Helsinki Urban Rat Project
@helsinkirats.bsky.social
71 followers 12 following 10 posts
Inter-/multi-/transdisciplinary research on rats in the City of Helsinki Finland! Come for the rat photos and videos, stay for transformative multispecies research. Managed by @aivelo.bsky.social
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Reposted by Helsinki Urban Rat Project
aivelo.bsky.social
RHEV Helsinki strains clustered together with strains from South Korea and Spain, but polytomous phylogenetic trees and large branch lengths suggest lack of sampling. Our genotype RHEV-C1 has been reported to cause mild liver dysfunction with human case reports from Hong Kong, Spain, and France.
Reposted by Helsinki Urban Rat Project
aivelo.bsky.social
The research might be "eclectic disciplinary perspectives", but as Riikka aptly summarizes: "Urban stigmatisation and marginalisation are multispecies processes that emerge with place-making and have consequences for all the multispecies cohabitants of the city."
(5/5)
Reposted by Helsinki Urban Rat Project
aivelo.bsky.social
Waste, humans, rats - junk food, shopping centers, drunk people. "Well, this just happens to be a place where people randomly poop around, business as usual."

Belonging and place-making are multispecies phenomena, and urban is not only human, but more-than-human.
(4/5)
Reposted by Helsinki Urban Rat Project
aivelo.bsky.social
With this invisible rat presence, we examined urban stigmatisation and belonging as examples of societal phenomena which can be rethought as multispecies. They are very territorial in scope, and place-making emerged as a fruitful concept to understand how multispecies urban is formed.
(3/5)
Reposted by Helsinki Urban Rat Project
aivelo.bsky.social
We (as in the ragtag bunch of researchers in CitiRats project) went out to look for rats with lower secondary-school students and we did not see any rats, but we did felt their hidden presence. They were present in stories, stereotypes, memories, and athmospheres.
(2/5)
Reposted by Helsinki Urban Rat Project
Reposted by Helsinki Urban Rat Project
aivelo.bsky.social
‘Ik ben ecoloog, dus ik probeer ratten niet te zien als een plaagdier.' Ik weet dat dit provocerend klinkt, want ecologen zijn goed in het beoordelen (en doden) van andere dieren.
Mare interviewde mij over ons rattenonderzoek en het samenleven met vervelende dieren: www.mareonline.nl/wetenschap/r...
Plaagdieren? Welnee! Ratten zijn onze vrienden, betoogt Finse ecoloog
Mensen kunnen vreedzaam samenleven met ratten, betoogt ecoloog Tuomas Aivelo. ‘We geven gemengde signalen af.’
www.mareonline.nl
helsinkirats.bsky.social
New research on multispecies conflicts and urban cohabitation!
aivelo.bsky.social
🚨New paper!🚨

Can we negotiate our cohabitation with rats? Karolina Lukasik spearheaded study, which suggests there might not be alternative!

Out now in a special issue on urban multispecies justice of npj Urban Sustainability: doi.org/10.1038/s429...

A short thread: (1/9)
Reposted by Helsinki Urban Rat Project
elinakoi.bsky.social
Mielenkiintoista uutta tutkimustietoa rotista 🐀 by @helsinkirats.bsky.social: alustavien tutkimustulosten perusteella rottien määrä on yhteydessä alueen sosioekonomisiin tekijöihin, mutta syitä ilmiöön ei vielä tunneta. #tutkimus #kaupunkieläimet
Tutkija osaa päätellä asukkaiden perusteella, onko alueella paljon vai vähän rottia – taustalla tuore tutkimus
Asukkaiden taloudellinen ja sosiaalinen asema on yhteydessä rottien määrään Helsingissä. Tarkkaa syytä ilmiölle ei vielä tiedetä.
yle.fi
helsinkirats.bsky.social
New research on rat ethology out now!
aivelo.bsky.social
🚨New research klaxon! 🚨

Out in now in Mammalian Biology, our ethology paper on social interactions between rats based on trail camera material!
doi.org/10.1007/s429...

A short thread: (1/6)
helsinkirats.bsky.social
Our Karolina Lukasik will be discussing some fundamental questions today in BBC Radio Scotland Mornings show at around 11.30!
Reposted by Helsinki Urban Rat Project
aivelo.bsky.social
This was an effort of multiple people devising data collection, two students coding and a number of us helping in analysis and writing up the results! Really fun interdisciplinary effort. Illustrations by Susu Rytteri! 8/8
Reposted by Helsinki Urban Rat Project
aivelo.bsky.social
The most interesting finding was that almost any species or reason could either lead to increase or decrease of feeding, depending on the context.
A lot of people like to go against the grain: when everybody else stop feeding due to rats, someone doubles down and feeds more. 7/8
Reposted by Helsinki Urban Rat Project
aivelo.bsky.social
People described a number of reasons to increase feeding such as caring for endangered species, empathy or interest in birds, keeping up traditions, supporting biodiversit or wanting to provide nature connection to children or cats looking behind the window. 5/8
Reposted by Helsinki Urban Rat Project
aivelo.bsky.social
There are many papers on the motivations to feed birds and how bird-feeding affects bird and non-avian communities. There are less studies on how communities at the bird-feeder affect the feeding practices and the first peek of the dat seems to show that that's where the drama happens! 4/8
Reposted by Helsinki Urban Rat Project
aivelo.bsky.social
The first part of data was presented in @flewrabi.bsky.social's paper few months ago in People and Nature: doi.org/10.1002/pan3...

In the second part, we focused on the 15,000+ open-ended answers which proved to be a treasure trove. 3/8
How, why, where and when people feed birds?—Spatio‐temporal changes in bird‐feeding in Finland
Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
doi.org
Reposted by Helsinki Urban Rat Project
aivelo.bsky.social
Bird-feeding could be the most common human-wild animal interaction in the Global North.

My colleagues collected an impressive dataset on changes in bird-feeding and rats were one of the major reasons to reduce feeding so I was asked to collaborate. 2/8
Reposted by Helsinki Urban Rat Project
aivelo.bsky.social
Now out in npj Biodiversity: Multispecies relations shape bird-feeding practices

Link: doi.org/10.1038/s441...
From the bird-feeding section of
@helsinkirats.bsky.social w/ @informedbirds.bsky.social @aksulehikoinen.bsky.social

A short thread:
1/8
Reposted by Helsinki Urban Rat Project
elinakoi.bsky.social
Osallistuin tiederuno-kilpailuun ja runoni jyrsijämyrkyistä (josta kuvassa puolet) sijoittui 10:n parhaan joukkoon. (Ping @aivelo.bsky.social ja @helsinkirats.bsky.social) 🐀

Runo on julkaistu reilun 40:n muun runon kanssa Tiederunoja-kirjassa, jonka on toimittanut Heli Katajamäki. #tiedetaivas 📚
V is for valintaetu -niminen tiederuno, joka kertoo rotista ja jyrsijämyrkyistä. Tiederunoja-kirjan kansi.
Reposted by Helsinki Urban Rat Project
aivelo.bsky.social
New paper alert! Our rat educational science out now in Environmental Education Research: t.co/vKDQrLkG25
#citsci
A short thread follows: