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Hopefully, the student running this project will write it up and all will be revealed! Thanks for completing the survey

Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for participating! Yes. We want some ambiguity rather than clear scoring criteria. Treat them as you would an artwork. Why do we love a particular painting? Many, varied reasons.

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

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

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

Cognitive Level Specificity of Entities Structure of Cognition

Cognition Cognitive Entity Cognitive Performance

It forms part of an exciting Special Issue of Phil Trans, "Selection shapes diverse animal minds", edited by @ellileadbeater.bsky.social & @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social Co-authors include @ecobird.bsky.social @samellisq.bsky.social royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202...

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: Vol 380, No 1929Can't sign in? Forgot your password?royalsocietypublishing.org

The paper is Open Access royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

How does cognition determine an individual’s fitness? A systematic review of the links between cognition, behaviour and fitness in non-human animals | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological SciencesRecent efforts to understand the evolution of cognition have adopted a within-species approach where cognitive performance, and its effects on behaviour, is correlated with fitness benefits and, if related, is assumed to be selected for. We reviewed 45 ...royalsocietypublishing.org

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

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)

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)

Studies using larger sample sizes were LESS likely to report a significant relationship

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

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?)

We reviewed 45 studies that adopted a within-species approach where cognitive performance is correlated with fitness benefits and assumed to be selected for Included 26 species & 211 relationships between behavioural measures of cognition & fitness royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

It also contains my answer to the question "what is the one thing I would change about the shooting 'industry'"....

The short story by Saki - "Reginald on House Parties" - outlines when it might not be acceptable.... americanliterature.com/author/hh-mu...

Punt gunning for waterfowl can involve shooting them while they are sitting on the water, but gunners also 'spook' them immediately before the shot to get them just up into the air so that the shot pattern is more effective and more can be killed - shooting in 2D vs shooting 3D.

It's been fun working on this fascinating, important and perhaps controversial species, and we have a few more questions up our sleeves! (PS: PEC will not be renamed "The Cocks and Beaver Group"😳)