The research might be "eclectic disciplinary perspectives", but as Riikka aptly summarizes: "Urban stigmatisation and marginalisation are multispecies processes that emerge with place-making and have consequences for all the multispecies cohabitants of the city." (5/5)

Waste, humans, rats - junk food, shopping centers, drunk people. "Well, this just happens to be a place where people randomly poop around, business as usual." Belonging and place-making are multispecies phenomena, and urban is not only human, but more-than-human. (4/5)

With this invisible rat presence, we examined urban stigmatisation and belonging as examples of societal phenomena which can be rethought as multispecies. They are very territorial in scope, and place-making emerged as a fruitful concept to understand how multispecies urban is formed. (3/5)

We (as in the ragtag bunch of researchers in CitiRats project) went out to look for rats with lower secondary-school students and we did not see any rats, but we did felt their hidden presence. They were present in stories, stereotypes, memories, and athmospheres. (2/5)

🚨New paper out today: ‘This place cannot be tidied up!’ Stigmatisation, rats, and place-making in a multispecies city🚨 The paper led by Riikka Hohti out today in Children's Geographies: doi.org/10.1080/1473... A short thread: (1/5)

‘Ik ben ecoloog, dus ik probeer ratten niet te zien als een plaagdier.' Ik weet dat dit provocerend klinkt, want ecologen zijn goed in het beoordelen (en doden) van andere dieren. Mare interviewde mij over ons rattenonderzoek en het samenleven met vervelende dieren: www.mareonline.nl/wetenschap/r...

Voimme neuvotella rottien kanssa ja löytää uusia yhdessäelon tapoja - Karolina kirjoitti lyhyen tiivistelmän uudesta tutkimuksesta @helsinkirats.bsky.social-nettisivuille: www.helsinki.fi/fi/projektit...

New research on multispecies conflicts and urban cohabitation!

Mielenkiintoista uutta tutkimustietoa rotista 🐀 by @helsinkirats.bsky.social: alustavien tutkimustulosten perusteella rottien määrä on yhteydessä alueen sosioekonomisiin tekijöihin, mutta syitä ilmiöön ei vielä tunneta. #tutkimus #kaupunkieläimet

New research on rat ethology out now!

Happy to talk with @politiken.dk about rats, and apparently disagree with the whole of Denmark. politiken.dk/edition/news...

Our Karolina Lukasik will be discussing some fundamental questions today in BBC Radio Scotland Mornings show at around 11.30!

This was an effort of multiple people devising data collection, two students coding and a number of us helping in analysis and writing up the results! Really fun interdisciplinary effort. Illustrations by Susu Rytteri! 8/8

The most interesting finding was that almost any species or reason could either lead to increase or decrease of feeding, depending on the context. A lot of people like to go against the grain: when everybody else stop feeding due to rats, someone doubles down and feeds more. 7/8

People described a number of reasons to increase feeding such as caring for endangered species, empathy or interest in birds, keeping up traditions, supporting biodiversit or wanting to provide nature connection to children or cats looking behind the window. 5/8

There are many papers on the motivations to feed birds and how bird-feeding affects bird and non-avian communities. There are less studies on how communities at the bird-feeder affect the feeding practices and the first peek of the dat seems to show that that's where the drama happens! 4/8

The first part of data was presented in @flewrabi.bsky.social's paper few months ago in People and Nature: doi.org/10.1002/pan3... In the second part, we focused on the 15,000+ open-ended answers which proved to be a treasure trove. 3/8

Bird-feeding could be the most common human-wild animal interaction in the Global North. My colleagues collected an impressive dataset on changes in bird-feeding and rats were one of the major reasons to reduce feeding so I was asked to collaborate. 2/8

Now out in npj Biodiversity: Multispecies relations shape bird-feeding practices Link: doi.org/10.1038/s441... From the bird-feeding section of @helsinkirats.bsky.social w/ @informedbirds.bsky.social @aksulehikoinen.bsky.social A short thread: 1/8

Osallistuin tiederuno-kilpailuun ja runoni jyrsijämyrkyistä (josta kuvassa puolet) sijoittui 10:n parhaan joukkoon. (Ping @aivelo.bsky.social ja @helsinkirats.bsky.social) 🐀 Runo on julkaistu reilun 40:n muun runon kanssa Tiederunoja-kirjassa, jonka on toimittanut Heli Katajamäki. #tiedetaivas 📚

"Ajattelemalla jälkilevyä rottien ja ihmisten yhteistyönä, tieteellisen tutkimuksen painopiste siirtyy tiedontuottamisen prosesseihin ---. Tällainen näkökulma antaa tilaa huomata maailma ihmistä ja ihmiskeskeisyyttä laajempana", sanoo @aivelo.bsky.social

New paper alert! Our rat educational science out now in Environmental Education Research: t.co/vKDQrLkG25 #citsci A short thread follows:

Tracing rat paths: In search of interspecies performance - taju.uniarts.fi/handle/10024... Maija Linturi finished her Master thesis in live art and performance studies working with us and rats. It's a new and thought-provoking view to the multi-/inter-/transdisciplinary work that we're doing!

Viime hetken menovinkki: hankkeemme luontokuvaajan Juha Suonpään ilvesdokumentaari tänään ilmaisnäytöksenä Viikin kirjastossa klo 17.30! www.helmet.fi/fi-FI/Kirjas...

It's Runeberg Day, the memorial day of Finnish national poet, and we celebrate it by eating delicious tårta named after him (or his wife). Fun fact: the first mention of a bird feeder (or "bird table") that we have found in Finnish archives is about Runeberg's bird feeder.

Rotista reilun tunnin verran!

Hello everyone! Helsinki Urban Rat Project is moving more of its activity here on Bluesky so do watch this space.