📷🦌 Four years of wildlife #monitoring in the Rižana hunting area! Together with the Rižana Hunting Society, we used camera traps and the #SRNA app to monitor #wildlife, supporting #conservation and sustainable #management as part of @pro-coast.bsky.social and #BigPicture projects. 🤝💚

🌊 Final #PRO-Coast workshop in Strunjan Landscape Park! This time we discussed the tendency to underestimate how much others care about protecting the #environment, despite widespread positive environmental attitudes, also called environmental pluralistic ignorance. 💬 @pro-coast.bsky.social

📷🐾 We attended the #BIG_PICTURE annual meeting in Ljubljana, where we shared #progress on our camera trap, #SRNA app and eDNA #research. A new collaborative #initiative on small #carnivore interactions using camera trap data was also introduced. 🤝🌍 #Big_Picture

🧬 Our group co-authored a new ERGA Citizen Science paper in Biological Conservation, presenting a #framework for involving local #communities early in #biodiversity genomics #research. 🌿📖 Read the whole paper here: l1nq.com/u3v4kc2 @biogeneurope.bsky.social @ergabiodiv.bsky.social

👨‍🔬 Meet Konstantinos Papakostas, a new member of our group researching ungulate #ecology, animal behaviour and #biodiversity conservation. In our group, he studies mammal ecology and #conservation in Slovenia using camera trapping and hunting bag data. 🐐 @pro-coast.bsky.social @papako66.bsky.social

👩‍🔬 Meet our guest PhD student from Krakow (Poland), Ümmü Gülsüm Boztepe, a #veterinarian researching #wildlife welfare in roe deer. In our lab, she isolated RNA from roe deer tissues for transcriptome #sequencing to study how genetic variation may affect #gene expression. 🧬

🌊 This week, we organized a workshop for representatives and #students of agriculture in Strunjan Landscape Park, a PRO-Coast case #study area. We explored its unique cultural #landscape and discussed local challenges.💚 @pro-coast.bsky.social #PRO_Coast

📢 As a leader of WP7, we have joined the kick-off #meeting of Biodiversity Genomics Europe Plus (BGE+) in Leiden! Over three days, experts from across Europe discussed monitoring, #genomics, innovation and policy to advance biodiversity #research and #conservation. 🧬 @biogeneurope.bsky.social

🌊 The PRO-Coast project successfully concluded its 6th Consortium Meeting in Malta to advance community-led coastal #conservation. Key topics included #biodiversity protection, new #sustainability tools and balancing tourism with #ecosystem preservation. 🏝️ @pro-coast.bsky.social #PRO-Coast

🍀 Today we celebrate World Biodiversity Day 🥳🌍 Biodiversity includes the variety of all living organisms and #ecosystems on Earth. Protecting threatened #species and #habitats is essential for conserving #nature and maintaining healthy ecosystems for #future generations. 🫎 #biodiversityday2026

🦊 Our new #study on martens was featured in the Weekly News Digest of the Carnivore Conservation Compendium. Check out their #webpage for recent #carnivore conservation news, #research, and some amazing #wildlife photos! 📑🐾 Link: shorturl.at/jFp3E #wildandfree

📊Our poster was presented at the NATMed Conference in Istanbul. The presented #study combines eDNA metabarcoding, camera traps, and citizen #science to monitor mammals in southwestern Slovenia. Together, these methods revealed a more complete picture of local #biodiversity. @pro-coast.bsky.social

🌳Fieldwork season is open! Our team headed into #nature to set up camera traps as part of the Biodiversa+ Big_Picture #project. They put a lot of effort into planning, charging and preparing the camera traps, and setting everything up in the field. #Big_Picture #fieldwork #wildlife

🐾 New #study published! Members of our group analysed pine and stone #martens in Croatia and Slovenia using mitochondrial #DNA and microsatellites. 🧬 Read more here: rb.gy/ncjx29 🌿 📸Photo by: Ferenc-Alpár Gothárd, Instagram: www.instagram.com/lutrafilms/ @pro-coast.bsky.social

🌍 Happy Earth Day! Our planet’s beauty and #biodiversity remind us of the need to protect it for future generations. Global collaboration, from individuals to governments, drives #conservation efforts. Despite challenges, these endeavours offer hope for a more sustainable future. #earthday2026

🐾 Our SRNA app study is now published! Explore first-year data and #quiz results showing how users identify #wildlife. 🦌 Try the #app and test your knowledge! Can you recognize all the animals? Read more here: rb.gy/myb0pu @pro-coast.bsky.social #Big_Picture #SRNA #citizenscience

🧪Big news from the lab! We’ve started our first Oxford Nanopore run on the #MinION device, enabling ultra-long #DNA sequencing for improved #genome assembly. A great milestone for our laboratory and also a hands-on #learning opportunity for our students. @oxfordnanopore.bsky.social

We are proud that our Prof. Dr. Elena Bužan, as of the beginning of 2026, is the Editor-in-Chief of the prestigious scientific journal Genetica: An International Journal of Genetics and Evolution, published by Springer Nature. Congratulations! 👏 #proud #journal #editor #genetics #evolution

📱SRNA is a citizen science app for wildlife monitoring in Slovenia, collecting data on #mammals. Our pilot #study showed good identification skills among users, with issues in similar species. In year one, 1,633 observations were recorded, showing strong potential. @pro-coast.bsky.social #wildlife

📊 Last week we joined the BEPREP all-partners #meeting, focusing on progress of activities in case study areas (CSA). Partners reviewed progress and next steps toward #project completion. Supported by Horizon Europe, BEPREP explores how #nature restoration can help prevent epidemics. #BEPREP_EU

🌿Discover nature with the SRNA app! 📱 Record #wildlife sightings, tracks and roadkills, learn to identify species and test your knowledge with a fun #quiz. Your observations can help researchers better understand and protect biodiversity. @pro-coast.bsky.social #Big_Picture #CitizenScience #SRNA

📝 Prof. dr. Elena Bužan coauthored a new study in European Journal of Wildlife Research. It’s the first estimate of pre-ASF #wildboar abundance, supporting #wildlife #management and disease risk assessment. Read it here: rb.gy/orc6qf #Big_Picture #Biodiversity #Ecology #CameraTraps

🎉 BGE+ selected for funding! BGE+ aims to build a distributed European infrastructure for #biodiversity #genomics. We’re proud to lead WP7, defining the roadmap to integrate genomics into Europe’s RIs. Funded by the European Commission under Horizon Europe. @biogeneurope.bsky.social

👩‍🔬This week in our lab: a Bachelor student performing PCR purification and gel electrophoresis for their research focusing on evaluating different water sampling methods for eDNA metabarcoding #DNA #research #youngbiologist @pro-coast.bsky.social

📷 Wildlife in focus 8: Martens (Martes sp.) They are small, agile, mostly nocturnal, and solitary forest carnivores. Omnivorous and rarely seen, they often inhabit areas near human settlements and are threatened by habitat loss, traffic & humans. #Martens #PhotoTraps #Wildlife