Will Smith, University of Oxford
Will’s project is outstanding, and he has used an impressive range of approaches and tools. The idea for the project originated from his own interest and understanding and involved citizen science assembled independently by Will. The thesis contains several genuinely original ideas, and it excels in quantity and quality.
t Are wild rock doves in the British Isles distinct from feral domestic pigeons? A phenotypic and genetic analysis. Will’s project is outstanding in every respect. It tackles an original question – whether rock dove populations are still distinct from their feral pigeon descendants despite likely genetic introgression – and it does this using an extremely impressive range of approaches and tools. The work involved citizen science, assembled entirely and independently by Will, to obtain morphological data from both rock dove and feral pigeons across the UK. Will shows an impressive command of techniques ranging from PCA, phylogenetic analysis and genomics to show that rock doves and feral pigeons are distinct both morphologically and genetically, and that populations of rock doves with little introgression of feral pigeon genes persist despite their relative rarity. The report is beautifully written and is of publishable quality in terms of the rigour and originality of the work it contains.