Dust off your wellies, throw on some layers, and grab a flashlight, because winter tide pool season is officially here! 🐚🪸🐙🦀🌊 November through December is your best shot at seeing unique intertidal creatures along the California Coast—like colorful nudibranchs, sea stars, kelp forests, and more.

Leaf-tailed geckos > raking leaves. Swipe to see our Academy critters getting in the fall spirit with some seasonally-appropriate camouflage. (They actually look like this year-round, but don’t tell the leaves.) Ft. 1) Leaf-tailed gecko 2) Weedy seadragon 3) Weedy scorpionfish 4) Leaf insect

Spaghetti and delicata and acorn squash, and even zucchini and pumpkin, are literally all the same species. Don’t believe us? Swipe to see how Cucurbita pepo can include so many varieties 🎃

#NationalVetTechWeek is nearly over, but we’re always celebrating our amazing Animal Health biologists and the work they do to keep our non-human colleagues happy & healthy!

Us after a month of celebrating an alligator’s 30th hatchday. [Video description: A beaded lizard—a black reptile with yellow splotches on its body—opens its mouth in a long yawn, repositioning its limbs on the mulch floor.]

So you’ve been keeping up with Claude all month long, writing fan mail and acing Tuesday Trivia — but are you ready to test your Claude IQ? As Claude’s hatch-month draws to a close, see what you’ve learned with our bespoke alligator quiz here: calacademy.org/claudequiz

Claude might have a smooth looking noggin, but like other American alligators, he possesses two hidden ears that allow him to hear both above and underwater.

It’s Trivia Tuesday! 🤓 Claude has a skincare routine! Once a week, Claude’s biologists will give him a scrub to help remove any algal buildup. Claude loves these scrubs and they only take place if he wants them. So, if he’s looking extra green one day, assume he just wanted to skip this week.

Want to win a poster featuring Claude and his Academy friends? 👀🐊🤍 All you have to do is join our Plants to Pixels project to help transcribe specimen labels. Volunteers who participate in the project between now and September 30, 2025 will be eligible to win. Learn more here: bit.ly/3zKk8AE

It’s another Claude Trivia Tuesday! Claude is a poikilotherm, so he relies on environmental conditions to regulate his body temperature. To warm up, he'll bask on his heated rock. To cool down, he'll take a dip in the water. Claude loves to lounge, utilizing a "sit-and-wait" hunting strategy.

Claude’s turning 30. Maybe you’ve heard? This Thursday night, we’re ringing in his new decade with the ultimate birthday bash. Think giveaways, crafts, cake, and Piña Claude-as, all capped off with a swamp-side celebration — because you only turn 30 once. Get tickets here: bit.ly/4nhpoPK

Ready, set, Claude Quest! Claude plushies (and accompanying prizes) have been hidden around the Academy and the Bay Area: think Academy tickets, a family membership, and more. Check the full list of prize locations here to begin the search: bit.ly/4ndQrLP Happy questing! 🐊🤍

It’s a bird… it’s a plane… it’s a free Claude plushie! Claude Quest is BACK. Starting tomorrow, you can find Claude plushies hidden around some of the Bay Area’s most beloved spots. Check back then for the list of prize locations, with a chance to win Academy tickets, a family membership, and more.

It’s Claude Trivia Tuesday! Alligators are *constantly* losing teeth. They can replace each one up to 50 times, going through thousands in their lifetime. This characteristic, called polyphyodonty, is beneficial for apex predators, who need to maintain sharp, strong teeth to hunt effectively.

Calling all California nature lovers: Can YOU find the most biodiversity? 🦌🌵🦆🐞🐛🐟🌲🍁🦎

Find someone who looks at you like Dr. Elora López-Nandam looks at these juvenile corals in our Coral Regeneration Lab. 😍 🪸

Goodbye, so long, see you later! Our dinosaurs are headed back to the Cretaceous period. Be sure to swing by before September 1 to wish them well. 🦖🦕🦖 Get the last tickets to Dino Days at: bit.ly/3H8xCKO

Calling all cake artisans, Great British Bakeoff enthusiasts, and people who REALLY love Pycnopodia helianthoides! Can you make a sunflower sea star cake that will impress Academy scientists? Maybe you want to tackle sea-urchin-inspired entremets or (for the ambitious) an entire kelp forest?

Raising one baby is hard enough. Now multiply that by 10,000 and you’ve got a sea star spawn.

On this #NationalPotatoDay, if your circle isn’t discussing the sea potato, it's time to find a new circle. 🥔 The sea potato is, shockingly, not really a potato, but actually a type of urchin that burrows in the sand.

Life is about looking at Pacific spiny lumpsuckers, in case you forgot.

YOU’RE INVITED: CLAUDE’S 30th HATCHDAY EXTRAVAGANZA IS HERE! 🎂🎉🐊🤍

Celebrate the kickoff of the Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival (BAIDDF) with dynamic performances, community connection, and Deaf cultural pride. Join us as we come together to honor Deaf artistry and cross-cultural creativity. Get your tickets here: bit.ly/4mxcoW2

Those endless waves of seagrass that cover the California coast might appear unremarkable—but they’re bastions of biodiversity that have both supported Indigenous culture and flourished under Native stewardship for centuries.

After a decade of devastation — and a decade of research — ecologists have finally identified what seems to be causing sea star wasting disease.

Your face when you realize you’re about to miss out on our summer exhibits 😱 Dino Days closes Sept 1, and Unseen Oceans closes Sept 7. Get your tickets now at: bit.ly/3H8xCKO

Don your cowboy boots – NightLife is serving up a whole lot of western flair. Get ready for mechanical bull riding, line dancing, rope trick demos, and an evening that’s guaranteed to be ace high. 🤠 🐎 Get tickets here: bit.ly/476xJRp

Distracting ourselves from the gloomy SF summer by admiring our colorful rainforest residents, who spend every day basking in the warmth of their temperature-controlled dome.

Can we offer you a motivational Methuselah poster for these trying times? 🙇

“Who’s the prettiest snake in the world? It’s you! Who, me? Stop it, you!” — Our red-tailed ratsnake to its own reflection, probably.

Did somebody say moss merch? 👀🌱 You can win this poster by Ricardo Kriebel celebrating all things moss! All you have to do is join our Plants to Pixels project to help transcribe specimen labels. Learn more here: bit.ly/3zKk8AE

Sustainable fashion > hyper-fast fashion trends. ♻️  Join us for a night of hands-on creativity with a clothing swap, junk journaling, mending workshops, and more! We’re spotlighting local artists and changemakers who know how to give things a 2nd (or 3rd) life. Tix here: bit.ly/3Ii1vbL

Thousands of you have searched the tide pools, combed the shoreline, and photographed California’s amazing biodiversity—and now the results are in for the 10th annual Snapshot Cal Coast campaign! 🐙🌊🪸

The green crested basilisk has a special talent: it can run on water. 🏃💧

Dino Days is still going strong, and we’ve gotten to know our prehistoric residents a whole lot better (flaws and all). Get tickets for Dino Days here: bit.ly/42HxYPk

In the latest unsettling-world-holiday news, Asteroid Day is today! After reassuring ourselves of the (thankfully, many) asteroid-deflection technologies which scientists have devised, we’ll be celebrating today by staring at this meteorite from the Academy collections.

Once thought to be extinct, these teeny-tiny corals were recently rediscovered in the chilly waters of the Galápagos Islands! Meet Rhizopsammia wellingtoni, a black stony coral endemic to the archipelago that hadn’t been seen in over 20 years.

LGBTQ+ communities have a long history of using flowers as symbols of personal identity, solidarity, joy, love, defiance and so much more. Here are 4 specimens in our botany collections with a strong connection to queer history and symbolism. 💐 🌈

Kick off San Francisco Pride in a big way at NightLife! With drag performances from Oaklash (feat. special guest JAX of RuPaul's Drag Race!), fierce fits, and wearable art, we’re celebrating love, acceptance, and the power of being unapologetically yourself. Get tickets here: bit.ly/4njgGBx

We’re seeing stars this month—are you? 🤩

June might be halfway over, but we’re still on the hunt for California intertidal species! 👀⭐🦪🐙

California’s massive kelp forests are bastions of biodiversity—but they’re also at risk. These forests have collapsed in recent years, as climate change raises ocean temperatures and disrupts the balance of coastal ecosystems.

They say that etiquette is a lost art in the 21st century, but we think practicing good manners in the tide pools never goes out of fashion. Check out this thread for the ultimate guide to respectful, safe tide pooling 🌊😌📖👒

Hollywood may have turned clownfish into beloved ocean celebrities, but these anemone-dwellers are low-key queer icons in their own right! 🪸💖

The egg-yolk jellyfish (AKA fried egg jellyfish, AKA Phacellophora camtschatica), is a very large species that can reach up to 2ft in diameter. 🍳  We think this particular individual looks more like a poached egg right after it’s dropped in water, but who’s asking.

Explore the wonders of ink, from cephalopods to live tattoos, in our 3rd annual celebration! This year’s shop features local artists from Parallax Art Studio, available on a first-come, first-served basis. Get here early for the chance to say you got tattooed at NightLife! Tix here: bit.ly/3c7vByy

The tides are calling, and they’re saying it’s time for Snapshot Cal Coast! 🌊⭐🪸🦭

A skeleton shrimp doesn’t have a skeleton & is not a shrimp—but it does have cute little appendages (gnathopods) to capture food floating in the water. This amphipod plays an important role in the ocean by keeping it clear of detritus & an important role in our hearts by inspiring a sense of whimsy

Happy #WorldTurtleDay from our three alligator snapping turtles: Raphael, Donatello and… Morla! 🥷🐢

School’s out for summer—but camp’s in at the Academy! Our first-ever summer camp series is here, with week-long sessions designed for children ages 9–11 to imagine ways to protect, restore, and enhance nature throughout San Francisco. Learn more and register here: bit.ly/4k6rctR