we don't value things that are less intelligent. We don't protect the animals. So why would we protect humans if we have something that is now more powerful, more intelligent? That's intelligence equals betterness

It is a tragic tale about the death of an older species. But it is also an incipient tale about those who survive them, those who inherit the earth.

this is mandating changes on the human species.

if we actually understood that all of this that I'm seeing right now I'm making it up on the fly. This cup that I'm seeing, it only exists when I create it.

okapi, African forest elephant, pygmy hippopotamus, bongo (antelope), chimpanzee, bonobo and the Congo peafowl. Its apex predator is the Leopard, which are larger than their savannah counterparts due to lack of competition from other large predators

monkeys, antelopes, gorillas, and bonobos

The Congo Basin is vital to human life, inside and beyond the forests’ borders. The regional population across the six countries is estimated at over 157 million people,7 of which some 60 million people rely directly on Congo Basin forests for food, medicine, materials, and shelter.

In a world where the average species population has declined 73% since 1970,4 the astonishing biodiversity in the Congo Basin is one of the reasons it is a focus of WWF’s conservation work. The Congo Basin is home to one in five of Earth’s living species, including at least 400 mammal species, 1,000 species of birds, and 700 species of fish.

The colossal scale of the Congo Basin and the relative intactness of its habitats contribute to its extraordinary vitality and species richness. Its iconic wildlife, including gorillas, forest elephants, chimpanzees, and buffalo

including the critically endangered forest elephant and the largest number and diversity of great ape species.

highly intelligent species. Perhaps if we could communicate, we could worktogether to heal, so as to unite endosymbiotically. Before we can get to thisplace of integration, we need to expand our ways of being in “communica-tion” with one another.

If we want to participate with Gaia in her grand adventure, then we mightneed to be able to communicate with the trees and the birds and the microbes

the point is that this is a collective problem that can only be solved collectively. And clearly there is no collective, even worse

a set of policies and mechanisms that allow competent subunits to form together into some kind of a an emergent Collective that's more than the sum of its parts

Humanity in general is to develop tools to identify detect and communicate with all kinds of intelligences and very unconventional embodiments that we are not good at

If we were observers who routinely traced  every motion of every molecule, we would say, what do you mean that there's randomness in  what's going on? There's no randomness. I can see what every individual molecule does. So  in a sense, that's an example of a place where being an observer of the kind we are is the  thing that causes us to perceive laws of the kind we perceive.

Degradation ofecosystem services could be significantly slowed down or even reversed if the role ofbiodiversity and its full contribution to economic production were an integrated part ofdecisions made by governmental entities, companies, and other stakeholders (Paul et al2020)20

human flourishing is possible only in the context of multispecies flourishing on a habitable planet.

This has led some scientists to contend we are a ‘hyperkeystone’ species.

Another is to become a keystone species in an ecosystem, which is a species that has an outsized effect on its environment relative to its abundance. The concept was introduced by Robert T. Paine in 1969, and his experiments provide a good explanation of the concept.

it might help people live more meaningful lives, by feeling a sense of connection to the greater whole of the human species, and allowing this connection to guide their lives.

I am trying to understand where the modern world, and individuals within it, might fit into the big story of our species.

it is useful to instead zoom out, look at a bigger picture, on a longer timescale, and see if we can use this to find our way forward.

This essay is about the story of our species.

I don't think humans are going extinct anytime soon um but I do think 00:36:25 the global Industrial you know networked societies might be a lot more fragile

there are over 300 edible salt marsh and wetland species that grow exclusively with seawater uh and currently we're only familiar with one or two of them so it's about this culture of of changing mindsets towards 00:11:52 these highly nutritious and valuable food crops as well

Butno matter how the form may vary, the fact that an organism hasconscious experience at all means, basically, that there is somethingit is like to be that organism

- In Ernest Becker's book, The Birth and Death of Meaning, Becker provides a summary of the ego from a Freudian perspective that is salient to Nagel's work
    - The ego creates time and humans, occupying a symbolosphere are timebound creatures that create the sense of time to order sensations and perceptions
    - The ego becomes the central reference point for the construct of time
- If the anthropocene is a problem
- and we wish to migrate towards an ecological civilization in which there is greater respect for other species, 
    - a symbiocene
- this means we need to empathize with other species 
- If our species is timebound but the majority of other species are not, 
    - then we must bridge that large gap by somehow experiencing what it's like to be an X ( where X can be a bat or many other species)

This has raised concerns about the possible damage and deadliness of the blasts for marine creatures in False Bay

Australian Princeton philosopher Peter Singer has 00:42:22 talked about the the broadening radius of our moral uh of our moral scope but those we include within our moral Community uh potentially to include 00:42:35 biota and animals for instance outside the human community

this Earth shot as we call it that we're aiming for at Earth species project is for machine learning to decode non-human communication and then that new knowledge and understanding that results 00:06:42 from that would reset our relationship with the rest of Nature and you know this is a to me a really compelling as a potential unlock in addressing the biodiversity and climate crisis that 00:06:56 we're saying to help us find new ways to Coexist on the planet with other species

in 2018 you know it was around four percent of papers were based on Foundation models in 2020 90 were and 00:27:13 that number has continued to shoot up into 2023 and at the same time in the non-human domain it's essentially been zero and actually it went up in 2022 because we've 00:27:25 published the first one and the goal here is hey if we can make these kinds of large-scale models for the rest of nature then we should expect a kind of broad scale 00:27:38 acceleration

The scientists behind the new study are planning an eradication campaign in Sicily. With help from authorities, they say they will destroy the known nests, continue to search local areas for more nests, and monitor for several years to make sure no ants escape. They hope to recruit residents across Europe to keep an eye out for more fire ants.

Based on an analysis of suitable habitats, the researchers estimate the ants could invade 7% of the European continent.

It does not make sense for   one species to command most of the energy flow  through the ecosystems of which it is a part.   That's a very destabilizing situation. And  the wise species would do everything possible   to reestablish some kind of balanced energy and  material throughput. If we don't do that, again,   01:15:52 I keep harping on this, people hate me for it,  but we will go down

we compiled all the species that we try and get a handle on and we then tried to 00:05:06 relate those species list to Manhattan Island through a new kind of science that we call muir webs and that kind of data it turns out that you can visualize and understand as a network

Muir Web

Visualizing a Field of Research With Scientometrics: Climate Change Associated With Major Aquatic Species Production in the World

Whewell was one of the Cambridge dons whom Charles Darwin met during his education there, and when Darwin returned from the Beagle voyage he was directly influenced by Whewell, who persuaded Darwin to become secretary of the Geological Society of London. The title pages of On the Origin of Species open with a quotation from Whewell's Bridgewater Treatise about science founded on a natural theology of a creator establishing laws:[33] But with regard to the material world, we can at least go so far as this—we can perceive that events are brought about not by insulated interpositions of Divine power, exerted in each particular case, but by the establishment of general laws.

While we have already tried to build a new and viable society around concepts such as democracy, sustainability, sustainable development, and resilience, all these terms have been corrupted by forces determined to incorporate and embed them into the Anthropocene where they become normalized, business as usual.

The only diagram or image in The Origin of Species, a tree depicting divergence (source)

he was working on the same theme with Stefanie Posavec. They completed their piece some time later, depicting the changes as lovely branching trees — a kind of homage to Darwin’s lone diagram in the book.

Fifty years ago, coinciding with the centennial of the release of Darwin’s manuscript, author Morse Peckham collected all six editions into a single “variorum” text. Peckham painstakingly created a reference system that denotes the modifications and changes between editions. The text was created by Peckham’s careful enumeration of every sentence from every edition, copied onto index cards; from these cards, he carefully assembled them into a final text.

the phrase “survival of the fittest” — usually considered central to the theory and often attributed to Darwin — instead came from British philosopher Herbert Spencer, and didn't appear until the fifth edition of the text.

Il pesce scorpione, il pesce palla maculato e due specie di pesce coniglio sono i protagonisti della campagna di monitoraggio "Attenti a quei 4" organizzata dall’Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale (Ispra) e l'Istituto per le risorse biologiche e le biotecnologie marine del Consiglio nazionale delle ricerche (Cnr-Irbim).

21:27 - We are just as smart now as we were in the ice age

Projections also omitinterconnections among species, which maycause domino effects that amplify the loss ofdiversity (88).

As time passed, primates as a whole became more social and evolved to live together in groups, but only humans became truly monogamous. Today, other primate species such as bonobos and chimps mate with multiple individuals in their groups.

May 18, 2016 — As time passed, primates as a whole became more social and evolved to live together in groups, but only humans became truly monogamous.

Human language may have evolved to help our ancestors make tools

Each time, though, the species bounced back, more successful and adaptive than ever.dfp.loadAds("right2","MPU5","dfp-right2-article-4")

Humans May Be the Most Adaptive Species

Alkaloid-containing plants exact a heavy economic toll on livestock produc-tion in rangelands of western North America. Losses to these plants can be reduced or eliminated by recognizing plants containing alkaloids, understand-ing when livestock graze specific toxic plants, and knowing signs of potential toxicity. Grazing schemes can then be developed based on knowledge of the temporal and spatial dynamics of alkaloid concentration and consumption by livestock.Lossescanbereducedbyensuringthatlivestockarenotexposedorhave limitedexposureduringperiodsofgreatestrisk(i.e.,highesttoxinconcentration)or whenlivestockaremostlikelytoeattoxicplantsinsufficientamountstoproduce toxicity.

Death camas (Zigadenus spp.) grows on foothill ranges in much of the Rocky Mountain area. Animals eating death camas die from reduced blood pressure and heart failure. Death camas is one of the first plants available during spring, and animals may graze the plant if other forage is lacking. Generally, recognizing the presence of death camas and understanding the acutely toxic nature of the plant will aid in avoiding problems. Hungry animals should not bedriventhroughadeathcamas-infestedpasture.Sheepinparticularshouldnotbe beddednearlargepatchesofdeathcamas,andsheepherdersshouldavoidstressing sheep by rapidly driving them if they do eat death camas. Death camas can be controlledbyphenoxyherbicides.

39National Forests and most problems can be solved by grazing management.

False hellebore (Veratrum spp.) is f ound in moist habitats in the Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountain states. It is grazed by sheep and goats and causes birth defects (i.e., monkey-faced lambs). Livestock management to avoid losses t o false hellebore i s r elatively simple because the window of toxicity when false hellebore poisons t he fetus i s r elatively narr ow (i.e., 14 to 33 days gestation). Pregnant animals, particularly sheep, should not be allowed access t o veratrum-infested pastures during this period. Cattle rarely ea t the plant, therefore no special management is needed. For sheep, false hellebore i s quite palatable, and herders must keep bred sheep from ingesting false hellebore f or about one month after the rams are removed. This is not difficult to accomplish because false hellebore is limited in distribution to moist mountain habitats and grows in easy to identify dense patches. Although effective herbicidal control is available, it may not be practical because the major populations grow in

Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) grows throughout the United States in areas with abundant moisture (i.e., creeks, ditches etc.). Animals eating poison hemlock die from acute respiratory failure or have deformed offspring. The most critical season to avoid poison hemlock is spring because the plant often appears before other forage has emerged. Green seed pods may be eaten in mid-to-late summer. Furthermore, poison hemlock may regrow in fall after seeds shatter. Ingestion during fall may coincide with birth defects in pregnant cattle, if they are i n the firs t trimester of gestation (days 30-75). If poison hemlock invades hay fields, the contaminated hay can poison livestock. Even though toxicity decreases upon drying, sufficient toxins may be r etained to poison livestock. Cattle appear to be particularly susceptible because of their acceptance of the plant and their sensitivity to the alkaloids t hat c ause birth defects. Poison hemlock can be easily controlled with phenoxy herbicides.

Acute t oxicity problems are l es s common now, but lar ge sheep losses occurred frequently 100 years ago. Deaths occ ur when livestock, usually sheep, ingest a large amount of seed pods in a short time. This can occur from contaminated hay or from hungry animals gaining access t o lupine-dominated forage, and can be prevented by using lupine-free hay and avoiding lupine-dominated ranges when other forage is scarce. During some years, lupine populations may temporarily increase on rangelands not normally problematic. Livestock producers need to be aware of lupine populations and be sufficiently alert to alter grazing or breeding programs when these eruptions occur. Lupine populations increased dramatically during 1997 in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, causing severe l osses. For example, producers in Adams County, Washington lost over 30% of their calves ( >4000 calves) from lupine- caused birth defects.

38of rotational grazing scheme. Herbicidal control of lupines is feasible, but is usually more expensive than altering a grazing management program.

Lupines (Lupinus spp.) are widely distributed throughout the western U.S. Cattle eating lupine may have deformed or "crooked" calves, and sheep may be poisoned outright by lupine. Livestock losses from lupine poisoning can largely be prevented by understanding two interrelated aspects. First, the highest concentrations of toxic alkaloids tend to occur in immature lupine plants and seed pods. Second, pregnant cattle are susceptible to the effects of alkaloids that cause birth defects during a window from 40 to 70 days of gestation, occasionally extending to 100 days. Birth defects in cattle can be prevented by using breeding or grazing programs that avoid placing pregnant cattle in lupine-dominated pastures in the first trimester of gestation. Alternatively, risk can be reduced by allowing only short-term access to lupines by pregnant cattle in some form

Houndstongue (Cynoglossum officinale) is not only a toxic plant that contains alkaloids, but also a noxious weed that is increasing over much of North America. The plant spreads from bur-like seeds that cling to wildlife, livestock and humans, and invades disturbed areas. Houndstongue is generally unpalat- able when growing on rangelands, but lactating cows and horses may eat green houndstongue at times. When houndstongue contaminates hay, it is readily eaten by cattle and horses, and is quite toxic.

Senecio or groundsel species (Senecio spp.) and houndstongue (Cynoglossum officinale) contain highly toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids. These alkaloids are potent liver toxins that cause wasting and photosensitization. Senecios and houndstongue occur on many western U.S. rangelands. Only seven of more than 112 senecio species are known to be toxic so correct identification is essential. Managing rangelands so that plant communities are in good condi- tion and adequate forage is available is crucial to reduce losses to senecio. Generally, senecios are not very palatable, and are avoided by grazing livestock if other forage is available. Drought stress and overgrazing can increase populations of threadlleaf groundsel, as the plant is an aggressive invader. Drought is an especially dangerous time because other forage may be lacking and the toxic alkaloid concentration in senecio plants increases during drought, so grazing animals may ingest higher quantities of more toxic forage. Senecio species are also most toxic when plants are reproducing, thus avoiding pastures when these plants are in bud, flower, or seed is prudent. Proper grazing management must consider stocking rates, as excessive stocking may increase the amount of toxic plant consumed when alternative forages become limited. Excessive stocking may lead to degradation of the desirable plant community allowing senecio species to increase. Herbicidal control may alleviate some problems if incorporated into an overall management program

for example arctic char the fish species that's already 00:09:00 all across the arctic region living at its temperature level about 24 degrees celsius in freshwater ecosystems one fraction of a decree further and we 00:09:13 will enter into a cycle of fish death events that will cascade in food security loss of culture and many other things of this keystone species on the aquatic ecosystems for 00:09:25 communities and nature alike

For if I wait out the uncomfortable night by the river,I fear that the female dew and the evil frost togetherwill be too much for my damaged strength, I am so exhausted, and in themorning a chilly wind will blow from the river; 470 but if I go up the slopeand into the shadowy forest,and lie down to sleep among the dense bushes, even if the chill andweariness let me be, and a sweet sleep comes upon me,I fear I may become spoil and prey to the wild animals.’

Once plant toxins are absorbed fr om the gut into the blood, they are often trans- ported to the liver. T he liver primarily, and secondarily the kidney, intestinal mucosa, lungs, a nd skin contain enzyme systems that metabolize or alter toxic compounds, rendering them inert. Ability to metabolize or reduce sensitivity to specific phytotoxins varies by herbivore species a nd individuals. For example, sheep can tolerate and detoxify more pyrrolizidine alkaloids than cattle, therefore it takes five times more tall larkspur (Delphinium occidentalis) to poison sheep compared to cattle

Furries are in the perilous position of having their interests form an integral part of their identity while simultaneously experiencing stigmatization from the world around them. For many, the fandom is their only source of social interaction and social support.

A small subset of furries, called “therians,” go beyond the interest in developing a fursona and believe they are spiritually connected to animals, are less than 100 per-cent human, are an animal trapped in a human body, or were an animal in a former life (Gerbasi et al., 2008).

She states that furry participants might identify as less than 100% human for reasons that she felt included, “not the least having a hangover from furry drinks the night before.” While it may be an attempt at humor, we find this comment to be egregiously offensive, derogatory, and insulting to the furry fandom and our participants. Ironically, this remark illustrates her subscription to the very stereotypes we were empirically testing and con-firms the necessity of our research.

Her focus on gender identity disorder misses the main point of the study, which was that it was the first empirical study to collect data scientifically and report find-ings on the furry fandom, an often misrepresented subculture.

Here the diagnosis slips from requiring both being “less than 100% human” and “being 0% human” to only requiring the first criterion—being “less than 100% human.” The implications of this rhetorical slip are a vast shift in proportion, since it triples the number of furries who are potentially diagnosable as having species identity disorder (from 31 to 99 [or 46%] of the 214 furries who answered).

The data on personality disorders showed that furries were less likely to judge other furries as disordered, while the control group (the psychology students) judged other college students “significantly more often” along the lines of personality trait disorders. That the control group was made up of psychology students is perhaps an important factor here; this group may display an increased sensi-tivity to normative behaviors and “disorder.”

Species identity disorder is modeled on gender identity disorder, itself a highly controversial diagnosis that has been criticized for pathol-ogizing homosexuality and transgendered people.

I began by asking the room full of furries why they chose the animal they did for their species, and I received a lot of answers that fit in well with my experience of the fandom. Notable among the explanations were the oft-used words 'identity', 'connection', 'personality', and 'characteristics'. And this, of course makes sense. Many introductions to furry, whether they're websites (the first introductory website I found was Captain Packrat's explanation of FurCodes) or friends, explain that although furry is about being a fan of anthropomorphism in general, it often (but not always) specifically involves a personal connection with an animal that leads to the creation of a personal character: an avatar often used in interaction with other furries.

Parishes that distribute Holy Communion only under the species of bread

detections in surrounding states

docs the calf regard the bleating of the shee

The organs of hearing in each species, are tuned only to the sounds of their own

overcome fundamental human limitations, and the related study of the ethical matters involved in developing and using such technologies

Thus, predicting species responses to novel climates is problematic, because we often lack sufficient observational data to fully determine in which climates a species can or cannot grow (Figure 3). Fortunately, the no-analog problem only affects niche modeling when (1) the envelope of observed climates truncates a fundamental niche and (2) the direction of environmental change causes currently unobserved portions of a species' fundamental niche to open up (Figure 5). Species-level uncertainties accumulate at the community level owing to ecological interactions, so the composition and structure of communities in novel climate regimes will be difficult to predict. Increases in atmospheric CO2 should increase the temperature optimum for photosynthesis and reduce sensitivity to moisture stress (Sage and Coleman 2001), weakening the foundation for applying present empirical plant–climate relationships to predict species' responses to future climates. At worst, we may only be able to predict that many novel communities will emerge and surprises will occur. Mechanistic ecological models, such as dynamic global vegetation models (Cramer et al. 2001), are in principle better suited for predicting responses to novel climates. However, in practice, most such models include only a limited number of plant functional types (and so are not designed for modeling species-level responses), or they are partially parameterized using modern ecological observations (and thus may have limited predictive power in no-analog settings).

In eastern North America, the high pollen abundances of temperate tree taxa (Fraxinus, Ostrya/Carpinus, Ulmus) in these highly seasonal climates may be explained by their position at the edge of the current North American climate envelope (Williams et al. 2006; Figure 3). This pattern suggests that the fundamental niches for these taxa extend beyond the set of climates observed at present (Figure 3), so that these taxa may be able to sustain more seasonal regimes than exist anywhere today (eg Figure 1), as long as winter temperatures do not fall below the −40°C mean daily freezing limit for temperate trees (Sakai and Weiser 1973).

notorious

Draft Biological Opinion for the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge AsianTapeworm Eradication

To simulate equilibrium sagebrush cover under projected future climate, we applied average projected changes in precipitation and temperature to the observed climate time series. For each GCM and RCP scenario combination, we calculated average precipitation and temperature over the 1950–2000 time period and the 2050–2098 time period. We then calculated the absolute change in temperature between the two time periods (ΔT) and the proportional change in precipitation between the two time periods (ΔP) for each GCM and RCP scenario combination. Lastly, we applied ΔT and ΔP to the observed 28-year climate time series to generate a future climate time series for each GCM and RCP scenario combination. These generated climate time series were used to simulate equilibrium sagebrush cover.

Our process model (in Eq. (2)) includes a log transformation of the observations (log(yt − 1)). Thus, our model does not accommodate zeros. Fortunately, we had very few instances where pixels had 0% cover at time t − 1 (n = 47, which is 0.01% of the data set). Thus, we excluded those pixels from the model fitting process. However, when simulating the process, we needed to include possible transitions from zero to nonzero percent cover. We fit an intercept-only logistic model to estimate the probability of a pixel going from zero to nonzero cover: yi∼Bernoulli(μi)(8)logit(μi)=b0(9)where y is a vector of 0s and 1s corresponding to whether a pixel was colonized (>0% cover) or not (remains at 0% cover) and μi is the expected probability of colonization as a function of the mean probability of colonization (b0). We fit this simple model using the “glm” command in R (R Core Team 2014). For data sets in which zeros are more common and the colonization process more important, the same spatial statistical approach we used for our cover change model could be applied and covariates such as cover of neighboring cells could be included.

Our approach models interannual changes in plant cover as a function of seasonal climate variables. We used daily historic weather data for the center of our study site from the NASA Daymet data set (available online: http://daymet.ornl.gov/). The Daymet weather data are interpolated between coarse observation units and capture some spatial variation. We relied on weather data for the centroid of our study area.

Because SDMs typically rely on occurrence data, their projections of habitat suitability or probability of occurrence provide little information on the future states of populations in the core of their range—areas where a species exists now and is expected to persist in the future (Ehrlén and Morris 2015).

Whilst the consensus method we used provided the best predictions under AUC assessment – seemingly confirming its potential for reducing model-based uncertainty in SDM predictions [58], [59] – its accuracy to predict changes in occupancy was lower than most single models. As a result, we advocate great care when selecting the ensemble of models from which to derive consensus predictions; as previously discussed by Araújo et al. [21], models should be chosen based on aspects of their individual performance pertinent to the research question being addressed, and not on the assumption that more models are better.

Finally, by assuming the non-detection of a species to indicate absence from a given grid cell, we introduced an extra level of error into our models. This error depends on the probability of false absence given imperfect detection (i.e., the probability that a species was present but remained undetected in a given grid cell [73]): the higher this probability, the higher the risk of incorrectly quantifying species-climate relationships [73].

an average 87% of grid squares maintaining the same occupancy status; similarly, all climatic variables were also highly correlated between time periods (ρ>0.85, p<0.001 for all variables). As a result, models providing a good fit to early distribution records can be expected to return a reasonable fit to more recent records (and vice versa), regardless of whether relevant predictors of range shift have actually been captured. Previous studies have warned against taking strong model performance on calibration data to indicate high predictive accuracy to a different time period [20], [24]–[26]; our results indicate that strong model performance in a different time period, as measured by widespread metrics, may not indicate high predictive accuracy either.

Most variation in the prediction accuracy of SDMs – as measured by AUC, sensitivity, CCRstable, CCRchanged – was among species within a higher taxon, whilst the choice of modelling framework was as important a factor in explaining variation in specificity (Table 4 and Table S4). The effect of major taxonomic group on the accuracy of forecasts was relatively small.

The correct classification rate of grid squares that remained occupied or remained unoccupied (CCRstable) was fairly high (mean±s.d.  = 0.75±0.15), and did not covary with species’ observed proportional change in range size (Figure 3B). In contrast, the CCR of grid squares whose occupancy status changed between time periods (CCRchanged) was very low overall (0.51±0.14; guessing randomly would be expected to produce a mean of 0.5), with range expansions being slightly better predicted than range contractions (0.55±0.15 and 0.48±0.12, respectively; Figure 3C).

The consensus method Mn(PA) produced the highest validation AUC values (Figure 1), generating good to excellent forecasts (AUC ≥0.80) for 60% of the 1823 species modelled.

Quantifying the temporal transferability of SDMs by comparing the agreement between model predictions and observations for the predicted period using common metrics is not a sufficient test of whether models have actually captured relevant predictors of change. A single range-wide measure of prediction accuracy conflates accurately predicting species expansions and contractions to new areas with accurately predicting large parts of the distribution that have remained unchanged in time. Thus, to assess how well SDMs capture drivers of change in species distributions, we measured the agreement between observations and model predictions of each species’ (a) geographic range size in period t2, (b) overall change in geographic range size between time periods, and (c) grid square-level changes in occupancy status between time periods.

Although it is common knowledge that some of the modelling techniques we used (e.g., CTA, SRE) generally perform less well than others [32], [33], we believe that their transferability in time is not as well-established; therefore, we decided to include them in our analysis to test the hypothesis that simpler statistical models may have higher transferability in time than more complex ones.

We also considered including additional environmental predictors of ecological relevance to our models. First, although changes in land use have been identified as fundamental drivers of change for many British species [48]–[52], we were unable to account for them in our models – like most other published accounts of temporal transferability of SDMs [20], [21], [24], [25] – due to the lack of data documenting habitat use in the earlier t1 period; detailed digitised maps of land use for the whole of Britain are not available until the UK Land Cover Map in 1990 [53].

Great Britain is an island with its own separate history of environmental change; environmental drivers of distribution size and change in British populations are thus likely to differ somewhat from those of continental populations of the same species. For this reason, we only used records at the British extent to predict distribution change across Great Britain.

Everyday interactions replay the Turing Test over and over. Is there a person behind this machine, and if so, how much? In time, the answer will matter less, and the postulation of human (or even carbon-based life) as the threshold measure of intelligence and as the qualifying gauge of a political ethics may seem like tasteless vestigial racism, replaced by less anthropocentric frames of reference.