The programme is out for our Symposium, Exploring Queerness in Natural History, on 5 February. We're excited to hear from our Symposium Curators, Connor Butler and @aquadan1.bsky.social, as well as talks from Simon Goldhill, @canopyrobin.com and @rossbrooks.co.uk. (1/3) buff.ly/jc6Unz7

England’s most important nature sites are being failed.❌ Protected sites can and should be driving nature’s recovery. But today’s OEP report exposes the real problem: years of weak delivery, underfunding and political drift have left them unable to do the job the law intended.

We are super excited about Ross Brooks’ seminar on Tuesday! Details and sign up information below ⬇️🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Last year I wrote this for Transgender Awareness Week because of the challenges I've faced in my institution. Sharing it again as this week we celebrate trans identities and remember those who have been targeted for being themselves www.britishecologicalsociety.org/five-steps-t...

LGBTQ+ Journal Club is turning 1! 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈To celebrate, here's a bit about what we've been up to over the past year: a thread of interesting papers in queer biology (1/n) ⬇️🧵

In our session this week, we will be joined by the amazing @penguinacho.bsky.social for a discussion on penguin sexuality and the documentary Animal Pride: Nature's Coming Out Story! 🐧💬 #QueerStem #QueerAcademia #GayPenguins

Hello bluesky! We are an LGBTQ+ Biology Journal Club at Uni of Oxford 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️. We are interested in topics relevant to queer ecology and amplifying queer voices in academia 🪲🌱. For those in Oxford, we meet every 2 weeks - get in touch for more details! 🥳

Wish I could say I was shocked, but here's the Labour government constraining the right to peaceful protest again... 'You can protest but only according to our rules. The rules are: you're not allowed to use any of the tactics that make protest effective.'

New preprint alert! We DNA barcoded 95 thousand Ghanaian arthropods, more than doubling the number of BINs (a species proxy) available online from West Africa. In doing so we’ve released a huge amount of new data to scientists studying the region 🧪 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Big Doughnutty News. Just out in Nature: the all-new 2025 Doughnut. Transformed from a single-year snapshot to an annual global monitor of 21st century social & ecological thriving. Available to all in an open-access paper by @andrewlfanning.bsky.social and me. 🧵 1/ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🚨Women are central to tropical wild meat systems, yet too often overlooked🚨 A new paper led by @jasminwillis.bsky.social, Dr Lauren Coad, @orchiddelirium.bsky.social & @ejmilnergulland.bsky.social reviewed 334 studies across 54 countries, finding women occupy 36 roles, from harvesting to trade.

"Today, we clear a soccer field’s worth of tropical forest every six seconds, a loss dramatically worsened by humanity’s growing hunger for meat" Wean ourselves off meat now, or the switch to a Pliocene climate that's locked in will do it for us www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Police continue to mass arrest protestors for opposing genocide and the Palestine Action ban. The day after the ban came into force, 29 were arrested. Last month, it was 500. Today, over a thousand people are defying the unjust proscription of a domestic direct action group.

Cool new research by @e-ellis1.bsky.social Moths & hoverflies are more sensitive to urbanisation than bees, but urban trees boost moth species richness in UK cities. #teammoth 🌍 royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Our upcoming Queer Ecology evening will be a real treat, with a special guided tour exploring the diversity of nature and its interpretation by scientists throughout history. 📍 Linnean Society 📆 6pm 25 September 🎟️ £15 (discounts for Members and concessions)

A romantic meeting of Wasp Spiders, Argiope bruennichi, at Thompson Common yesterday. The male is much smaller than the big, stripy female. They ended up going out to lunch afterwards, when he became the main course. srs.britishspiders.org.uk/portal.php/p... #Spiders #UKWildlife

Congratulations to @natduffus.bsky.social, who has been commended in the @mplsoxford.bsky.social Impact Awards! Nat has been recognised in the Early Career Policy Impact category for raising awareness of the ecological outcomes of Biodiversity Net Gain 👇 bit.ly/4eSmRZe

Having had time to digest the new BNG consultation, I am *astounded* at the proposed changes to the small sites metric (SSM). If the changes are implemented, the SSM could apply to developments up to 49 dwellings/1ha - affecting a lot of developments! 1/ consult.defra.gov.uk/defra-biodiv...

When warnings of Insectageddon were issued a few years ago, there was widespread denial. Less so now. It's devastating. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Very disappointing to see the govt not only cut funding for nature-friendly farming schemes but ALSO lay out a consultation on changes to BNG which would reduce the requirement for the majority of developments to compensate for their impacts on nature. www.wildlifetrusts.org/news/governm...

What part of nature emergency does the government not understand? These attacks on nature keep on coming. In a biodiversity crisis, the Govt should be expanding the nature friendly farming programme, not cutting it. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Labour promised to restore nature. ❌ Instead, their Planning Bill contains a licence to destroy it. We offered solutions. We’re done waiting. Part 3 of the Bill would gut the laws protecting our most precious habitats & species. Without significant change, it must be scrapped.

Congratulations to our wonderful colleague @natduffus.bsky.social who has been recognised as an unsung hero on the ENDS POWER LIST 2025 for her work on BNG and invertebrates 🐞 www.biodiversity.ox.ac.uk/research_sto...

Super honoured to have been recognised by the ENDS Power List 2025 for my work on Biodiversity Net Gain and invertebrates! 🪲🌱 www.endsreport.com/article/1918...

Dolphin Orgies, Intersex snails, Gay giraffes... Join award-winning drag king, Bi-Curious George, London’s most loveable nature boy, on a raucous romp through the animal kingdom as he shatters the heteronormative binaries through which we view the natural world. oumnh.ox.ac.uk/event/queer-...

This #earthday2025 we are thrilled to share some of the #Naturerecovery projects we have been working on with local partners in #Oxfordshire youtu.be/Yy1wRYRBtto @ecioxford.bsky.social @ox.ac.uk

this was just 10 years ago. the uk was ranked highest on the rainbow europe map for LGBTQI+ rights at 86%. in 2024 the uk had plummeted to just under 52%

Threats to nature in Labour’s planning bill | Letter

“It’s like claiming to have brought Napoleon back from the dead by asking a short French man to wear his hat.” A short piece in The Conversation by me on why “de-extinction” is nothing of the sort, and bad, bad conservation. theconversation.com/why-de-extin...

I gotta say, “women are going to space” sounds a lot nicer than “the ultra rich are taking hyper-polluting joyrides to space while the planet descends into climate chaos”

Ministers should listen to a powerful message from 32 nature organisations: the Planning Bill rides roughshod over nature protection, could push species towards extinction & cause greater loss of precious green space. Nature & development can go hand in hand - but this one-sided Bill isn’t the way

Planning bill ‘throws environmental protection to the wind’, say UK nature chiefs

⏸️ Pausing Part III of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill isn’t obstructionism—it’s a plea for due process. 👇 Read more in the op-ed written by @ejmilnergulland.bsky.social, @natduffus.bsky.social, Alexa Culver and Sophus zu Ermgassen. 🌳 www.zerohour.uk/planningbill...

🔬 Join @natduffus.bsky.social from @ox.ac.uk on 14 Apr 25 for a deep dive into the ecological impact of biodiversity offsetting! Don’t miss this FREE talk!! 📅🌍 @britentsoc.bsky.social @royentsoc.bsky.social @amentsoc.bsky.social 🎟️ Book your space here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1022641527...

I strongly believe that Part III of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill must be put on pause, for the reasons outlined here: drive.google.com/file/d/1HOfz... Such an impactful Bill needs to consulted on, impact assessed, and piloted!

🚨 Planning and Infrastructure Bill: Pause Part III 🚨 It risks harming nature, slowing developers, and hiking costs. Right now, it’s a ‘lose, lose’ for the economy and the environment. It needs consultation, assessment, and piloting to secure a ‘win, win’ for all. 👇 Watch why!

Wrote this opinion piece with some fellow zoologists about the use of so-called 'welfare' penguins across Oxfordshire. We argue that penguins are ill-suited to such a role (sorry penguins 🐧) and that there are better ways to reap the benefits of contact with nature! 🌱 cherwell.org/2025/03/05/u...

It’s official, 2024 was the worst year for bumblebees since records began🚨 The latest findings from #BeeWalk, our national bumblebee monitoring scheme, have revealed bumblebee numbers declined by almost a quarter (22.5%) across Great Britain💔 Read on: www.bumblebeeconservation.org/british-bumb...

Pet owners accidentally poisoning garden birds. Our latest research finds pet flea treatments (fipronil and imidacloprid) in 100% of blue tit and great tit nests, with nestling mortality higher in the more contaminated nest. @SongBirdSBS @SussexUni @CannelleTassin

What an amazing woman and researcher! www.sciencenews.org/article/mara...

Two weeks to go until the application deadline for ILESLA. If you or anyone you know would benefit from full funding to carry out a PhD in Life and/or Environmental Science please visit/refer to our website page iles.web.ox.ac.uk/how-apply where you can see open day videos and get full guidance.

Our article in the Conversation - reveals that only half of ecological features required on new housing estates are actually there. It's a systemic problem of housebuilders not putting them in, management companies not maintaining them and a lack of enforcement theconversation.com/property-dev...

Check out our latest BNG pre-print! 🌱 🏡 In this paper, we detail some of the ways in which #BiodiversityNetGain as it is currently implemented may not have positive outcomes for invertebrates and how this can be addressed  🦋 🐛 🐝 🕷 doi.org/10.32942/X2T... 🧵1/