Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Mandy Ridley @mandyridley.bsky.social · 1d

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/...

Investigating the relationship between heat-mediated cognitive impairment and antipredator response in a wild bird | Royal Society Open Science

Increasingly frequent heatwaves require animals to spend more time thermoregulating at the expense of other fitness-related behaviours. Emerging evidence also indicates that high temperatures can impa...

royalsocietypublishing.org

2 3

Mandy Ridley @mandyridley.bsky.social · 8d

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

Renée Claire Firman @pebblemouse.bsky.social · 8d

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

1

Reposted by Mandy Ridley

Renée Claire Firman @pebblemouse.bsky.social · 8d

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

2 3

Reposted by Mandy Ridley

Centre for Evolutionary Biology at UWA @ceb-uwa.bsky.social · 8d

#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

Renée Claire Firman @pebblemouse.bsky.social · 8d

Great talk by Kim Wong at #AES2025 … this talk never gets old! @brainiants.bsky.social @ceb-uwa.bsky.social

2 2

Mandy Ridley @mandyridley.bsky.social · 8d

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!

Renée Claire Firman @pebblemouse.bsky.social · 8d

Great talk by Kim Wong at #AES2025 … this talk never gets old! @brainiants.bsky.social @ceb-uwa.bsky.social

2

Mandy Ridley @mandyridley.bsky.social · 13d

Excellent stuff, congrats!

1

Mandy Ridley @mandyridley.bsky.social · 15d

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

Centre for Evolutionary Biology at UWA @ceb-uwa.bsky.social · 15d

At CEB seminar today, @dutourmylene.bsky.social walked us through 10 years of her research at the crossroads of animal cognition, behavioural ecology, bioacoustics — exploring how animals code & decode information, use syntax & vocal mimicry, & engage in intra- & interspecific communication 🐦🦅🐓🐍🚶‍♀️

1

Mandy Ridley @mandyridley.bsky.social · 15d

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

Centre for Evolutionary Biology at UWA @ceb-uwa.bsky.social · 15d

🪶 Intrasexual Competition in Magpies
@avantikadeep.bsky.social studies female–female competition in cooperative breeders, investigating socio-ecological drivers and the implications of intrasexual competition for group dynamics.🐦🦅🗣️ 4/11
@mandyridley.bsky.social @lizziespeechley.bsky.social

1

Mandy Ridley @mandyridley.bsky.social · 15d

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

Centre for Evolutionary Biology at UWA @ceb-uwa.bsky.social · 15d

🐒 Male Coalition Strategies in Toque Macaques
Lakshani Weerasekara examines cooperation and conflict in macaques, focusing on how males form coalitions and what factors influence coalition success 🐵👬🥊 8/11
@mandyridley.bsky.social @cyrilgrueter.bsky.social

1 2

Mandy Ridley @mandyridley.bsky.social · 15d

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

Centre for Evolutionary Biology at UWA @ceb-uwa.bsky.social · 15d

🪶 How Magpies Learn Syntax 🏆
@stephaniellaura.bsky.social investigates the ontogeny of magpie vocalisations, showcasing how call sequences are socially learned, structured, and passed down across generations 🧠🐦🐣🔊 10/11
@mandyridley.bsky.social

1

Mandy Ridley @mandyridley.bsky.social · 17d

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!

2

Mandy Ridley @mandyridley.bsky.social · Sep 8

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

Stephanie L Mason @stephaniellaura.bsky.social · Aug 31

It's official! PhD submitted. Thanks to @mandyridley.bsky.social, @stephanielking.bsky.social and Dr Sarah Walsh for everything, particularly over the last few months as I bombarded you with manuscript drafts. Excited to share this research with the world soon!
Stay posted, but for now, sleep.

3

Mandy Ridley @mandyridley.bsky.social · Aug 21

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

Grace Blackburn @gblackburn.bsky.social · Aug 20

New paper alert 🚨 We test quantity discrimination in #magpies using both a cognitive task and playback experiment and find that birds can discriminate between quantities in both! Interestingly, performance in the two task was negatively correlated! 🐦
@mandyridley.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1093/behe...

Response to intruder number is related to spontaneous quantity discrimination performance in a wild bird

The ability to discriminate between quantities is important for animal species. We show that wild magpies can discriminate both between different quantitie

doi.org

2 8

Reposted by Mandy Ridley

BOU @bou.org.uk · Jun 10

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 🪶

2 9

Mandy Ridley @mandyridley.bsky.social · Jun 9

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/...

Western Australian Magpies alter the rate, but not the amplitude, of their territorial song in anthropogenic noise

Anthropogenic noise is considered one of the most serious forms of pollution globally and has been shown to have negative effects on the distribution, behaviour, cognition and reproductive success of...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

2 5

Mandy Ridley @mandyridley.bsky.social · May 27

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

Grace Blackburn @gblackburn.bsky.social · May 27

Our new #cognition paper, led by Masters student Holly Hunter, has just been published in Animal Cognition! doi.org/10.1007/s100...
@ceb-uwa.bsky.social
@mandyridley.bsky.social

Group size affects spontaneous quantity discrimination performance in wild Western Australian magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen dorsalis) - Animal Cognition

Animals may benefit from the ability to discriminate between quantities in their environment; for example, when choosing between foraging patches differing in food availability or assessing the size o...

doi.org

2 13

Reposted by Mandy Ridley

Centre for Evolutionary Biology at UWA @ceb-uwa.bsky.social · May 21

@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

1 3 7

Reposted by Mandy Ridley

Pauline Grierson @pfgblue.bsky.social · Apr 22

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...

WA Government Jobs | Research Scientist or Senior Research Scientist (Fire Science)

search.jobs.wa.gov.au

5 5

Mandy Ridley @mandyridley.bsky.social · Apr 6

x.com/nicholaswunz...

Nicholas Wu on X: "🚨 Lecturer in Animal Behaviour position @waikato. Fantastic opportunity for someone passionate about teaching & research in animal behaviour, preferably on birds, amphibians, reptiles or bats. 📍 Hamilton, NZ Closes: 4th May 2025 🔗 https://t.co/UpGAwVwZD7 https://t.co/ufyr9C6rgo" / X

🚨 Lecturer in Animal Behaviour position @waikato. Fantastic opportunity for someone passionate about teaching & research in animal behaviour, preferably on birds, amphibians, reptiles or bats. 📍 Hamilton, NZ Closes: 4th May 2025 🔗 https://t.co/UpGAwVwZD7 https://t.co/ufyr9C6rgo

x.com

Mandy Ridley @mandyridley.bsky.social · Feb 28

@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...

Climate-induced divergence of song - Nature Climate Change

Vocal communication is essential for information transmission in many species, such as that related to mating opportunities or predator presence. Recent research revealing how phenotypic changes broug...

www.nature.com

3 4

Mandy Ridley @mandyridley.bsky.social · Feb 21

Gorgeous night skies to accompany us last night on a woylie capture-tag-release trip. Wonderful to see so many woylies hopping out in the predator-proofed reserve so close to Perth!

1 2