Phil gave a research talk at Stirling University, enjoying the fine hospitality and Canadian cuisine of his host, Luc Bussiere. Postgrads and postdocs were interactive and enthusiastic about their work, which is always stimulating. The talk focused on what we can learn about mammal behaviour, ecology and macroecology, from data not collected for purpose. The conclusion was that we can learn a lot, but such data almost always frustrate attempts to attribute causality. The mammalian ecology research community needs to consider new approaches to collecting data in a way that rivals the long-term, large-scale data sets on birds and butterflies, for example.
Photo: Stirling Council
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