Currently reading a study about mesopredator (raccoon, coyote, skunk) cognition and please enjoy this photo of a raccoon in a box scientists built for it to press buttons in (study is Stanton et al, Variation in Reversal Learning by Three Generalist Mesocarnivores) 🧪

Heyyyyyy if you're in Takoma Park next Thursday and want to support a small bookstore, head to People's Book, where I will be talking with @haruspex.bsky.social about my BOOK at 6pm on 9/25!!! peoplesbooktakoma.com/event/animal...

Political violence is abhorrent. I have not celebrated Kirk's death. But Newsom calling for his followers to "continue Charlie Kirk's work," someone who praised stoning gay people as "god's perfect law," who called for men to "take care of" trans people like they did in the 50s and 60s, is not it.

This is your regular reminder that Jacobin pigeons exist, and they ARE coming to steal your husband 🪶 (photo via WikiCommons: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_...)

at their core, trans rights, abortion rights, and vaccine rights are actually all the same issue: they’re all about bodily autonomy, and the willingness to concede any of them puts the others at risk.

A thing I've noticed while reading about urban animals is that squirrels, unlike other animals, are often framed as study participants rather than subjects. I love it so much. 🧪🐿️

I understand that bears are large, but I saw bear poop today that was approximately two+ inches in diameter and I am perturbed

Rattlesnakes apparently only need 500-600 calories a year??????? @ologies.bsky.social blowing my mind today

Important update: I have done a Very Scientific survey of friends and family and 11/11 people are familiar with lemurs. So I don’t know what was up with this book. Then again, my friends and family are all, like me, nerds…

The First Lego League is a competition that schools from all over the place compete in. As part of the competition they need to consult with an expert. A lot of clubs use our program to make that connection. This year's theme is archaeology. It's all-hands-on-deck for archaeologists.

Scientists! @skypeascientist.bsky.social matches scientists with classrooms, libraries, & more for virtual Q&As! It's easy and fun! We are looking for 750 more volunteers by 8/15 If you're down to chat with 1-5 classrooms this semester, sign up here www.skypeascientist.com/sign-up.html

The book I’m reading just explained how to pronounce the word lemur. Are most people unfamiliar with lemurs? Is my childhood animal nerdery skewing my perception here?

never over the fact that the Latin for thrush is turdus, which means we have birds with deeply stupid and silly names like Turdus migratorius 🪶 #birds

If you’re chronically ill, wildfire smoke will likely harm you more than disabled peers. Having air purifiers is a great way to reduce flares. An air monitor can help ensure they’re working well! The AQI where I am is 151, but my purifiers are keeping PMs below 10!

Related: does anyone want to hire me to write a story about these sled dogs and their rangers. If I had to go to Alaska to meet them OH NO THAT WOULD BE TERRIBLE

Where did I go wrong that this isn't my life

I was just informed that Denali National Park has a sled dog puppy cam and you might also need this information www.nps.gov/dena/learn/p...

why oh why is this chapter taking me eight million years to write

Long shot, but is there anyone on here who studies (or knows someone who does) historical animal populations in cities? Particularly non-domesticated animals (rats, raccoons, squirrels, etc.) in the 19th and 20th centuries. Would love to interview you for a book chapter I'm working on! 🧪 #histsci

Today I learned that there is a pigeon breed named the Antwerp smerle, and saying that out loud definitely brought a smerle to my face (image via wikimedia: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:An...

when will I learn to wear long sleeves when I pick berries 🌱

Do not give this woman a dime of your money. 1. Do not watch the new show. 2. Do not stream any of the movies (yes, that includes Fantastic Beasts) 3. Do not buy any of her books. She has a pen name Robert Galbraith. www.advocate.com/news/jk-rowl...

just accidentally played a recording of coyote vocalizations over a Perfume Genius track and it worked BEAUTIFULLY, why isn't this a real thing

ok gardening folks, what are your favorite (preferably vegan/veganizable) recipes that use a ton of parsley? Mine made it through the winter and is starting to bolt and I hate just tossing what I trim. 🌱

How do we fight this? Where are they drawing data from? Can that be found with FOIA? Can we pressure the entities they’re getting data from? Who has standing to sue? This is so dangerous it has to be stopped before it gets further…

I'm teaching a 90 minute Zoom workshop on researched memoir next Tues (5-6:30pm PST) and there are just a few spots left online--would love to see you there! lu.ma/jrfvy1ws

“De-extinction” is to biodiversity loss what “Mars colonization” is to climate change—wishful thinking that is at its core impossible but nevertheless sucks up attention and resources from actual solutions to these crises (which, ultimately, might be the whole point)

Colossal Bioscience did not revive dire wolves, despite a sensationalist Time Magazine cover story. Making genetically modified animals that are cosplaying as extinct species is not de-extinction.

Dire wolves were not close relatives of gray wolves. They last shared a common ancestor more than 5 million years ago. What Colossal has done is make something new and slapped a dire wolf sticker on it, as if an organism equals a hypothetical genome.

Reminder: photos of protests & you want as many people as possible to see & share them? Alt text If you want to add context about a cool sign someone was holding in a pic? Alt text If you want to be part of the fight against the elimination of disabled ppl from work & public life? Alt text

Took myself on a field trip to Salt Creek Recreation Area on the Olympic Peninsula today—my first visit since ~2012—and while I knew Sea Star Wasting Syndrome hit the region hard, it was astounding to see how much a difference it made. 🧪🦑 1/

Masking discourse is on again and I’ll just say if you see people masking when few others are it’s likely because they’ve determined that for them, in that setting, the benefit of not catching (or spreading) whatever’s going around is worth the cost of masking. It’s rarely more complicated than that

reading about urban carnivores and "the highest density recorded for raccoons is an astonishing 333 individuals per km2 (estimated for an urban park in Fort Lauderdale, Florida)"🧪 WHAT WERE THEY ALL STACKED ON TOP OF EACH OTHER OR SOMETHING

I have been doing entirely too much earnest posting about deep things recently, I need to do a proper thread about hippo testicles or something just to keep myself sane. Oh by the way hippos have migratory testicles.

I'm looking up some potential books to buy for research purposes and, uh, I think I'm going to skip this one

Good - this is *exactly* the frame we need. We cannot do science in a bubble. Good science cannot happen under fascism. We must accept our part in the bigger fight.

Writers of Bluesky: what are your tips & tricks for residencies? Open to any & all suggestions: what to bring, how much to plan, how to not burn myself out in the first three days, etc. etc. I get to head to Centrum for two weeks (!) in April and am both excited and slightly overwhelmed #booksky

Ok I know this is plants 101, but it is still magical to me that plants can take sunlight and air and create NEW MATTER. Come ON This brought to you by the fact that I have a bunch of cilantro in a glass of water and they grew! Their stems! 🌱

I am reading about all the places coyotes have been tracked super near humans without being noticed (hanging out under a bush next to a post office! Near a pool entrance!) and I want so badly to have a magical coyote detector. WHERE ARE THE FRIENDS

🚨 Are you a researcher who's been asked by your institution not to talk to the public/media about certain topics - esp after Jan 20? Are you a PIO who's had to tell scientists not to talk to the media? Reach out on Signal at mkozlov.01 for a @nature.com story. Your identity will be kept private.

Are you a former ANSEP student or staff member? I'm hoping to talk to people today about the removal of "Alaska Native" from ANSEP's website.

A friend just sent me this and I NEED to know what these bugs will be for www.mykelly.com/job/9701862-... "The Lead Research Scientist will ... create gigantic insects using high oxygen environments and genetic modification techniques such as CRISPR." BUT WHY

Copying over notes from research annotations and very entertained by my typo here

16 Democratic senators recently voted to confirm the Trump-appointed Treasury Secretary who just gave Musk’s team access to a Treasury payment system that disburses trillions and holds mass quantities of personal information. Food for thought. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

If you're at a Southern university/institution that is closing your LGBTQ or DEI/DEIA offices please reach out to us. We are helping people preserve their department's archival history and will work with you to help ensure folks remain anonymous.

8. As Trump’s executive orders take effect, the greatest immediate threat isn’t their legality—it’s premature compliance before they can be challenged in court. Most of these orders function more as legal intimidation tactics than enforceable law, relying on the chilling effect of DOJ threats.

3. On Thursday, Julie Yang, President of the Montgomery County Board of Education in Maryland, issued a forceful response to Trump’s executive order that it would fiercely protect it students, including sexual orientation and gender identity:

So proud and reassured to see my home school system standing up for students.

Stop fucking saying he blamed “DEI,” which is some abstract, non-tangible idea. He is blaming people of color having jobs he thinks they aren’t qualified for. He’s blaming race. He’s being racist every time he says it. Journalists need to get fucking backbones, my word.

🚨PIs of Training Grants and Programs, ESPECIALLY training grants that support students from historically excluded groups (T32s and T34s, IMSD, MARC, PREP, MOSAIC, etc.)🚨 We need to push back on the loss of information and the disappearance of websites about these resources.