 - Chizé, France, August 2026
The meeting was organized by Timothée Bonnet (CNRS, at Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé). Following four months of drought and extreme temperatures, the heat broke in time for 30 very hot talks. Topics included new methods, adaptation to environmental change, inbreeding, quantitative genomics, and, once again, what the hell fitness is. We also had in-depth discussions about what a population is, ways of integrating genomic data into quantitative genetic research and whether classical (Victorian?) quantitative genetics needs a new marketing scheme.
Day trip: Guided walk through the Chizé Forest
Birders highlight: Pied flycatcher
Non-birder wildlife highlight: Pine marten + dramatic thunderstorms
WAMBAM 7 - Okehampton, England, September 2023
The meeting was organized by Simon Evans and Alastair Wilson (both University of Exeter). After having been postponed for a few years due to the COVID-19 pandemic it was very exciting meeting up again. Sadly COVID was still in the air and several people missed out! We talked about personality, missing fraction, what the hell is fitness, social interactions, telomers, the use of genomic data, and the relevance of everything we do to demography and wildlife management.
Day trip: Walk to the Bearslake inn through the moor (yes, the one with the nasty hound).
Birders highlight: Maybe stonechat
Non-birder wildlife highlight: Dartmoor pony (?)
WAMBAM 6 - La Huardière, Québec, July 2017
The meeting was organized by Emmanuel Milot (UQTR) and Denis Réale (UQAM), and featured work on quantitative genetics and genomics, both conspicuously and increasingly facilitated by single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping technologies, and discussions of the increasing potential for this work to influence other fields such as demography and conservation. The scientific contributions were summarized in (this Molecular Ecology article by the loosing team in the canoe race.
Day trip: Canoe trip up the lake to a beaver dam.
Birders highlight: The strange owl calling that turns out to be a snipe after a night crossing of the lake.
Non-birder wildlife highlight: Beaver dam.
WAMBAM 5 - Scotland, 2014
Day trip: Birders highlight: Common crossbill? (No Scottish crossbill though) Non-birder highlight: Sunny Scotland almost midge-free.WAMBAM 4 - Galeria, Corsica, 19th - 23rd September 2011
Organised by Anne Charmantier and held at the Casa Marina in Galeria. Another beautiful location, great science, good food and, as usual, a few too many glasses of wine.
Day trip: Hike over the mountains to the remote village of Girolata, and amazing return trip by boat. Glorious day enjoyed by all!
Birders highlight: no idea but I expect the twitchers saw something to excite them
Non-birders wildlife highlight: Turtles in the pond, lizards everywhere and loads of fish while snorkeling in the bay
WAMBAM 3 - Degioz, Parco Nazionale Gran Paradiso, Italy, 21st - 26th June 2009
Organised by Denis Réale and Achaz von Hardenberg and held in the municipal hall in the stunning Alpine village of Degioz. The location was astonishingly beautiful, the food and drink plentiful, and the science started off a bit scary… but then it was all OK in the end. We all learnt to drink from the ‘cup of friendship’ and what will happen to us if we ever do that with BLUPs again.
Day trip: Chose your own adventure - either the ibex or the marmot study sites
Birders highlight: Wallcreeper (what do you mean, you didn’t see it? It was on the wall outside the hotel for hours…)
Non-birders wildlife highlight: MarmotsIbex! (someone’s going to change this to ibexmarmots, aren’t they…)
WAMBAM 2 - Gotland, Sweden, August 2007
Organised by Jon Brommer and Lars Gustafsson on the beautiful Swedish island of Gotland. Plenty of good science, with discussions marked by increaing rumblings of disquiet over BLUP. Plenty of good beer too and a final banquet at which Lars sang Swedish drinking songs while the WAMBAM Queen (LK) table-danced.
Day trip: To the collared flycatcher study site - sadly the bird were on their holidays though.
WAMBAM 1 - Isle of Rum, Scotland, 14th - 19th March 2004
The first WAMBAM was organised by Loeske Kruuk (University of Edinburgh) in Kinloch Castle on the Isle of Rum. There were around 20 attendants from across Europe and North America. The location was stunning - albeit a bit wet and windy. And it was a superb catalyst for many collaborations which are still going on today.
Day trip: To see the red deer study site at Kilmory
Birders highlight: Sea eagle
Non-birders wildlife highlight: red deer and goats