Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦
@marcofesta.bsky.social
🇨🇦🇨🇦 Emeritus ecology prof in Sherbrooke, Canada. Evidence-based wildlife conservation, mountain ungulates, kangaroos, ice-free fishing. 🇨🇦 elbows up!
My kids were too old to take advantage of this, but I'm happy to see my tax dollars going to subsidize daycare. As opposed, for example, to subsidize fossil fuels or the language police.
Oh The Urbanity!@ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 18h agoQuebec has subsidized daycare (since the 90s) and it’s amazing. $10 a day. I couldn’t imagine dealing with the prices I’ve heard in other places. It’s a mix of non-profit daycares (CPEs), subsidized private daycares, and home-based options too.
Looks like the hiker was in the wrong place at the wrong time, the bear was defending her cub. Good on the COs to leave the bear alone. When we hike into G-bear habitat we accept a risk. Hope hiker will recover quickly from serious injuries. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Grizzly bear attack in B.C. leaves hiker with fractured neck | CBC News
The hiker was taken to hospital by air ambulance in serious condition, with lacerations on her body and a neck fracture, officials said.
cbc.ca
The chapter in our trophy hunting book about the effect of hunting on horn-, antler-, and body sizes, which @marcofesta.bsky.social was nice enough to give helpful comments for, was one of the most interesting to write, and I wish I could have gone much deeper. Here are some of the articles that do.
Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦@marcofesta.bsky.social · 3w agoColtman www.nature.com/articles/nat... just passed 1000 cites GoogleScholar. Brought to the fore that selective hunting can lead to evolutionary change, leading to much debate, gnashing of teeth. Pigeon et al's update answered stats objections, is better paper onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Thank you WPC. "Sheila Colla was widely admired. She was far more than a brilliant scientist and conservation leader. She was a fierce advocate for environmental and social justice and was incredibly skilled and determined at bridging the gap between science, community, and politics."
Be part of the one program in Canada that actually benefits caribou, as opposed to gov'ts killing wolves while destroying habitat. Led by First Nations.
Benjamin Larue, Ph.D.@benjaminlarue.bsky.social · 3d ago📢 Nîkanêse Wah tzee Stewardship Society is hiring a Restoration Director to lead their multi-year caribou habitat restoration program in Klinse-Za Park, BC. Hybrid, $90-120K, closes Aug 20. Amazing opportunity!
If you would be interested to apply for a fellowship to join the lab to work on fecal microbiome MAG assembly and/or mGWAS in caribou and feral horses, please get in touch. We have had great success with this competition so far (3/3 funded) research.ucalgary.ca/postdocs/fun...
VPR Postdoctoral Excellence Award
The Spring 2026 competition is now closed. Applications for the December 1 competition will open on October 1.
research.ucalgary.ca
New guidance from the eBird Team - summarising - don't use AI tools to edit your bird photos! ebird.org/news/threat-... link to original paper: rdcu.be/ftx6h #Ornithology #UKBirding 🧪🌎
From Truth to Fake: The Threat of AI to Media Archives - eBird
As AI becomes commonplace, what you see in a photograph may no longer represent reality. Learn about how this impacts eBird and what you can do to help.
ebird.org
This is pretty cool 🥰 Delighted and honored and so so grateful for all the folks that helped get me through everything!
Retraction Watch@retractionwatch.com · 4d agoThe Center for Scientific Integrity is proud to announce the inaugural winners of the 2026 Ctrl-Z Award. Named for the universal keyboard shortcut for “undo,” the Ctrl-Z Award this year honors @cetaceanneeded.bsky.social and @katelaskowski.bsky.social for choosing transparency over reputation.
For those facing a paywall, here's the piece. FYI, it dropped a word at the end. It is supposed to read: "He hates ticks."
If you stop funding their control, they will come. Zebra mussel increasing rapidly in a lake near where I live ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/227...
Les moules zébrées gagnent du terrain au lac Massawippi
La population de moules zébrées est désormais bien visible au lac Massawippi. L’organisme Bleu Massawippi affirme que le pire est à venir.
ici.radio-canada.ca
I was very saddened to hear of the recent passing of Prof. Morris Gosling - a mentor, supporter and friend, and an amazing scientist. He will be deeply missed. www.ncl.ac.uk/nes/people/p...
Laikipia Hartebeest
ALT: Laikipia Hartebeest
static.klipy.com
Preprints may peddle bs, but at least they exist, unlike refs made up by AI. But no, one should not cite stuff that may well be bogus, fraudulent or just plain wrong. arxiv.org/abs/2607.25220
Preprints Without Curation Are Increasingly Cited by Journals
The recent strain on peer review systems necessitates the publish-review-curate model, where the public dissemination of manuscripts is decoupled from formal peer review and later editorial processes....
arxiv.org
Table 1: "Inaccuracy tolerance" Definitely an issue - seen posts here expressing astonishment that one should be expected to actually check one's LitCit 🧪
Alan McElligott@amcell.bsky.social · 5d ago2026. The creeping normality of AI in the life sciences. esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Pro tip for writers: A very bad first draft is not a failure - it’s a great start, Congratulations! You can’t revise a blank page, but you can shape a bad one into something really great
La crise climatique provoquée par notre dépendance aux énergies fossiles est à l’origine des feux d’Espagne et de France. www.ledevoir.com/actualites/e...
Le changement climatique anthropique est à l’origine des feux d’Espagne et de France
«Nous devons cesser de brûler des combustibles fossiles», prévient une climatologue.
ledevoir.com
🧪
Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦@marcofesta.bsky.social · 3w agoColtman www.nature.com/articles/nat... just passed 1000 cites GoogleScholar. Brought to the fore that selective hunting can lead to evolutionary change, leading to much debate, gnashing of teeth. Pigeon et al's update answered stats objections, is better paper onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
A case of Mini-me DOGE. The Carney government has been firing scientists and researchers. Now they are asking some of them to come back to help figure things out. We risk a great deal in losing research expertise in agriculture, climate, fisheries/oceans. www.nationalobserver.com/2026/07/31/n...
Feds ask fired scientists to advise on Canada's future research
Officials at Canada's agriculture department are asking scientists who were abruptly fired earlier this year to help the agency decide its future research goals, Canada's National Observer has found.
nationalobserver.com
Good. Next step, hopefully they'll ged rid of Gianni and repudiate his abominable peace prize to the orange one. www.nytimes.com/athletic/748...
FIFA scraps World Cup private investment plans as Infantino fights for his future
Gianni Infantino's plans to sell stakes in the World Cup and other FIFA tournaments were met with strong backlash.
nytimes.com
Which vehicles most endanger the drivers of other cars? Giant pickup trucks — and the Dodge Charger Source: www.iihs.org/news/detail/...
Liber Ero postdoc deadline Nov 1. Exceptional opportunity for research in conservation in Canada - highly competitive, best to have gov't and Indigenous partners liberero.ca
Sadly, this is normal for marine species in Canada "(COSEWIC), an independent panel that advises the federal minister of environment and climate change, recommended 9 yrs ago that this group be declared endangered. But as of yet, there’s been no decision from Ottawa" www.cbc.ca/radio/whaton...
Grey whales are dying along our shores. Researchers say a warming climate may be part of the problem | CBC Radio
So far this calendar year, 10 grey whale carcasses have been discovered off the shores of B.C., and 30 in Washington state. Whale researchers say they see a connection to a changing climate, and want ...
cbc.ca
Scary: feral cat apparently gets raccoon-strain rabies, bites 2 people south of Montréal. Several rabid raccoons in southern Québec this year ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/227...
Trois personnes traitées pour la rage en Montérégie
Trois personnes ont reçu un traitement préventif après avoir été exposées à un chat atteint de la rage du raton laveur, en Montérégie.
ici.radio-canada.ca
Got unscathed past a posse of cobra chickens on my ride today.
"Canada has no shortage of conservation policies or biodiversity commitments. The challenge is implementing them consistently and effectively." True, so very true of Canadian environmental laws, policies, agreements: written but not enforced.
The Conversation Canada@ca.theconversation.com · last wk.Canada’s infrastructure projects could damage Pacific salmon habitats
Yup. If you're doing background research for writing a book, & you include factually wrong material from the start, but it still gets published, that's on you. I've been researching my next book for the past 2 years but always gone to & read original sources with full knowledge that AI makes up 💩.
Dorian Lynskey@dorianlynskey.bsky.social · 2w agoI've written a few books and checked all the quotes (deleting some bangers because I doubted their authenticity) and if you're letting fabricated ones slip through then you're cutting corners in an egregious way. It is not the copy-editor's job to check every source, it's yours. Do the damn work
