Reflections on UK Comedy’s Glass Ceiling: Stand-Up Comedy and Contemporary Feminisms

This thesis considers the ways in which the current UK stand-up comedy industry both accommodates and simultaneously marginalises female voices. This research concerns itself with three key areas of enquiry: Firstly, I examine how the development of stand-up comedy, alongside gender stereotypes, has resulted in additional barriers to women’s participation in live comedy, and how these barriers are maintained in a digital era. Stand-up comedy as an art form has emerged from, and been developed within, male dominated spaces. This has impacted upon the style and content of the comedy produced in the live arena, as well as broadcast comedy. This research considers how the origins of stand-up comedy still impact on current live comedy production and how this is intrinsically linked to wider societal stereotypes about the capabilities of women. Secondly, I consider the work being undertaken in the current context to address the continuing gender inequality on the UK circuit, and what these initiatives mean to performers and audiences. My original contribution to knowledge is to synthesise the results of immersive research with the UK Women in Comedy Festival in Manchester, which investigated practical initiatives seeking to make the industry more inclusive to women, with the results of qualitative and mixed-methods research into the perspectives of performers, promoters and audiences on the importance of these initiatives. As a result I offer both an overview of the current scene and suggestions for the future. Lastly, I analyse examples of stand-up comedy performed by women in the current context and how these performances relate to conceptions of feminist and postfeminist humour, as well as notions of backlash against contemporary feminisms. This research focuses on live comedy that is explicitly feminist in its presentation and content to consider how social attitudes to women, the increasing visibility of female labour outside the home, and the emergence of multiple (occasionally contradictory) feminisms has influenced the comedy produced by female comedians in 21st century Britain

Using natural history collections to investigate changes in pangolin (Pholidota: Manidae) geographic ranges through time

Pangolins, often considered the world’s most trafficked wild mammals, have continued to experience rapid declines across Asia and Africa. All eight species are classed as either Vulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. Alongside habitat loss, they are threatened mainly by poaching and/or legal hunting to meet the growing consumer demand for their meat and keratinous scales. Species threat assessments heavily rely on changes in species distributions which are usually expensive and difficult to monitor, especially for rare and cryptic species like pangolins. Furthermore, recent assessments of the threats to pangolins focus on characterising their trade using seizure data which provide limited insights into the true extent of global pangolin declines. As the consequences of habitat modifications and poaching/hunting on species continues to become apparent, it is crucial that we frequently update our understanding of how species distributions change through time to allow effective identification of geographic regions that are in need of urgent conservation actions. Here we show how georeferencing pangolin specimens from natural history collections can reveal how their distributions are changing over time, by comparing overlap between specimen localities and current area of habitat maps derived from IUCN range maps. We found significant correlations in percentage area overlap between species, continent, IUCN Red List status and collection year, but not ecology (terrestrial or arboreal/semi-arboreal). Human population density (widely considered to be an indication of trafficking pressure) and changes in primary forest cover, were weakly correlated with percentage overlap. Our results do not suggest a single mechanism for differences among historical distributions and present-day ranges, but rather show that multiple explanatory factors must be considered when researching pangolin population declines as variations among species influence range fluctuations. We also demonstrate how natural history collections can provide temporal information on distributions and discuss the limitations of collecting and using historical data.© 2021 Buckingham et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited

Examining body appreciation in six countries: The impact of age and sociocultural pressure

Previous research on body appreciation across the lifespan has produced conflicting results that it increases with age, decreases with age, or is generally stable with an increase in women over 50-years-old. Furthermore, most of the research has been conducted in White, Western populations. Cross-cultural research suggests that both Chinese and African women experience similar sociocultural pressures as White Western women, and that appearance ideals are shifting to resemble a more Western ideal. We cross-sectionally and cross-culturally examined body appreciation across the lifespan, recruiting White Western women (UK, USA, Canada, and Australia), Black Nigerian women, and Chinese women. 1186 women aged 18–80 completed measures of body appreciation, internalisation of thin and athletic ideals, and perceived sociocultural pressure. Body appreciation did not vary with age in women from any country. Nigerian women reported the highest body appreciation, and Western women the lowest. Higher thin/athletic ideal internalisation, and higher perceived sociocultural pressure were significantly associated with lower body appreciation in all countries and age-groups. Overall, our findings indicate that although levels of body appreciation differ drastically between ethnicities and cultures, it is generally stable across age, and shows cross-culturally robust relationships between sociocultural internalisation and pressure

Genetic swamping of the critically endangered Scottish wildcat was recent and accelerated by disease

The European wildcat population in Scotland is considered critically endangered as a result of hybridization with introduced domestic cats,1,2 though the time frame over which this gene flow has taken place is unknown. Here, using genome data from modern, museum, and ancient samples, we reconstructed the trajectory and dated the decline of the local wildcat population from viable to severely hybridized. We demonstrate that although domestic cats have been present in Britain for over 2,000 years,3 the onset of hybridization was only within the last 70 years. Our analyses reveal that the domestic ancestry present in modern wildcats is markedly over-represented in many parts of the genome, including the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). We hypothesize that introgression provides wildcats with protection against diseases harbored and introduced by domestic cats, and that this selection contributes to maladaptive genetic swamping through linkage drag. Using the case of the Scottish wildcat, we demonstrate the importance of local ancestry estimates to both understand the impacts of hybridization in wild populations and support conservation efforts to mitigate the consequences of anthropogenic and environmental chang

Evolutionary ecomorphology of the Falkland Islands wolf Dusicyon australis

The Falkland Islands wolf Dusicyon australis is an extinct canid that was once the only endemic terrestrial mammal to inhabit the Falkland Islands. There is still a puzzling picture of the morphological adaptations of this wolf that quickly evolved from its mainland fossil ancestor: Dusicyon avus. We employ a geometric morphometric approach to identify patterns of skull shape variation in extant canids and Dusicyon spp. The Falkland Islands wolf and its fossil ancestor show a more carnivorous feeding morphology than other South American foxes, and they cluster morphologically with jackals. This supports convergence in skull shape between Dusicyon and Old World canids, although the convergence is not as strong as that exhibited by their sister hyper- and hypocarnivorous taxa.Fil: Meloro, Carlo. Liverpool John Moores University; Reino UnidoFil: Hunter, Jonathan. Liverpool John Moores University; Reino UnidoFil: Tomsett, Louise. Natural History Museum; Reino UnidoFil: Portela Miguez, Roberto. Natural History Museum; Reino UnidoFil: Prevosti, Francisco Juan. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Regional de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia Tecnológica de La Rioja. - Universidad Nacional de La Rioja. Centro Regional de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia Tecnológica de La Rioja. - Universidad Nacional de Catamarca. Centro Regional de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia Tecnológica de la Rioja. - Secretaria de Industria y Minería. Servicio Geológico Minero Argentino. Centro Regional de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia Tecnológica de La Rioja. - Provincia de La Rioja. Centro Regional de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia Tecnológica de La Rioja; ArgentinaFil: Brown, Richard P.. Liverpool John Moores University; Reino Unid

Dendrohyrax dorsalis subsp. emini Thomas 1887

Dendrohyrax dorsalis emini (Thomas, 1887) Democratic Republic of Congo. Bili: 04°10′N, 25°11′E (T.B., 2001) (N = 29). Ituri Forest, Basakwe: 1°35′N, 28°25′E (J.O., 1993) (N = 1).Published as part of Oates, John F, Woodman, Neal, Gaubert, Philippe, Sargis, Eric J, Wiafe, Edward D, Lecompte, Emilie, Dowsett-Lemaire, Françoise, Dowsett, Robert J, Gonedelé Bi, Sery, Ikemeh, Rachel A, Djagoun, Chabi A M S, Tomsett, Louise & Bearder, Simon K, 2022, A new species of tree hyrax (Procaviidae: Dendrohyrax) from West Africa and the significance of the Niger-Volta interfluvium in mammalian biogeography, pp. 527-552 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 194 (2) on page 551, DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlab029, http://zenodo.org/record/635210

Dendrohyrax interfluvialis Oates & Woodman & Gaubert & Sargis & Wiafe & Lecompte & Dowsett-Lemaire & Dowsett & Gonedelé Bi & Ikemeh & Djagoun & Tomsett & Bearder 2022, SP. NOV.

DENDROHYRAX INTERFLUVIALIS SP. NOV. BENIN TREE HYRAX (FIG. 6) ZooBank registration LSID: D45FC680-1A5F-4D9D-8A24-19E58ABAE24C. Holotype: Skin and skull of an adult of unknown sex, NHMUK 46.360. Type locality: Ilaro Forest Reserve (6°47′N, 3°04′E), Ogun State, Nigeria. Distribution: Known only from the region between the Niger and Volta Rivers in West Africa, in moist and dry forest zones; this area encompasses portions of south-eastern Ghana, southern Togo, southern Benin and south-western Nigeria (Fig. 1). Paratypes: NHMUK 50.337: Nikrowa, Okomu Forest Reserve, Edo State, Nigeria; NHMUK 50.338: Ohosu Forest Reserve, Edo State, Nigeria; NHMUK 61.461: Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria; NHMUK 1998.300: Western Niger River Delta, Delta State, Nigeria; USNM 377548: Sapoba Forest Reserve, Edo State, Nigeria; University of Ghana, Legon, Zoology Museum ZD /L/S3/001: Tafi-Atome, Volta Region, Ghana. Representative DNA sequences: Sequences of mitochondrial DNA from D. interfluvialis were deposited in GenBank with the following accession numbers: MW 147258 and MW 147260 – MW 147263 (Cytb, five representatives); MW 147240, MW 147242 – MW 147244 and MW 147258 (COX 1, six representatives); MW 592436 – MW 592438 (full mitogenomes, three representatives). Details are given in the Supporting Information (Tables S2 and S 3). Etymology: The specific name acknowledges the geographical range of D. interfluvialis between two of the largest rivers in West Africa: the Niger and the Volta. The English name ‘ Benin tree hyrax’ (used by Bearder et al., 2015) refers to the occurrence of this species in the south of the Republic of Benin (formerly Dahomey) and in proximity to Benin City in Nigeria. Benin City was once the capital of the Benin Empire, whose influence at its height extended from the Niger to present-day Ghana; these lands are adjacent to the Bight of Benin in the Gulf of Guinea. Dowsett-Lemaire & Dowsett (2019) used the name ‘ Dahomey tree hyrax’ for the population of this species living in the Dahomey Gap. Diagnosis: Dendrohyrax interfluvialis has a distinctive ‘rattle–bark’ loud call, different in structure from the ‘klaxon’ call of D. dorsalis. The D. arboreus loud call varies regionally and resembles that of D. interfluvialis in exhibiting a series of rattles, but differs by ending in a number of raucous screams (Milner & Gaylard, 2013). Dendrohyrax validus loud calls sound different and have been divided into three regionally distinct types (variously described as ‘knocks’, ‘hacs’, ‘thwacks’ and ‘wheezes’) (Roberts et al., 2013). The pelage of the flanks and outer limb surfaces of D. interfluvialis is brindled dark brown and lighter yellow–brown, in contrast to the predominantly dark brown to blackish dorsal colour seen in populations of D. d. dorsalis, D. d. nigricans and D. d. sylvestris in other parts of West Africa. Individuals of D. d. emini and D. d. latrator from the Congo Basin and of D. d. marmota from the western shore of Lake Victoria are generally much paler in colour than the West African tree hyraxes; they typically have brindled light grey–brown dorsal coats, tinged with yellow on the flanks and rump. However, some D. d. emini individuals are dark brown (Hatt, 1936). The dorsal pelage of D. arboreus is grey or brown (Milner & Gaylard, 2013) and that of D. validus varies in colour from cinnamon brown to black; the long hairs around the dorsal gland of D. validus are yellow or cinnamon in colour, compared with white or creamy white in other Dendrohyrax taxa (Roberts et al., 2013). The considerable variation in coat colour both between and within Dendrohyrax populations has probably contributed to the confused state of current taxonomy. The skull of D. interfluvialis differs from that of most populations of D. dorsalis in having a short upper diastema (shorter LUD than D. d. dorsalis, D. d. emini, D. d. latrator and D. d. sylvestris) and a mandible with a higher and broader mandibular condyle (higher MCH and broader MCW than D. d. dorsalis, D. d. emini, D. d. latrator and D. d. sylvestris). The skull of D. interfluvialis differs from that of populations of D. dorsalis found to its east in being relatively short, with a shorter, narrower rostrum, narrow nasal choanae, a short palate and a short lower toothrow (shorter average CPL, shorter LTPL and PBPL, narrower GWR and PWC, shorter PPL and shorter LTL than D. d. dorsalis, D. d. emini, D. d. latrator and D. d. nigricans). The skull of D. interfluvialis differs from that of populations to its west in being moderately broad, with a moderately broad interorbital region, broader nasal choanae and a moderately high lambdoidal crest (wider ZB, broader LIB and GIB, broader PWC and higher LCH than D. d. sylvestris). The width across the incisive foramina (MWIF) in D. interfluvialis is broader than in D. d. latrator, D. d. dorsalis and D. d. sylvestris. Description: A medium-sized (head and body length 50–55 cm), robust, short-legged mammal, with no external tail. Like other members of the Hyracoidea, the forefeet have four blunt toes (although the fourth digit is vestigial) and the hind feet have three. Most toes have short nails, but those on the first digits of the hind feet are longer and more claw like. The ears are relatively small (25 mm), rounded and black, bearing a few short hairs. The coat is thick and coarse. The dorsal surfaces, including the flanks and outer surfaces of the limbs, are predominantly brindled tawny brown in colour (Fig. 6A), an appearance resulting from the light brown tips of otherwise dark grey hairs. The midline of the back has predominantly blackish grey hairs with few light tips, except for a conspicuous middorsal patch of long (70 mm) creamy white erectile hairs associated with an apocrine skin gland. The ventral coat is light buffy brown. There are long black vibrissae on the eyebrows (35–60 mm in length, mean 47 mm) and slightly longer, stouter vibrissae on the snout (35–70 mm, mean 51 mm) posterior to an area of naked black skin surrounding the nostrils. There is also a scattering of white vibrissae beneath the chin, and the dorsal neck has a scattering of long, light guard hairs. The dorsal surfaces of the feet are covered with short dark grey hairs, and the soles of the feet have padded pinkish grey–brown skin. The perineal skin is pink, with scattered grey and white hairs. Compared with D. dorsalis, D. interfluvialis has a relatively small, narrow skull with a short, narrow rostrum; a short upper toothrow; a short upper diastema; narrow nasal choanae; and a low lambdoidal crest. The mandible has a high, broad mandibular condyle and short lower toothrow. From its neighbour to the east, D. d. nigricans, D. interfluvialis differs in having a shorter, narrower skull with a shorter, narrower rostrum; shorter palate; shorter maxillary and mandibular toothrows; shorter upper diastema; much narrower nasal choanae; and broader width across the incisive foramina. From its neighbour to the west, the eastern population of D. d. sylvestris, D. interfluvialis differs in averaging a slightly longer, broader skull, with a shorter, broader rostrum; broader interorbital region; shorter upper diastema; broader nasal choanae; higher lambdoidal crest; broader width across the incisive foramina; and higher, broader mandibular condyle. Ecology and natural history: Direct field observations of the feeding behaviour of D. interfluvialis or analyses of its stomach contents have not been made. In the literature, D. dorsalis is described as typically foraging alone on leaves, fruits, bark and twigs (Shultz & Roberts, 2013), but we have not found reliable data from the field to support this statement. Bloomer (2013) described all Dendrohyrax species as arboreal and nocturnal. However, our camera trapping in Ghana’s Volta Region shows D. interfluvialis moving in and out of rock crevices on steep hill slopes, both in daylight and at night (see Fig. 6); of 22 separate camera sequences of hyraxes moving on the ground near these rocks, nine were recorded during the night and 13 by day. Local people report that the hyraxes sleep among these rocks. In the same area, tree hyrax remains have been observed in snares set for ground-living farm pests, such as cane rats (S.K.B. and J.F.O., personal observations, 2016). Terrestrial locomotion (and possibly feeding) is probably a particularly significant component of the behaviour of D. interfluvialis, at least within the dry forests and wooded savannas of the Dahomey Gap in south-eastern Ghana, southern Togo and southern Benin, where trees are often widely spaced. Although there is little ecological information associated with most museum specimens of D. interfluvialis, the tag attached to NHMUK 50.338, collected by P. F. Mason in 1939 in the Ohosu Forest Reserve (in what was then the north of Benin Province, western Nigeria), notes that the animal was ‘shot on ground in high forest containing some secondary regrowth’. Behaviour such as terrestrial movement, hiding amongrocksanddiurnalactivitymightbemorecommon among tree hyraxes generally than has been assumed. In the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park (Congo) in 1996, F.D.-L. observed a D. d. nigricans walking slowly along a sloping mossy trunk close to the ground in swamp forest during daytime, and in his original description of Hyrax stampflii (= D. d. sylvestris), Jentink (1886: 212) wrote that the specimen collected by Stampfli in Liberia was ‘captured in a cavern of a very high rock’. In montane forest at 3100 m a.s.l. in the Virunga Volcanoes in Rwanda, a radio-tracking study found D. arboreus active throughout the 24 h cycle, with adult females being equally active by day and by night (Milner & Harris, 1999), and at 4000 m a.s.l. in the Afroalpine zone of the Ruwenzori Mountains in Uganda, D. arboreus is often observed among rocks on the ground in daylight (Kingdon, 1971; Mason & Oates, 1977). In the mountains of Tanzania, D. validus has been reported to den among large boulders (Roberts et al., 2013). Conservation: Probably as a result of its cryptic habits, the fact that it is at least partly nocturnal and arboreal, its apparently solitary foraging activities and the lack of obvious nocturnal ‘eyeshine’ owing to the absence of a tapetum lucidum, D. interfluvialis is not readily located by human hunters and does not appear to be a major target of hunting for meat; the species is not commonly encountered in bushmeat markets. Nor is it hunted as a crop pest, although it is occasionally snared in traps set for rodent pests. Skins and heads of hyraxes, including from the new species, have been observed in fetish markets in southern Benin (‘marchés de dépouilles’; C.A.M.S.D. and P.G., personal observations), indicating that this hyrax is one of a range of species hunted for traditional practices. A greater threat to the survival of D. interfluvialis populations is likely to be the loss of habitat resulting from conversion of forest to cropland (including tree plantations) and from dryseason burning to promote the growth of grassland for consumption by domestic stock. Such habitat loss is exacerbated by the continuing growth of human populations in the range of this species and the spread of settlements and roads. According to an assessment by the FAO (2015), the average annual rate of loss of forest and woodland in the 1990–2015 period was 1.2% in Benin, 3.5% in Nigeria and 5.0% in Togo. The same FAO document reports an average annual increase of 0.3% in forest and woodland in Ghana in the same period, but this is not consistent with the estimate by Dowsett-Lemaire & Dowsett (2014) of a 1–2% annual rate of deforestation in 41 forest reserves in south-west Ghana, based on a comparison of observations from their field surveys in 2008–2010 with assessments made in 1990–1992 by Hawthorne & Abu-Juam (1995). In the absence of numerical evidence of population size or rate of decline for D. interfluvialis, the Red List threat category that probably applies best to this species at this time is ‘Least Concern’, but the general rate of habitat loss within its range suggests that a ‘Near Threatened’ designation might be appropriate, at least in the near future.Published as part of Oates, John F, Woodman, Neal, Gaubert, Philippe, Sargis, Eric J, Wiafe, Edward D, Lecompte, Emilie, Dowsett-Lemaire, Françoise, Dowsett, Robert J, Gonedelé Bi, Sery, Ikemeh, Rachel A, Djagoun, Chabi A M S, Tomsett, Louise & Bearder, Simon K, 2022, A new species of tree hyrax (Procaviidae: Dendrohyrax) from West Africa and the significance of the Niger-Volta interfluvium in mammalian biogeography, pp. 527-552 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 194 (2) on pages 541-544, DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlab029, http://zenodo.org/record/635210

Dendrohyrax dorsalis dorsalis (Fraser

Dendrohyrax dorsalis dorsalis (Fraser, 1854) (N = 7) Equatorial Guinea. Bioko: 3°30′N, 8°41′E (NHMUK 3.1.6.3, 4.7.1.119, 4.7.1.121, 4.7.1.123, 4.7.1.124, 55.12.26.183, 58.5.3.1).Published as part of Oates, John F, Woodman, Neal, Gaubert, Philippe, Sargis, Eric J, Wiafe, Edward D, Lecompte, Emilie, Dowsett-Lemaire, Françoise, Dowsett, Robert J, Gonedelé Bi, Sery, Ikemeh, Rachel A, Djagoun, Chabi A M S, Tomsett, Louise & Bearder, Simon K, 2022, A new species of tree hyrax (Procaviidae: Dendrohyrax) from West Africa and the significance of the Niger-Volta interfluvium in mammalian biogeography, pp. 527-552 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 194 (2) on page 552, DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlab029, http://zenodo.org/record/635210

Dendrohyrax dorsalis subsp. sylvestris

Dendrohyrax dorsalis sylvestris (Temminck, 1855) (N = 12) Western population (N = 2). Liberia. Nimba County: Mt. Nimba: 7°04′N, 8°25′W (NHMUK 70.76). Western Rivercess County: 5°53′N, 9°14′W (RMCA 35862). Eastern population (N = 10). Côte d’Ivoire. Adiopodoumé: 5°20′N, 4°08′W (AMNH M-239584). Ghana. Western Province: Papasi: 6°35′N, 2°55′W (NHMUK 76.1782). Ashanti Province: Mampong: 7°03′N, 1°25′W (NHMUK 35.10.22.152, 35.10.22.153). Eastern Province: Oda: 5°56′N, 1°01′W (NHMUK 46.481; MCZ 42709; FMNH 54448, 54679, 54681, 62807).Published as part of Oates, John F, Woodman, Neal, Gaubert, Philippe, Sargis, Eric J, Wiafe, Edward D, Lecompte, Emilie, Dowsett-Lemaire, Françoise, Dowsett, Robert J, Gonedelé Bi, Sery, Ikemeh, Rachel A, Djagoun, Chabi A M S, Tomsett, Louise & Bearder, Simon K, 2022, A new species of tree hyrax (Procaviidae: Dendrohyrax) from West Africa and the significance of the Niger-Volta interfluvium in mammalian biogeography, pp. 527-552 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 194 (2) on page 551, DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlab029, http://zenodo.org/record/635210

Dendrohyrax dorsalis subsp. latrator

Dendrohyrax dorsalis latrator (Thomas, 1910) (N = 11) Democratic Republic of Congo. Bikoro, Lac Tumba: 0°44′S, 18°08′E (RMCA 22114). North of Boende, Tshuapa: 0°10′S, 20°53′E (FMNH 219683). Bumba Zone, Yalosemba: 2°35′N, 21°47′E (USNM 537894). Amadjabe: 0°04′S, 25°17′E (RMCA 89023 M24, 89023M 32, 89023M34, 89023M37, 89023M 38, 89023M47, 89023M48). Bomboma, Bombolo: 2°05′S, 20°55′E (NHMUK 12.7.26.12).Published as part of Oates, John F, Woodman, Neal, Gaubert, Philippe, Sargis, Eric J, Wiafe, Edward D, Lecompte, Emilie, Dowsett-Lemaire, Françoise, Dowsett, Robert J, Gonedelé Bi, Sery, Ikemeh, Rachel A, Djagoun, Chabi A M S, Tomsett, Louise & Bearder, Simon K, 2022, A new species of tree hyrax (Procaviidae: Dendrohyrax) from West Africa and the significance of the Niger-Volta interfluvium in mammalian biogeography, pp. 527-552 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 194 (2) on page 552, DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlab029, http://zenodo.org/record/635210