🌿 This Biodiversity Month we’re spotlighting researchers protecting nature. Meet @julesfarquhar.bsky.social who studies venomous snakes to help people coexist safely. He hopes curiosity will inspire more of us to see snakes as fascinating, not frightening. 🐍 Seen one lately? #BiodiversityMonth

I’ve recently been awarded a Holsworth Wildlife Research grant from the Ecological Society of Australia, and a research grant from the Australian Society of Herpetologists. These grants will help fuel my research on the six-toothed rainbow skink (Carlia Sexdentata). Big thanks to both societies!

These late-term Austrelaps superbus (lowland copperhead) embryos were dissected from a female found in February. In this species, most births occur in February, so these guys were likely just a few weeks from birth. I love doing dissections as they give us a rare glimpse into life before birth.

Spotted this absolute stunner Western Blue-tongue (Tiliqua occipitalis) near Orroroo, SA! I was hauling a caravan uphill when this chunky bugger decided to make a road crossing. Managed to pull over safely and give him a helping hand off the road and back to safety.

Here’s every mangrove snake occurring in the NT. Found within about 30 minutes of each other during a recent slide around in the Darwin mangroves. -Myron richardsonii (Richardson's mangrove snake) -Fordonia leucobalia (white-bellied mangrove snake) -Cerberus australis (Australian Bockadam)

Issue 24 of volume 227 has closed and issue 1 of volume 228 has opened The cover by @julesfarquhar.bsky.social shows a delicate skink (Lampropholis delicata) from the east coast of Australia journals.biologists.com/jeb/issue/22...

Skinks on a Plane! For invasive species to be successful, they must be able to cope with transportation. Third-year student Jaclyn (@jaclynharris.bsky.social) exposed invasive delicate skinks to air and car transport to see if it impacted their behaviour. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Skinks on a Plane: Does Human‐Mediated Transportation Impact the Behaviour of an Invasive Lizard?

In order for invasive species to successfully establish in the non-native region, they must survive the journey and arrive in good condition; however, few studies have investigated the impact of huma....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Here’s a common scaly-foot (Pygopus lepidopodus) licking its eye clean in Little Desert last night. Legless lizards are awesome.

I'm happy to use my first #Bluesky post to announce that there's now a shiny app for the endotherm model of the #NicheMapR package bioforecasts.science.unimelb.edu.au/app_direct/e...

Speaking of #forgottenspecies, a feature I wrote on the rediscovery of the little-known long sunskink was published today in @ausgeo.newsmast.social.ap.brid.gy Give it a read! #ESAus2024 And thanks to David Chapple and @julesfarquhar.bsky.social 🦎 www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildl...

Skink on the brink - Australian Geographic

These researchers gave everything to their search – and found not one, but 23 critically-endangered long sunskinks.

australiangeographic.com.au

Anthea Batsakis@antheabatsakis.bsky.social · 2y ago

I was planning to talk about #forgottenspecies in the media. If anyone would like advice on pitching to editors down the line, my DMs are open :) #ESAus2024

@julesfarquhar.bsky.social getting an extraordinary amount of data from snake call outs, snake catchers sitting on heaps of high quality data #ESAus2024

Jules @julesfarquhar.bsky.social convinces the audience that collecting data from (keen) snake catchers is the go for studying snakes, which are inherently difficult to study! At #ESAus2024

I’ve finally gotten around to analyzing the data from my long-term side project on lowland copperhead biology and human-snake conflict. If you’re attending the #ESAus2024 conference, come watch me talk about it on Monday 9th (tomorrow) at 4pm in room 103 (Methods in Ecology 2).

Why does #Australia have so many #reptiles, and why are so many of them among the world's most venomous? 🐍🇦🇺 In our latest EcolClip, Dr. Chris Jolly tells us why! #Venomous #Wildlife #EcolClips #Ecology #Biodiversity #Snakes #Biology #nature #naturephotography #venomoussnake #herpetology

Australia's Reptiles: Diversity, Venomous Species & Climate Impacts with Dr. Chris Jolly | EcolClips

YouTube video by EcolClips

youtube.com

I love making these diagrams that show the distribution of an entire genus in a single map. Note the little population of trilineatus on the southern tip of the Eyre Peninsula. Should I do the Ctenotus genus next?

Great turnout last night at Cardigan Village for my presentation on Ballarat snakes and the findings of our snake research. Thanks to the Upper Mount Emu Landcare Network for hosting the event. Get in touch if you’d like me to give similar educational presentations for your landcare group.

Our new paper, led by PhD student Luke Bonifacio, demonstrating that the Data Deficient Ravensthorpe Range slider qualifies for listing as Critically Endangered. @monashbiol.bsky.social. www.publish.csiro.au/PC/PC24048

A noodle in a haystack: determining the conservation status of the rare and Data Deficient Ravensthorpe Range slider, Lerista viduata

Context One-seventh of the ~157,000 species assessed by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species are Data Deficient (DD), with insufficient information to assess their extinction risk. Such a statistic...

publish.csiro.au

The Aprasia genus is a group of small, slender, worm-like lizards in the Pygopodidae (flap-footed lizard) family, which shares a common evolutionary ancestor with geckos. They are only found in Australia, where there are 14 species. Here is every species occurring in the state of Victoria.