Cool write up about how humans impact apex predators featuring our bear-salmon work in Alaska! 🐻 Wildlife ecology: When the fearsome become fearful: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

Wildlife ecology: When the fearsome become fearful

Humans recreating in wilderness areas face a risk of encountering and being harmed by fearsome large wild carnivores. Yet, the risk is exceedingly low, because, it turns out, these fearsome predators ...

cell.com

Giant otters are fierce predators in the Brazilian Pantanal, but all their prey ends up in the same latrines. New research shows that whole ecosystems take advantage of what’s left over.

These birds hang out by otter latrines

Bottom feeding in the Brazilian Pantanal

wildlife.org

Commissioned a fun graphic from a colleague for our project on intrinsic versus extrinsic drivers of vital rates!

$11 billion. We paid *$11 billion* for people not to work for 6+ months, and now we are paying untold more to hire them back because oops! Turns out federal employees are actually important for a functioning society!

What the government lost through the $11 billion DRP | Federal News Network

Part of this issue to me is the financial cost, but the other part is the ineffective and really incompetent management," said Doug Pasternak.

federalnewsnetwork.com

This is so awesome and why I love working with science illustrators. Here's my rendering compared to the final product in a recent paper - www.cell.com/current-biol...

David Toews@davetoews.bsky.social · last wk.

Just appreciating natural science illustrators, like Jillian Ditner, who turned this "sketch" (a dog's breakfast would be generous) into a clear, beautiful illustration of gene introgression among warblers... www.allaboutbirds.org/news/when-ev...

Before Jimothy, there was EDGAR: we caught a newborn elk back in 2021 with a stunted neck, probably due to a congenital defect. We named the little guy “Edgar” and while sadly he was not long for this world, we got a chance to learn about his condition which is rarely documented in wild animals. 1/6

This is the key. Thinking up new ideas is never the bottleneck - it's all the institutional slow downs: Grants take years, purchasing approvals, sponsored projects office need so many docs & let's not forget how long it takes our animals to breed. AI doesn't solve the most important bottlenecks

Ran Blekhman@blekhman.bsky.social · last wk.

Everyone says AI will accelerate science. I don't think it will -- at least not in biology, and at least not soon. New post where I explain why, and how the productivity paradox can be resolved: blekhman.substack.com/p/why-ai-wil...

Conservatives in 2016: TRIGGERED LIB???? Conservatives in 2026: We are installing trigger warnings in the Smithsonian

The air is full of smoke, the food is full of parasites, and the water is full of data center bacteria but at least we stopped all that DEI children's cancer research!

We should have learned that you can’t manage a public health crisis by ignoring it. Politicizing science and weakening disease surveillance doesn’t make threats disappear, it only makes us less prepared to respond.

"Under the [new] rule, destroying an endangered species’ nest or habitat would no longer be considered illegal."

Colin Schultz@colinschultz.bsky.social · 4w ago

"The Trump admin on Friday moved to open the habitats of imperiled animals to farming, drilling, mining, real estate development and other activities in what environmentalists characterized as the most severe erosion of protections for wildlife in half a century." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/c...

There's an OMB rule change that would require political oversight of scientific grants, and could pull any that don't "reflect presidential priorities" Another country has tried this before! It was the USSR and it was called Lysenkoism. By @thsaey.bsky.social www.sciencenews.org/article/omb-...

Here’s what happens when you put politicians in charge of science

Proposed federal rules would rely on political appointees to decide how a lot of U.S. science gets done. History shows the consequences of such actions.

sciencenews.org

Did you write your comment yet on the OMB rules on federally funded science yet? No? Don’t worry, you can do it this weekend. Here are some resources that can help you get started.

really think that if democrats hold any chamber of congress next year that a condition of passing a budget is the removal of russ vought, who has a genuinely tyrannical vision of presidential power and is a focal point of the lawlessness of the trump administration

Phil Rocco@philiprocco.bsky.social · 4w ago

I don’t think people really understand how bad the OMB proposed rule is going to be for state and local govt. We’re talking about putting a full third of state budgets under the explicit control of Russ Vought. (1/2) www.bondbuyer.com/news/cities-...

Postdoc opportunity with Alex Jensen at Texas State University is hiring a postdoc in wildlife/macroecology. Range dynamics, citizen science & computer vision using iNaturalist data. $60K/yr + benefits, 2 yrs funding. Start early 2027. Apply by 9/30/26: alexjojensen.weebly.com

Fresh cover alert! The heavily chewed caribou antler on our July "Ecology" cover highlights how bones & antlers become important nutrient resources long after they're shed. The Atlas of Arctic Bone Modification reveals who left the bite marks. Find the full issue: tinyurl.com/3zhr83ja

Thinking about bears fishing for salmon this morning, what an incredible place #Alaska

Gavin is a great mentor and collaborator and does very cool science. Apply early and often 🦉🌎🌐

gavin jones@ecologyofgavin.bsky.social · 4w ago

I’m looking to recruit a postdoc to join my research group at University of Iowa to work on disturbance ecology and biodiversity! Start date flexible, lots of opportunity for skill development, collaboration, and mentorship. Will review applicants in mid-August! Link: gavinmjones.com/opportunities/

New to the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network? Or just want to know more about it? Our annual orientation is Wednesday, July 8. All are welcome: lternet.edu/events/netwo...

Network Onboarding 2026 - LTER

July 8, 2026 @ 9:00 am-10:00 am - Are you a new graduate student, undergraduate, investigator, or staff member at an LTER site? After you get settled into your local site, join us to learn about the i...

lternet.edu

1/Excited to share two new papers! The first is by Rozy Bathrick in @amornith.bsky.social on intra-specific variation in stopover site use. Rozy shows that Lesser Yellowlegs from different breeding sites use the Prairie Pothole Region in dramatically different ways. academic.oup.com/condor/artic...

Curator of Vertebrates Position at the Smithsonian! www.usajobs.gov/job/873849000

Research Zoologist

The Smithsonian Institution is the worlds largest museum, education, and research complex, with 21 museums and the National Zoo. The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) is a major bureau of the ...

usajobs.gov

this is absolutely wild. where does roberts think these agencies come from?!? who invested them with authority to act? whose mandate are they designed to execute? the president is the chief EXECUTive. his job is executing the will of Congress as it spells out in its duly-passed laws!

Aubrey Gilleran@aubreygilleran.bsky.social · last mo.

Yes, Congress should be able to do these things. A court this contemptuous of Congress deserves to be packed by Congress, not only to correct these disastrous precedents but also because Congress needs to show both Article II and Article III who’s boss.

Any roadkill salvagers out there (for food, I mean, not for, say, a museum collection) care to chat for a story? Have sources but can always use more!

Tommy Boy: Deer in Car

ALT: Tommy Boy: Deer in Car

static.klipy.com

Just over one week left to apply for the Biometric Working Group’s student travel grant. If you’re a student presenting at The Wildlife Society annual conference this fall, consider applying! No need to be a BWG member. Application deadline is July 3. Details in the link.

TWS Biometrics Working Group - Student Travel Grants

The purpose of the student travel grants is to promote and support student interest in biometrics and the Biometrics Working Group by attending The Wildlife Society annual conference. The number of gr...

sites.google.com

The Trump administration just paid Invenergy $765 million to cancel four wind projects. That brings the running total to roughly $2.5 billion in taxpayer money spent to stop energy from being built. Think about that. At a time when electricity demand is rising,

Spent the last week setting cameras on the Kenai peninsula in #Alaska for our new wildlife monitoring project. Incredibly hard place to work, but it sure is pretty.

A fun write-up from PNW Research Station on our recent bear-salmon paper in Current Biology 🐻 🦅 🏃‍♂️ research.fs.usda.gov/pnw/articles...

A fun write-up from PNW Research Station on our recent bear-salmon paper in Current Biology 🐻 🦅 🏃‍♂️ research.fs.usda.gov/pnw/articles...