Studying how natural selection shapes cognitive performance in the wild using the genius of the bird world - Pheasants. Tweets by Jo Madden
May 12, 2023 • 15 tweets • 4 min read
Yesterday, I deliberately tweeted 2 contrasting headlines from our paper about ecological correlates of gamebird release & management
One portrayed them as ecologically +ve(⬆️🐦🦋,⬇️🦊)
The other as ecologically -ve(⬇️🪲⬆️🐀)
Both were true but partial
What would Twitter do?🧵
For each tweet, I linked the underlying paper available to all AND a 2nd tweet warning the headlines were not ALL the results, linked to a thread that described the nuance and limitations of the study. This thread provided a neutral control
The full story was only 1 click away
May 10, 2023 • 9 tweets • 5 min read
What relationships are there between gamebird release and management and numbers of other non-game species?
In our new paper out today, we explore these across the UK considering 🦊🐀🪲🦋🐦🦎🐍 and more
A 🧵
Relationships with e.g. generalist preds, corvids, rodents, butterflies, beetles, farmland & woodland birds) have been studied individually, often on a few sites or over a short time period. We used
@NBNTrust
citizen science data (2.5 million records) from 2000-2020 across UK
Aug 20, 2020 • 15 tweets • 5 min read
What are the ecological consequences of gamebird release?
We scoured the published, grey and unpublished literature to document the ecological impacts of gamebird release
What did we find?
(Thread)
It's a Rapid Evidence Assessment, so didn't set out to make specific recommendations. Policy makers may use this evidence for future decisions
Neither org had input to Review content other than stipulate remit (exclude ethic/econ/social)
Oct 3, 2019 • 37 tweets • 39 min read
"Why are pheasants so dumb?"
We’ve been asked this repeatedly over the past 5 years as we study how selection acts on cognition, using the ultimate bird-brain as our study species
Our @ERC_Research funded project finished this week😪, so here's a 🧵 outlining our findings @ERC_Research It’s a lot of work (39 papers/completed manuscripts); the product of a fantastic team of researchers & collaborators.
In this thread we’ve set these papers (with links) within the context of our overarching central question.