Amanda R Ridley

Amanda R Ridley
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Amanda verified their affiliation via an institutional email.
Verified
Amanda verified their affiliation via an institutional email.
University of Western Australia | UWA

PhD, Cambridge University

About

159
Publications
30,481
Reads
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4,545
Citations
Introduction
I am a behavioural ecologist with a primary focus on cooperative breeding systems. I am interested in the causes and consequences of cooperation, and the conflicts that may cause cooperation to break down. I have a secondary interest in interspecific interactions, and a recent interest in the relationship between cognition and sociality. Full details of the research conducted at my research lab can be found at www.babbler-research.com.
Additional affiliations
University of Western Australia
Position
  • Professor (Associate)
May 2012 - present
University of Western Australia
Position
  • Professor (Associate)
May 2009 - May 2012
Macquarie University
Position
  • Lecturer
Education
October 1999 - June 2003
University of Cambridge
Field of study
  • Behavioural Ecology

Publications

Publications (159)
Article
Full-text available
Climate change threatens biodiversity by compromising the ability to balance energy and water, influencing animal behaviour, species interactions, distribution and ultimately survival. Predicting climate change effects on thermal physiology is complicated by interspecific variation in thermal tolerance limits, thermoregulatory behaviour and heterog...
Article
Full-text available
Language is unbounded in its generativity, enabling the flexible combination of words into novel sentences. Critically, these constructions are intelligible to others due to our ability to derive a sentence’s compositional meaning from the semantic relationships among its components. Some animals also concatenate meaningful calls into compositional...
Article
Full-text available
Despite considerable research into the structure of cognition in non-human animal species, there is still much debate as to whether animal cognition is organised as a series of discrete domains or an overarching general cognitive factor. In humans, the existence of general intelligence is widely accepted, but less work has been undertaken in animal...
Article
Full-text available
Rising temperatures and anthropogenic noise are two of the most pervasive and well researched anthropogenic stressors affecting avian species globally. Despite often triggering similar behavioural responses in birds, and frequently co‐occurring (particularly in urban areas), the impact of these stressors are primarily investigated in isolation. Her...
Article
For over a century, the evolution of animal play has sparked scientific curiosity. The prevalence of social play in juvenile mammals suggests that play is a beneficial behavior, potentially contributing to individual fitness. Yet evidence from wild animals supporting the long-hypothesized link between juvenile social play, adult behavior, and fitne...
Article
The Social Intelligence Hypothesis (SIH) is one of the leading explanations for the evolution of cognition. Since its inception a vast body of literature investigating the predictions of the SIH has accumulated, using a variety of methodologies and species. However, the generalisability of the hypothesis remains unclear. To gain an understanding of...
Article
Full-text available
Extensive research has investigated the relationship between the social environment and cognition, suggesting that social complexity may drive cognitive evolution and development. However, evidence for this relationship remains equivocal. Group size is often used as a measure of social complexity, but this may not capture intraspecific variation in...
Article
Full-text available
It has recently become clear that some language-specific traits previously thought to be unique to humans (such as the capacity to combine sounds) are widespread in the animal kingdom. Despite the increase in studies documenting the presence of call combinations in non-human animals, factors promoting this vocal trait are unclear. One leading hypot...
Preprint
Full-text available
The Social Intelligence Hypothesis (SIH) is one of the leading explanations for the evolution of cognition. Since its inception a vast body of literature investigating the predictions of the SIH has accumulated, using a variety of methodologies and species. However, the generalisability of the hypothesis remains unclear. To gain an understanding of...
Article
Traditionally, conservation and cognition have been disparate research disciplines. However, Audetbet al.’s recent research contributes to an increasing body of evidence that innovative behaviours may determine the ability of species to respond to rapid environmental change, identifying an opportunity for cognition research to directly contribute t...
Article
Full-text available
Individual differences in cognitive performance can have genetic, social and environmental components. Most research on the heritability of cognitive traits comes from humans or captive non-human animals, while less attention has been given to wild populations. Western Australian magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen dorsalis, hereafter magpies) show phenoty...
Article
Full-text available
Climate change and anthropogenic noise are two of the most widespread human-induced stressors affecting wildlife populations globally. However, the effects of these stressors are rarely investigated together, despite the fact that they often co-occur, particularly in urbanized areas and can have a multitude of adverse effects on species. Here, we c...
Preprint
Full-text available
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 animal species worldwide. One of the most well researched impacts of anthropogenic noise is its effect on acoustic communication. Animals may adjust t...
Article
Global warming is rapidly changing the phenology, distribution, behaviour and demography of wild animal populations. Recent studies in wild animals have shown that high temperatures can induce short-term cognitive impairment, and captive studies have demonstrated that heat exposure during early development can lead to long-term cognitive impairment...
Article
Full-text available
Global temperatures are increasing rapidly. While considerable research is accumulating regarding the lethal and sublethal effects of heat on wildlife, its potential impact on animal cognition has received limited attention. Here, we tested wild southern pied babblers (Turdoides bicolor) on three cognitive tasks (associative learning, reversal lear...
Article
Conservation translocations have become an increasingly popular method to restore or secure vulnerable populations. However, translocations greatly vary in success. The use of population viability analysis (PVA) may increase the likelihood of meeting translocation goals. However, the quality of PVAs to inform translocations is dependent on the avai...
Article
Full-text available
Anthropogenic noise is a pollutant of growing concern, with wide‐ranging effects on taxa across ecosystems. Until recently, studies investigating the effects of anthropogenic noise on animals focused primarily on population‐level consequences, rather than individual‐level impacts. Individual variation in response to anthropogenic noise may result f...
Article
Full-text available
Given the current pace of climate change, high temperature events will become increasingly frequent in many parts of the world. Predicting how high temperatures will impact the behavior of songbirds—highly sensitive to temperature change due to their tendency to be small in size, and to have high metabolic rates and diurnal habits—is therefore cruc...
Article
Full-text available
Keywords: cooperative breeding familiarity kin discrimination learning by association phenotype matching pied babbler playback experiment vocal kin recognition Studies of vocal kin recognition in avian species have typically tested responses to vocal signals based upon either familiarity (recognition via 'learned associations') or relatedness (reco...
Article
In the southern Kalahari Desert, cooperatively breeding Southern Pied Babblers Turdoides bicolor frequently build their nests and forage in camelthorn trees Vachellia erioloba , a keystone species in the region, and blackthorn trees Senegalia mellifera , a widespread early successional shrub. Using Ivlev's electivity indices (Ei), we show that Sout...
Article
Full-text available
Dispersal patterns can dictate genetic population structure and, ultimately, population resilience, through maintaining gene flow and genetic diversity. However, geographical landforms, such as peninsulas, can impact dispersal patterns and thus be a barrier to gene flow. Here, we use 13 375 genome‐wide single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to eval...
Article
Full-text available
Cooperative breeding, where more than two individuals invest in rearing a single brood, occurs in many bird species globally and often contributes to improved breeding outcomes. However, high temperatures are associated with poor breeding outcomes in many species, including cooperative species. We used data collected over three austral summer breed...
Article
Full-text available
Many animals provide information about predator proximity in their alarm calls. In response to predators further away, Western Australian magpies ( Gymnorhina tibicen dorsalis ) produce alarm calls containing fewer notes compared to those produced when predators are closer. Since the ability to make fine-scale adjustments to antipredator responses...
Article
Full-text available
Comparative studies conducted over the past few decades have provided important insights into the capacity for animals to combine vocal segments at either one of two levels: within- or between-calls. There remains, however, a distinct gap in knowledge as to whether animal combinatoriality can extend beyond one level. Investigating this requires a c...
Article
Full-text available
Identifying the causes and fitness consequences of intraspecific variation in cognitive performance is fundamental to understand how cognition evolves. Selection may act on different cognitive traits separately or jointly as part of the general cognitive performance (GCP) of the individual. To date, few studies have examined simultaneously whether...
Article
Investment in social interaction and affiliative behaviour is often related to variation in sex-specific dispersal patterns among species but can also vary within species in response to local environmental conditions and feeding competition. Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) association patterns have been studied primarily in low and mid-elevation tropi...
Article
Full-text available
A robust understanding of cognitive variation at the individual level is essential to understand selection for and against cognitive traits. Studies of animal cognition often assume that within-individual performance is highly consistent. When repeated tests of individuals have been conducted, the effects of test order (the overall sequence in whic...
Article
The ability to discriminate between individuals or classes of individuals based on distinctive cues is considered a vital skill in cooperative and territorial species. Here, we used playback experiments to determine if Western Australian Magpies Gymnorhina tibicen dorsalis discriminate between the territorial carolling calls of intra‐group and extr...
Article
Full-text available
Recent research has highlighted how trappability and self-selection—the processes by which individuals with particular traits may be more likely to be caught or to participate in experiments—may be sources of bias in studies of animal behaviour and cognition. It is crucial to determine whether such biases exist, and if they do, what effect they hav...
Preprint
Full-text available
Identifying the causes and fitness consequences of intraspecific variation in cognitive performance is fundamental to understand how cognition evolves. Selection may act on different cognitive traits separately or jointly as part of the general cognitive performance of the individual. To date, few studies have examined simultaneously whether indivi...
Article
With global temperatures rapidly increasing, biologists require tools to assess how wild animals are responding to heat. Thermal imaging of the eye region offers a potential non-invasive alternative to traditional techniques to study thermoregulation and stress responses in wild animals. However, we currently have a poor understanding of how the te...
Chapter
Cooperation is a commonly observed behaviour both among humans and other animals, and can come in many forms. It includes cooperative breeding, cooperative defense of a resource such as a territory or predator, and cooperative construction (e.g. nests, burrows or mounds). Given its common occurrence, cooperation must come with considerable benefits...
Article
Full-text available
Vertebrate alarm calls can signal danger, and often encode information about predator proximity. Some species of birds alter the number of notes of their alarm calls to reflect urgency, with high‐urgency alarm calls having more notes than low‐urgency calls. Not only do individuals perceive the urgency message encoded in the alarm calls of conspecif...
Preprint
Full-text available
Dispersal patterns dictate genetic population structure, and ultimately population resilience, through maintaining critical ecological processes and genetic diversity. Direct observation of dispersal events is not often possible, but genetic methods offer an alternative method of indirectly measuring dispersal. Here, we use 7 652 genome-wide single...
Article
Full-text available
Measures of cognitive performance, derived from psychometric tasks, have yielded important insights into the factors governing cognitive variation. However, concerns remain over the robustness of these measures, which may be susceptible to non-cognitive factors such as motivation and persistence. Efforts to quantify short-term repeatability of cogn...
Article
Full-text available
Cognition enables animals to respond and adapt to environmental changes and has been linked to fitness in multiple species. Identifying the potential impact of a warming climate on cognition is therefore crucial. We quantified individual performance in an ecologically relevant cognitive trait, associative learning, to investigate the relationship b...
Article
Full-text available
Both inter- and intragroup interactions can be important influences on behaviour, yet to date most research focuses on intragroup interactions. Here, we describe a hitherto relatively unknown behaviour that results from intergroup interaction in the cooperative breeding pied babbler: kidnapping. Kidnapping can result in the permanent removal of you...
Article
The causes of intraspecific variation in diet and isotopic niche width can provide important insights into the local food resource requirements for a population. This information is particularly important for highly philopatric colonially nesting species, where local competition for food resources may be high. We investigated the relative influence...
Article
Full-text available
Many species maintain territories, but the degree of overlap between territories and the level of aggression displayed in territorial conflicts can vary widely, even within species. Greater territorial overlap may occur when neighboring territory holders are close relatives. Animals may also differentiate neighbors from strangers, with more familia...
Article
Full-text available
Many group-living individuals produce specific vocalizations while mobbing (when individuals move toward and harass a predator), a behavior that can recruit conspecifics. Although these vocalizations may be a source of information for heterospecifics, it remains largely unknown how heterospecifics respond to mobbing calls given by group-living spec...
Article
The ability to recognize familiar and unfamiliar individuals is important as it plays a central role in many social interactions. Previous research has found that some animal species can discriminate among conspecifics, and recent findings indicate that some species are also able to discriminate among heterospecifics, including humans. The ability...
Article
High temperatures and low rainfall consistently constrain reproduction in arid-zone bird species. Understanding the mechanisms underlying this pattern is critical for predicting how climate change will influence population persistence and to inform conservation and management. In this study, we analyzed Southern Pied Babbler Turdoides bicolor nestl...
Article
Full-text available
High air temperatures have measurable negative impacts on reproduction in wild animal populations, including during incubation in birds. Understanding the mechanisms driving these impacts requires comprehensive knowledge of animal physiology and behaviour under natural conditions. We used a novel combination of a non-invasive doubly labelled water...
Article
Sex‐biased mortality in response to environmental adversity during early development occurs in a number of bird species. The three most prominent theories proposed to explain sex‐biased mortality in response to early‐life adversity are that 1) the heterogametic sex (e.g. females in birds), 2) the larger sex (could be male or female depending on spe...
Article
Relatively little effort has been directed towards elucidating the role of physiological stress pathways in mediating avian responses to global heating. For free-ranging southern pied babblers Turdoides bicolor, daily maximum air temperatures (Tmax) between ∼35°C and ∼40°C result in reduced foraging efficiency, loss of body mass and compromised bre...
Article
Full-text available
With global surface air temperature rising rapidly, extensive research effort has been dedicated to assessing the consequences of this change for wildlife. While impacts on the phenology, distribution, and demography of wild animal populations are well documented, the impact of increasing temperature on cognition in these populations has received r...
Chapter
While considerable evidence exists that extreme climate events such as high temperatures and drought are becoming more common, there is growing recognition that we have limited empirical evidence on how wild animals are able to behaviorally and physiologically adjust to these potentially rapid changes. Despite considerable lab-based research on the...
Chapter
Understanding the interaction between cooperation and conflict in establishing effective social behaviour is a fundamental challenge facing societies. Reflecting the breadth of current research in this area, this volume brings together experts from biology to political science to examine the cooperation–conflict interface at multiple levels, from g...
Chapter
The evolutionary paradox of animals helping others in their social group, rather than living independently, has fascinated researchers for many decades. Ultimately, this cooperation is hypothesized to have evolved because the benefits of cooperation outweigh the costs (Hamilton, 1964), and considerable empirical evidence supports this hypothesis (s...
Preprint
Full-text available
Non-invasive methods for investigating the biological effects of environmental variables are invaluable for understanding potential impacts of climate change on behavioural and physiological stress responses of free-ranging animals. Foraging efficiency, body mass maintenance and breeding success are compromised in Southern pied babblers Turdoides b...
Preprint
Full-text available
High temperatures and low rainfall consistently constrain reproduction in arid-zone bird species. Understanding the mechanisms underlying this pattern is critical for predicting how climate change will influence population persistence and to inform conservation and management. In this study, we analysed Southern Pied Babbler Turdoides nestling surv...
Article
Full-text available
In species with flexible grouping dynamics (i.e., fission-fusion), party (or subgroup) size is often shaped by available resources. Food resources are thought to limit party size in a range of mammalian species, reflecting a strategy of reducing feeding competition. In montane habitats, where food is highly seasonal, we may expect to see strong eff...
Preprint
High air temperatures have measurable negative impacts on reproduction in wild animal populations, including during incubation in birds. Understanding the mechanisms driving these impacts requires comprehensive knowledge of animal physiology and behaviour under natural conditions. We used a novel combination of a non-invasive doubly-labelled water...
Article
Full-text available
Climate change is affecting animal populations around the world and one relatively unexplored aspect of species vulnerability is whether and to what extent responses to environmental stressors might be mitigated by variation in group size in social species. We used a 15-year data set for a cooperatively breeding bird, the southern pied babbler Turd...
Article
Many animals produce antipredator calls in response to the presence of a predator, which, in some species, can provide information about the distance to predator. Although previous research has shown that several bird species are able to encode information about predator distance in their calls, such information is still lacking for a range of spec...
Article
Full-text available
An improved understanding of life-history responses to current environmental variability is required to predict species-specific responses to anthopogenic climate change. Previous research has suggested that cooperation in social groups may buffer individuals against some of the negative effects of unpredictable climates. We use a 15-year dataset o...
Article
Full-text available
Variation in weather patterns can influence reproductive effort and success not only within but also between breeding seasons. Where environmental conditions can be highly variable between years, the weather, and particularly extreme weather events such as heat waves and droughts, may exert a strong influence on reproductive effort (number of breed...
Preprint
Full-text available
Increasingly harsh and unpredictable climate regimes are affecting animal populations around the world as climate change advances. One relatively unexplored aspect of species vulnerability to climate change is whether and to what extent responses to environmental stressors might be mitigated by variation in group size in social species. We used a 1...
Preprint
Full-text available
An improved understanding of life history responses to current environmental variability is required to predict species-specific responses to anthopogenic climate change. Previous research has suggested that cooperation in social groups may buffer individuals against some of the negative effects of unpredictable climates. We use a 15-year dataset o...
Presentation
Evolang 13, 14.-17.04.2020, Brussels, Belgium. Link to presentation: ...
Article
Full-text available
Group-living animals face a number of threats from extragroup conspecifics: from individuals seeking mating opportunities to rival groups attempting to access limited resources. The consequences of intergroup interactions can therefore include loss of mates, increased energy expenditure, and injury or death. There is increasing evidence that aggres...
Article
Birdsong is a particularly useful model for animal communication studies. However, current knowledge is derived mainly from the study of male song, and is therefore incomplete. Here, we investigated whether singing behaviour differs between sexes in the cooperatively breeding Western Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen dorsalis). This subspecies...
Article
Full-text available
The benefits of group living have traditionally been attributed to risk dilution or the efficient exploitation of resources; individuals in social groups may therefore benefit from access to valuable information. If sociality facilitates access to information, then individuals in larger groups may be predicted to solve novel problems faster than in...
Article
Full-text available
Tropical montane forests (TMFs) are major centers of evolutionary change and harbor many endemic species with small geographic ranges. In this systematic map, we focus on the impacts of anthropogenic habitat degradation on TMFs globally. We first determine how TMF research is distributed across geographic regions, degradation type (i.e., deforestat...
Article
Full-text available
Both observational and indirect evidence are widely used to determine the diets of wild animals. Direct observations are often assumed to provide the most comprehensive reflection of diet, but many wild animals are logistically challenging to observe. Despite the regular use of observational and indirect methods for inferring diet in wild animals,...
Article
Full-text available
Alarm calls are a widespread form of antipredator defence and being alerted to the presence of predators by the alarm calls of conspecifics is considered one of the benefits of group living. However, while social information can allow an individual to gain additional information, it can also at times be inaccurate or irrelevant. Such variation in t...
Article
There is a large body of research on conflict in nonhuman animal groups that measures the costs and benefits of intergroup conflict, and we suggest that much of this evidence is missing from De Dreu and Gross's interesting article. It is a shame this work has been missed, because it provides evidence for interesting ideas put forward in the article...
Article
Full-text available
In cooperatively breeding species, the level of investment in young can vary substantially. Despite receiving considerable research attention, how and why investment in young varies with cooperatively breeding group members remains unclear. To investigate the causes of variation in care of young, we assessed patterns of both helper and parental beh...
Article
Full-text available
Almost all primates experience seasonal fluctuations in the availability of key food sources. However, the degree to which this fluctuation impacts foraging behavior varies considerably. Eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) in Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda, live in a montane forest environment characterized by lower primary producti...