Mandy Ridley

Congrats @gblackburn.bsky.social! Measuring extragroup interactions adds an extra axis of social interactions into the debate about the relationship between sociality and cognition.

The latest pied babbler paper, headed by the amazing Shannon Conradie, looks at how the accuracy of biophysical models, increasingly used to predict climate change response, can be improved with even a modest amount of behavioural observations besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Thanks @cedricboeckx.bsky.social ! @stephaniellaura.bsky.social did an amazing job with a complex dataset!

Congrats to Ed for completing the final part of his excellent PhD: his exit seminar! Well done Ed for all your hard work and achievements over the last four years of research! 🥳🎉🎓

Congrats to @gblackburn.bsky.social for this study showing that’s it’s not just anthropogenic noise, but the level (amplitude) of anthropogenic noise that is important, in terms of impact on behaviour.

Congrats to Ed Galluccio on the first paper from his PhD, showing that associative learning score is related to the antipredator response and associative learning score declines under heat stress. However, heat stress does not impact the cognition-antipredator relationship.

Congrats to @alexalaman.bsky.social for leading this paper using 38 years of data to investigate climate impacts on survival & reprod success of Arabian babblers in natural vs modified habitat. We found modified habitats buffered climate impacts: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Hot birds, tricky math! Our new paper shows that high temperatures impair quantity discrimination in wild great tits. @gblackburn.bsky.social, @camillasoravia.bsky.social, and @mandyridley.bsky.social academic.oup.com/beheco/advan...

🚨New paper alert 🚨 High temperatures lead to an impaired anti-predator mobbing response to five callers in wild great tits! Loved working on this paper with an all star team of scientists! @dutourmylene.bsky.social @camillasoravia.bsky.social @mandyridley.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/behe...

Congrats to @stephaniellaura.bsky.social, who headed our latest research showing that social interactions have a major influence on the development of the complex call sequences that young magpies learn! As well as the below paper link, here is the media release: www.uwa.edu.au/news/article...

Our review of the impact of multiple anthropogenic stressors on avian behaviour and cognition was the most downloaded paper in the Journal of Avian Biology 2025! @camillasoravia.bsky.social @gblackburn.bsky.social

An important ontogenetic perspective into the relationship between cognition and social interactions! Congrats @lizziespeechley.bsky.social! With collaborators @stephanielking.bsky.social @ceb-uwa.bsky.social Ben Ashton, Alex Thornton and Leigh Simmons

New paper alert! By tracking fledglings through development we found evidence that cognitive development is related to social interactions: this extends our research on adult magpie cognition. See below for an overview of all papers from @lizziespeechley.bsky.social’s excellent research thesis 👇🏻👇🏻

New amazing open Postdoc position, w/t opportunities to 1) get closely involved in our next @themanybirds.bsky.social study on innovation and problem-solving; 2) work with @ecobird.bsky.social on avian innovation, cognition & invasiveness. Advert: www.ugent.be/en/work/scie...

New paper out in PLoS Biology! A large international collaboration from the ManyBirds project, looking at variation in neophobia across a wide range of avian species globally. Delighted that the magpies were part of this large and diverse dataset!

Our new paper is out! @camillasoravia.bsky.social leads this research, which looks into the relationship between heat- mediated cognitive impairment and the antipredator response in wild pied babblers. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Congrats to @avantikadeep.bsky.social on presenting her research plans for studying the causes and consequences of intrasexual selection in magpies at #AES2025!

Avantika Sharma showcasing her plans for her PhD on intrasexual selection in magpies at #AES2025. Great work Avantika! @mandyridley.bsky.social @ceb-uwa.bsky.social

#AES2025 started with a blast with @brainiants.bsky.social talking about the effect of inbreeding on survivorship and fecundity in European royal families! Keep them coming @pebblemouse.bsky.social

Congrats to Kim @brainiants.bsky.social on her talk at #AES2025! Kim’s research into inbreeding in European royals looked at the effect on reproductive success, offspring survival and fertility. Manuscript to be submitted soon: watch this space!

@dutourmylene.bsky.social ‘s talk was wonderful, so great to see her back in Perth again!

Congrats to @avantikadeep.bsky.social for presenting her PhD research plans on intrasexual competition in group-living magpies!

Congrats to Lakshani for presenting her research plan on coalitions in toque macaques for her PhD!

Congrats to @stephaniellaura.bsky.social for winning an award for her excellent poster on her PhD research!

Super proud of PhD student @stephaniellaura.bsky.social at her exit seminar: she took us through a comprehensive journey of investigation and unveiled some truly fascinating results, only achievable through her exceptional hard work and attention to detail. Congrats Steph!

Congrats @stephaniellaura.bsky.social for doing amazing PhD research on the ontogeny of magpie communication!

Our new cognition paper is out, headed by @gblackburn.bsky.social, and one of the last chapters from her exceptional PhD thesis!

EARLY VIEW in IBIS Western Australian Magpies alter the rate, but not the amplitude, of their territorial song in anthropogenic noise | onlinelibrary.wiley.... Grace Blackburn, Mylene Dutour, Benjamin J. Ashton, Alex Thornton, Amanda R. Ridley | #ornithology 🪶

Our new paper, led by @gblackburn.bsky.social, finds a very sharp decline in the rate of carol calls (the main territorial call) given by magpies during anthropogenic noise, but no change in the amplitude. @dutourmylene.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Our new paper, led by Masters student Holly, finds that magpies are capable of quantity discrimination, and this ability is affected by group size.

@brainiants.bsky.social discussed her PhD proposal this afternoon where she plans to study variation in intraspecific cognition & its relation to complex behaviors, specifically combat and group foraging in Western Australian ants. 🐜 @mandyridley.bsky.social @notthebestsam.bsky.social #LeighSimmons

Job opportunity for #Fire #scientists in Western Australia closing soon - 25 April! Permanent fire-science research position Research Scientist /Senior Research Scientist (Fire Science) position. search.jobs.wa.gov.au/page.php?pag...

x.com/nicholaswunz...

@gblackburn.bsky.social & I recently wrote this piece in Nature Climate Change about the potential conservation implications of climate-induced divergence of song. This may occur more often under a rapidly changing climate & cause greater isolation between popns. www.nature.com/articles/s41...