PEC Exeter

PEC Exeter

@pec-exeter.bsky.social

Working on: the consequences of release and management of gamebirds; the evolution of cognition, using the genius of the bird world - pheasants; and occasionally messing with chickens, ravens, beavers and moths. Tweets by Jo Madden

665 followers114 following70 posts

PEC Exeter reposted

This is the best PhD advert I have ever seen.

PEC Exeter@pec-exeter.bsky.social

Funded 3.5 year PhD🎺 The effects of gamebird release and management on the lowland ecosystems of S England Lots of fieldwork. A robust and resilient student is required. Focus on reptiles and ecto-parasites Any Qs, please DM or email me Please RT www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

So much support from the animal behaviour research community, and many others, who have signed this letter. Thank you. Your care, concern and kind words at this time provides such encouragement.

Thanks to our colleagues from around the world who signed the Open Letter against redundancies in CRAB. The letter surpassed 700 signatures in just over 1 wk. We hope execs will now see the harm they are doing to the University of Exeter's global reputation. sites.google.com/view/save-cr...

PEC Exeter reposted

We are excited to announce that #Behaviour2027 (XXXIX International Ethological Congress) will be taking place in Vienna, Austria! We are looking forward to having you all join us next year from August 23-27. Please follow and share!

PEC Exeter reposted

It's official: #Behaviour2027 is happening in Vienna next summer!

Behaviour 2027@behaviour2027.bsky.social

We are excited to announce that #Behaviour2027 (XXXIX International Ethological Congress) will be taking place in Vienna, Austria! We are looking forward to having you all join us next year from August 23-27. Please follow and share!

PEC Exeter reposted

Rating Bowers like Kandinsky paintings yes I will thanks.

PEC Exeter@pec-exeter.bsky.social

Are bowers artwork? 🖼️ Do we (humans) like the same bower designs that the choosy females like? Please fill in this short survey asking you to "RATE MY BOWER" No expertise needed. We just want your aesthetic judgment🎨🖌️ exe.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_... Takes <10 mins

And now for something completely different RATE MY BOWER! A 10 min survey about what you think looks nice. Link in post below Please repost!

PEC Exeter@pec-exeter.bsky.social

Are bowers artwork? 🖼️ Do we (humans) like the same bower designs that the choosy females like? Please fill in this short survey asking you to "RATE MY BOWER" No expertise needed. We just want your aesthetic judgment🎨🖌️ exe.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_... Takes <10 mins

PEC Exeter reposted

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Evidence is currently limited and often weak (especially considering wider ecosystem effects) Releases and associated management have both positive (e.g. habitat creation, feeding) and negative (e.g. interbreeding, disease, eutrophication) ecological impacts

Mallard release in the UK has been increasing over recent years and now ~1.3-2.6 million are released annually Problems are likely to be especially acute (and benefits less) on large "driven duck only" days We call for markedly more research into Mallard release and management

Millions of Mallard are artificially reared and released annually across the world in UK, Europe and North America We conducted a literature review (37 papers, 41 effects) of their genetic, direct & associated effects on wild conspecifics, other waterbirds and aquatic ecosystems

PEC Exeter reposted

New paper out! Early-life social instability increases aggression in chickens, but does not affect response inhibition 🐤 We discuss what this means for developmental links between social environments, cognition, and social behaviour, highlighting strong context dependence Full text: rdcu.be/eYOzC

Almost pheasants! A new review that we've contributed to looking at causes and consequences of ranging behaviour in reared chickens, led by @birgitszabo.bsky.social Many chickens don't seem to want to use the additional space that they are offered. Can we change this?

It took almost a year to write this review on causes and consequences of ranging in chicken 🐔! This was a huge collaborative effort by @ecobird.bsky.social @pec-exeter.bsky.social and @vitorhbf.bsky.social ! I am very proud of the outcome. You can check out the preprint here: doi.org/10.32942/X22...

PEC Exeter reposted

Less than a week left to apply!

Ari Strandburg-Peshkin@arispeshkin.bsky.social

⭐PhD position available!⭐ Come join us @imprs-qbee.bsky.social to study communication and collective behavior in animal groups! We're looking for someone excited to use computational approaches to tackle biological questions, using our full-group tracking datasets imprs-qbee.mpg.de/121465/analy...

Rather feels like reading my obituary! 😬 But thanks Jen and Sophia for putting that together👍 I really enjoyed working with the ASAB team and recommend any AB folk consider joining and contributing. Looking forward to Edinburgh for the winter meeting. See you there.

ASAB@asab.org

Our inaugural #MeetASAB features someone you've all seen if you've been to a meeting in the last 7 years: Joah Madden (@pec-exeter.bsky.social) Our former Meetings Secretary just finished a very long term, seeing us through the turbulence of lockdown to the first Behaviour mtg outside Europe... 1/

PEC Exeter reposted

🚨 Calling researchers, students, technicians in cognition 🚨 We’re running a 10-min anonymous survey on how animal cognition is defined and studied across disciplines (from ecology, ethology, psychology, neurology, etc). 🧠✨ Scan the QR code & share widely #AnimalCognition #ResearchSurvey #Science

PEC Exeter reposted

Out last week - our #evidence review and assessment for @jncc.bsky.social of the #data and methods for assessing #sustainability of wild waterbird #harvest from recreational #hunting in the United Kingdom #wildlife #people led by @jomadden.bsky.social with Matt Ellis & myself #ecology #policy

JNCC@jncc.bsky.social

New report reviews whether current data collection on hunting bags can reliably determine whether shooting of legally-huntable waterbird species is sustainable in the UK bit.ly/45gaCkT This evidence will support the UK's obligation towards African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA)

How robust is current hunting bag data, and can we rely on it to manage sustainable harvest of UK waterbirds? For most species, it's pretty good, but released mallard🦆🦆can confuse the picture Recent collaboration with @ecoevoenviro.bsky.social and Matt Ellis

JNCC@jncc.bsky.social

New report reviews whether current data collection on hunting bags can reliably determine whether shooting of legally-huntable waterbird species is sustainable in the UK bit.ly/45gaCkT This evidence will support the UK's obligation towards African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA)

PEC Exeter reposted

Publication alert! ✨ Our recent paper in Ecology & Evolution addresses how to make conferences more inclusive. We collected observational and experimental data during Q&A sessions at the Behaviour 2023 congress hosted by Bielefeld University, and circulated a survey among conference attendees [1/4]

PEC Exeter reposted

The survival of the smartest? Assessing how cognition shapes fitness in animals. A really fun collaboration to be part of—thread below! 👇

PEC Exeter@pec-exeter.bsky.social

NEW PAPER🎺 How does cognition determine an individual’s fitness? A systematic review of the links between cognition, behaviour and fitness in non-human animals Lots of studies try to explain how cognition might evolve, by taking a behavioural ecology approach Has this approach made any progress?🧵

NEW PAPER🎺 How does cognition determine an individual’s fitness? A systematic review of the links between cognition, behaviour and fitness in non-human animals Lots of studies try to explain how cognition might evolve, by taking a behavioural ecology approach Has this approach made any progress?🧵

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NEW PAPER🎺 How does cognition determine an individual’s fitness? A systematic review of the links between cognition, behaviour and fitness in non-human animals Lots of studies try to explain how cognition might evolve, by taking a behavioural ecology approach Has this approach made any progress?🧵

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Studies that measured fitness as "survival" (survival to next season, mass gain, foraging success etc) were more likely to report sig relationships than those measuring "reproductive" fitness (attractiveness, provisioning levels, offspring production etc)

Why is the apparent link between cognition and fitness so weak? Could it be that our proposed causal link between cognition, behaviour and fitness/selection is too simplistic and linear? We discuss possible alternative models

NEW PAPER🎺 How does cognition determine an individual’s fitness? A systematic review of the links between cognition, behaviour and fitness in non-human animals Lots of studies try to explain how cognition might evolve, by taking a behavioural ecology approach Has this approach made any progress?🧵

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Studies that measured "broad" forms of cognition (innovation, problem solving) were more likely to report sig relationships than those measuring more "specific", defined forms (reversal learning, spatial memory etc)

NEW PAPER🎺 How does cognition determine an individual’s fitness? A systematic review of the links between cognition, behaviour and fitness in non-human animals Lots of studies try to explain how cognition might evolve, by taking a behavioural ecology approach Has this approach made any progress?🧵

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We found generally weak support for a relationship between cognition & fitness, with >70% of raw PUBLISHED relationships being statistically non-significant, with an even smaller likelihood once co-variates were accounted for (what if any publication bias were accounted for?)

Positive relationships (‘smarter is better’) outnumbered negative ones (‘dumber is better’) among the significant results, but these still comprised >20% Selection might reduce cognitive performance as well as enhance it

NEW PAPER🎺 How does cognition determine an individual’s fitness? A systematic review of the links between cognition, behaviour and fitness in non-human animals Lots of studies try to explain how cognition might evolve, by taking a behavioural ecology approach Has this approach made any progress?🧵