This one was a long time in the making! Written with my great colleagues Heidi Harley and Gordon Bauer, and a host of people game enough to engage with us on cognition and marine mammal conservation at a special 2022 Marine Mammal Society workshop. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

On Friday, Congressional Democrats led members of their party in demanding the Trump administration withdraw their proposed rules that would dismantle the ESA. Over one million comments were submitted before the close of the public comment period on December 22. Read more: https://bit.ly/49uubtd

New paper: New species of sea lion, Otaria josefinae, from the early Pleistocene Pongo Fm. of Peru (1.9-1.4 myo) - extinct ancestor(?) or sister species of the South American sea lion. 🐬🦖🧪Read the paper here: academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...

Cow Tools! We have lived alongside cows for nearly 10,000 years. We breed them and exploit them It is now, only now, that we have discovered THEY CAN USE TOOLS Here I describe our study (paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... in @currentbiology.bsky.social with @auersperga.bsky.social

Here's a fun one - colleagues did formant analysis on a harbor seal before and after he learned to modify one of his vocalizations. A growing body of work suggests Phocinae seals really do have fairly high vocal production plasticity. Wonder why... link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Nature research paper: Predictive coding of reward in the hippocampus go.nature.com/49mB13V

Analyses of hundreds of thousands of papers in the natural sciences reveal a paradox: scientists who use AI tools produce more research but on a more confined set of topics go.nature.com/458k7Ub

www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti... Salmon hats may be the closest thing to a non-human animal meme yet documented. Socially spread, no clear link to vital learned behaviors as with most animal play. The stuff about the paralimbic lobe though - we don’t know it’s function yet.

1/2 Ai, the chimpanzee who revolutionized science from Kyoto, has died at the age of 49. She was the first chimpanzee to learn Arabic numerals. Here you can see her in action in Tetsuro Matsuzawa's laboratory.

“There is nothing we can do to this planet…that will make it less habitable than Mars already is.” Mark McCaughrean shares the lessons he’s learnt from a career in space science, on “Babbage”

www.theatlantic.com/science/2026... As a sea lion (cognitive) scientist (pinnipedlab.ucsc.edu/files/2020/0...), I've been thinking about these guys for years. Because sea lions are flexible resource finders but ruthless exploiters, they're hard to deter. A new sea lion is always showing up!

North Atlantic #Orca appear to be expanding from harassing #yachts to going after #commercialvessels North Atlantic warning: orcas now targeting commercial vessels in what experts call coordinated assaults share.google/kwy5wy9eIc33...

Glutamate is the primary molecule that neurons use to communicate with each other. Previously, scientists have mostly recorded when neurons fire output signals, but now with a new glutamate indicator, they can record the many inputs that causes cells to fire. 🧵 #neuroskyence

Really interesting research showing that while ultra-specialization in a single discipline might lead to better results early in one’s career, multi-discipline training and practice pays off big time in the long run. This applies to a range of professions from scientists to athletes and more

The newest episode of the pod dives into how scientists are learning to decode the calls of the endangered Hawaiian monk seals

Greek tragedy: the rare seals hiding in caves to escape tourists Greece is hoping that protected areas will help keep daytrippers away and allow vulnerable monk seals to return to their island habitats www.theguardian.com/environment/...

From the new issue: Meet the scientists (and a very good dog named Eba) rushing to save southern resident killer whales off the coast of Washington State

1/2 Collaboration between killer whales and dolphins on Canada's Pacific coast Killer whales follow dolphins in search of salmon. They alternate their echolocation to avoid overlap. The killer whales catch the salmon (too large for the dolphins) and the dolphins get the scraps.

Polar bears are adapting to climate change at a genetic level - and it could help them avoid extinction ->The Conversation | #extinction #climate change #polar bear | More from Lil Dr Glen EcoChat at BigEarthData.ai

We are so back, y'all.

Scientists searching for new ways to combat cancer think they may have uncovered a promising new lead in the DNA of the bowhead whale. n.pr/4ocq6xG

Blink to the beat! Human movements are known to synchronize with rhythmic patterns in #music. This study reveals that spontaneous #EyeBlinks also align with musical beats, linking this to brain activity, #WhiteMatter structure & dynamic attention @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/44gYBMi

Why do whales and elephants have much lower rates of cancer than expected? "Species with a lower cancer prevalence and mortality risk are those with a higher presence of cooperative and caring habits, while the opposite is found....:" www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

"Upland forests are like natural rainmakers," Jiang said. "Protecting these ecosystems isn't just about biodiversity—it's about sustaining agriculture." #ClimateEmergency and #NatureCrisis intimately interlinked phys.org/news/2025-11...

The intelligence of slime mold is that of its materials All of Physarum's intelligent behaviors can be explained by physics, as in non-living materials (e.g., water following the path of least resistance), and do not require a representation of the problem. (preprint) arxiv.org/pdf/2511.08531

Honoring James A. Estes, a pioneering ecologist whose research on sea otters in Alaska revealed how predators shape entire ecosystems. His work helped define the concept of trophic cascades and inspired generations of ecologists. Read the PNAS Retrospective: https://ow.ly/leKs50XrKBH

🐬 New study reveals rare insights into the anatomy of the hourglass dolphin (Cephalorhynchus cruciger) & spectacled porpoise (Phocoena dioptrica). Researchers detail organs, skeletons & unique traits. Graïc et al: anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

A new technique called ‘mind captioning’ generates descriptive sentences of what a person is seeing or picturing in their mind using a read-out of their brain activity, with impressive accuracy. go.nature.com/3XbnxB1

On Alaska’s Prince of Wales Island, gray wolves have been observed hunting sea otters, a rare and surprising behavior. Researchers are now working to learn more about how these wolves are adapting to marine prey, using methods such as wolf teeth analysis and trail cameras. Read more: bit.ly/4qofVsr

Absolutely amazing thread on fossil walruses 🦭 which are a surpisingly large group considering there is only one walrus species alive today!

160 scientists, 23 countries, 1 report: The Global Tipping Points Report 2025, together with @exeter.ac.uk, highlights mounting risks across Earth’s systems, from melting glaciers & ice fields to slowing ocean currents, ice sheets & rainforests under pressure. Watch now👇 👉global-tipping-points.org

Goodall transcribes field notes by lamplight in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park c.1960

Was happy to write a commentary for this very cool opportunistic study of long-term neural effects of partner loss in coyotes (which are the rare sexually monogamous species). Naturalistic studies of non-model species are a great complement to lab models. authors.elsevier.com/a/1lkyT15hTu...

⚠️ House Republicans’ new FY26 bill would slash EPA & Fish & Wildlife funding and gut the Endangered Species Act, stripping protections from gray wolves, grizzlies, wolverines & more. This is a direct attack on wildlife, ecosystems, and public health. We must speak out. 🔗Read more: bit.ly/4mgexFx

Donald Trump’s signature legislation would menace the American economy for at least a decade. It is a showcase of fiscal incontinence and ideological exhaustion https://econ.st/4kvmdT2 Illustration: Ricardo Tomás

1/4 Use of tools (for allogrooming) in orcas They have been recorded (Salish Sea) using kelp, cutting it (technically the first documentation of toolmaking in cetaceans) and using it to groom others. (paper) www.cell.com/current-biol...

The "rubber hand illusion" in mice... @lucestebanez.bsky.social &co use automated videography to show that mice display quantifiable behavioral markers of the embodiment of an #ArtificialLimb, opening the door to future research into human #BodyOwnership disorders @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4jHsESn

Precon_all is finally citeable! I’m relieved, pleased, thrilled and all other superlatives to present to you our preprint describing the inner workings of the precon_all pipeline for semi-automated non-human cortical surface reconstruction! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/10

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... New paper from my grad lab at New College's Marine Mammal Science Master's program - @marmamsci-ncf.bsky.social - Grad student Sophie Flem did heroic work examining ascending and descending auditory pathways in baleen and toothed whale brains.

Some neurons act like body-proximity sensors, and in fact reflect the value of contacting or avoiding objects, composing a flexible predictive model for interacting with the world near the body www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Today is World Sea Lion Day! 🦭

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Love this - "soft assembly," that is, the ability for physical systems to organize/function in complex ways/based on physical structure and how it interacts with the environment, is understudied in neuroscience and biology and underused in robotics. Dynamic systems!

Several mammal species live in cold-water environments thanks to adaptations like blubber and large size. A notable exception is the sea otter—so how does it stay warm? A 2021 Science study found an answer: skeletal muscle thermogenesis. Learn more on #WorldOtterDay: scim.ag/4jjvMDL

By playing rhythmic audio to comatose patients, then skipping a beat, researchers could elicit changes in heart rate—but only in patients who went on to have favorable outcomes. The phenomenon could be used to predict patient outcomes. In PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Animal migrations are extensive and crucial for ecosystem health but are in decline. A study in Nature Communications identifies 1,787 sites and links among them for 109 marine species, providing policymakers with essential knowledge for effective conservation. 🌊 🧪

Whale Calves Are Born On “Humpback Highway”, Changing What We Knew About Migration

Babak Tafreshi natgeo science photographer "In May-June, the Great Smoky Mountains in TN. and NC, is the mating ground for multiple lightning bugs species, most notable the synchronous fireflies. The males glow together every 7-8 sec. This video is 2x faster than real-time.

The observation of bonding behaviours in wild chimpanzees suggests that some aspects of human attachment have a deep evolutionary origin https://go.nature.com/4352zYp

abcnews.go.com/US/video/sea... Fun, my Master's student Carson Hood @marmamsci-ncf.bsky.social was just on network news w/ our beat-keeping sea lion (who also sat for the Zoom)