PhD researcher studying recreation ecology in Scotland @CREEM_cake 🌲🦡🦊🏃♀️ | human-wildlife interaction, bioacoustics, ecological AI
St Andrews, Scotland
Joined November 2012
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Amber Cowans retweeted
🚶♀️➡️ Signs of compliance: Message framing influences outdoor recreationists' responses to conservation requests
📖 buff.ly/vqeVwW1
Amber Cowans retweeted
🪶How does recreational activity affect wildlife? New article led by @AmberCowans links habitat selection theory with a social-ecological systems perspective to show how recreationists and wildlife influence one another #RecreationEcology
📖 Read more ➡️ buff.ly/IPnVJk3
Amber Cowans retweeted
Abstract submission is open until May 1 for the International Statistical Ecology Conference: statisticalecology.org
We've got 14 workshops, 6 plenary speakers, new partnerships in the works, & will have a limited # of scholarships available for students.
#ISEC2027
Amber Cowans retweeted
occARU: Bayesian (multispecies) occupancy models for ARU data using @mcmc_stan. Automated recording units (ARUs) like camera traps produce rich time series which warrant going beyond occupancy and focusing on detection rates. 1/n
mhollanders.github.io/occARU…
Amber Cowans retweeted
Amber Cowans (University of St Andrews) shared PhD research investigating what features of signs make people more or less willing to follow behavioural requests (eg. keeping dogs on leads or sticking to designated trails) to protect sensitive species like the Western Capercaillie
Amber Cowans retweeted
New special feature!🌍
Here, our guest editors research at the cutting edge of the AI–ecology interface, focusing on work that advances the state of both fields beyond proof-of-concept to true interdisciplinary insight.
Read the full collection👇️
buff.ly/GbMxxmW
Amber Cowans retweeted
The first issue of 2026 is now out! 🚨
This issue contains our new special feature 'Conservation, ecology and artificial intelligence: Advances and symbiotic solutions'.
Read the whole issue here 👇
buff.ly/AmWPK0C
Amber Cowans retweeted
A new #OpenAccess Statistical Report in the journal!👀
📝 Are you using multispecies occupancy models to investigate interactions in species occupancy (i.e. co-occurrence)? 🦁🦓
Check out our new paper for advice on the number of sites you need to reliably detect interactions under different scenarios doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70175
📝 Are you using multispecies occupancy models to investigate interactions in species occupancy (i.e. co-occurrence)? 🦁🦓
Check out our new paper for advice on the number of sites you need to reliably detect interactions under different scenarios doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70175
Take home 4: In all scenarios, far fewer sites were needed to estimate the conditional and marginal occupancy probabilities (i.e. prediction), compared to the exact interaction term (i.e. inference).
I'll be talking at the @pintofscience festival in St Andrews on May 19! Come along to learn about how AI works, how it's revolutionising ecology and what it's costing the earth 🌍 pintofscience.co.uk/event/al…
Amber Cowans retweeted
RESULT: Diversionary feeding increased the number of hens detected with chicks, consistent with our previous work. This resulted in productivity (the expected chicks per hen) increasing from 0.82 in unfed sites to 1.9 in fed sites (more than double!). 5/6
Check out this thread by Jack to see how providing some tasty 🦌meat for marten has helped more capercaille chicks survive in Scotland by diverting predation!
The food is not supplemental, but diversionary. i.e. it's not extra meals, they eat it instead of the caper eggs.
⏰New Research🚨
We quantified the direct impact of diversionary feeding on capercaillie productivity. We show an increase in the proportion of hen with a brood in DF sites (37% -> 85%) and, as a result, a 131% increase in chicks per hen. Read here: researchgate.net/publication…
1/6
Thanks Andy! Preprint link is biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/… (hope that one works 🤞)
Amber Cowans retweeted
Huge congrats to @AmberCowans on the acceptance of her first PhD chapter in @MethodsEcolEvol:
'Improving the integration of AI into existing ecological inference workflows'
It's perspective piece, but if you cant wait, the preprint here:
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…