New TONMO Staff member: Dr. Gavan Cooke!

[tonmo]

I am very happy to announce that Dr. Gavan Cooke (@GavanMCooke) has joined the TONMO Staff! Gavan is a behavioral ecologist (see full bio below) and has been a TONMO member since 2014. In addition to participating in our forums, Gavan will contribute unique content to other site areas (e.g. Articles) to help enrich our collective understanding of these incredible creatures. Please join me in welcoming him aboard!

Dr. Gavan M. Cooke (GavanMCooke) Dr Gavan Cooke is a behavioural ecologist who fell in love with cephalopods whilst managing a research aquarium after his PhD. He has published research investigating the welfare of captive cephalopods and is interested in the behaviour of wild cephalopods. He also created The Cephalopod Citizen Science Project which aims to bring scientists and citizens together in the name of discovering more about cephalopods.

 

[pkilian]

Welcome! I'm excited to see what kinds of interesting things you have to share with us

 

[Architeuthoceras]

Welcome!

 

[sedna]

Welcome Gavan! So glad you’ve joined our community!

 

[DWhatley]

Totally delighted to see you becoming a staff member @GavanMCooke ! I was hoping your post of publications and the info about the citizen scientist program was leading to a new participation high!!

 

[GPO87]

Welcome Gavan! I had not heard of your Cephalopod Citizens Science Project, but I've followed it now! What a great idea!

 

[GavanMCooke]

Hi guys, many thanks for the warm welcome, I hope to be of use to this great place

 

[GavanMCooke]

Welcome Gavan! I had not heard of your Cephalopod Citizens Science Project, but I've followed it now! What a great idea!

If you or you know of anyone interested in setting up a group in NZ let me know, we'd love to start something where you guys are

 

[GavanMCooke]

Hi guys, hopefully my first of many contributions to this project is an analysis of pet ceph ownership. The attached charts, crude, for now, show levels of ownership (data from two major forums - inc this one) and a survey conducted of our membership a few years back. Shows reef central might be worth spamming for new members...?

This is has been sitting in my to-do list since then but motivated to work on getting this published.

Interestingly ceph ownership plummets in 2008/9 ish - Finacial crash? But numbers seemed to drop way before then too. Maybe the peaks relate to local abundance peaks or media/film/cultural focus on cephs. A student of mine has gathered data from the last dates on the chart up until April 2020 so we'll add that. It would be interesting to see if there is a covid crash in ownership as well.

Our owner's concern don't seem to match with the perceived public aquarium wisdom that cephs jet into walls (= crash) and should be given circular tanks - something I have always disagreed with and would argue surface area is way more important to encourage benthic foraging.

This is all a very long way off from being finalised but very keen to hear thoughts and suggestions - a paper from us all would really boost the profile of the community and site ....? I think additional surveys of our membership would tell us a lot more.

Cheers,

Gav

 

[tonmo]

Wow, really interesting!! When I first read the chart, I interpreted "crash" as a tank crash, i.e., total loss of the ecosystem and a need to start over. We've had a few cases of "butt burn," etc. on the forums but to your point, not a major concern from my own casual observation. Of course it also depends on the type and species; i.e. a bimac and a cuttlefish are going to behave very differently... I think tank owners (and the industry at large) tend to get species that are less likely to wreak havoc in a tank, which is why nobody keeps squid, for example.

Shows reef central might be worth spamming for new members...?

We don't spam - but yes Reef Central is awesome! We have coexisted symbiotically for as long as I can remember. We get some referrals now and then.

 

[GavanMCooke]

Wow, really interesting!! When I first read the chart, I interpreted "crash" as a tank crash, i.e., total loss of the ecosystem and a need to start over. We've had a few cases of "butt burn," etc. on the forums but to your point, not a major concern from my own casual observation. Of course it also depends on the type and species; i.e. a bimac and a cuttlefish are going to behave very differently... I think tank owners (and the industry at large) tend to get species that are less likely to wreak havoc in a tank, which is why nobody keeps squid, for example.

Yes, I am not too happy with survey questions so perhaps we could do it again as a few years have passed so survey fatigue will be low. We could do a much better job and split questions in cephalopod type.

We don't spam - but yes Reef Central is awesome! We have coexisted symbiotically for as long as I can remember. We get some referrals now and then.

that is great news as if we do another survey we might be able to get responses from this forum to if you have a good relationship with them?

 

[tonmo]

Sounds good, happy to work with you on this!