Real bummer. I loved Coquette.

The Tropical Dry Forest of Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Currently acting quite rainy…

Im thinking about this (and human diseases that are preventable by vaccines) in the context of shifting baselines. My perceived baseline (and the baseline for lots of folks) is a US with no screwworm and no measles. 1/n

Voting feels extra good when your state government is trying to take away voting power.

I’ve seen this toaster. It’s saved as a trophy behind the scenes by the team that led to this discovery.

Quantifying harm posed by invasive species to animal welfare will reveal a moral problem for so-called "compassionate conservation", which demands protection for even invasive animals. Is it compassionate to allow invasive rats, mice, cats to injure & kill wildlife? #bioinvasion #invasivespecies

What??? WHAT??? I had to factcheck this because it’s so neat.

The NSF GRFP is now out! There are 2,599 awardees, which is the most ever—and a big shift from last year which initially halved awardees (1,000 awardees + an additional 500). I've thrown together a plot to break down the changes by field. www.research.gov/grfp/Awardee...

There could be cool space lizards under those moon rocks and we just wouldn’t know unless we send a herpetologist to space. 🚀🧑‍🚀🌖🦎

Anyone change over to a heat pump in New Orleans or Louisiana or anywhere warm and humid? My AC guy says don't do it, but getting off LNG, especially with those Delta bills, is something I'd like to do. #nolasky

I was in the field with a couple of UNO undergrads this afternoon for the urban wildlife monitoring program. We heard a ruckus of crows. I explained mobbing behavior and said the crows might have found something cool. We investigated, lucked out, and had some great views of a Great Horned Owl. 🦉

Swamp milkweed in the yard is getting attention!

I spent a lovely morning joining a local bird group out at Bayou Sauvage Urban National Wildlife Refuge. I introduced them to the calls of three species of frogs, which had been causing much confusion because they were not birds.

As an herpetologist and very professional scientist, I obviously have no idea what an “inch” is or “foot” is, but otherwise this post checks out.

February 24th. The Coral Honeysuckle that I planted in late summer 2024 shows the first signs of flowering. Hummingbirds of the Irish Channel, prepare to feast!

As we’re starting fieldwork this week for our endangered Dusky Gopher Frog project, I’m excited to have this website to share some basics about the project.

I never knew that floats are so crowded with throws that there’s barely standing room for the riders to stand. This much space is only after 2 hours of organizing. #tucks

Everything about Muses tonight was phenomenal

Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin

Ringed Map Turtles are among the coolest turtles in North America. They only live in the Pearl and Bogue Falaya River systems of Louisiana and Mississippi, and are a threatened species impacted by habitat modifications to the rivers.

It’s time! 💜💛💚

I'm very excited to share this new paper on conservation genomics of American Flamingos, led by Jessica Folsom at UCF.

Unfortunate to hear that NSF is changing the way grants are reviewed - less emphasis on external reviewers and less detailed summaries from reviews. I’ve been enormously impressed by the way panels are run, and detailed reviews have helped me improve grant applications considerably.

Good story covering the basics of how folks can help monarchs, and the concerns with planting non-native Tropical Milkweed.

Just wrapped up a phenomenal ZooMu workshop at the Oklahoma City Zoo with folks from zoos and natural history collections across the US. I’m very excited about where this project is going!

Hell yeah, Halloween Season! 🎃👻🧛🏻🕷️

🚨Important herpetology information ⬇️🐸🐸

Karen Deville usually looks forward to rainy days — but not just because it waters her plants.

The United States was founded to overthrow a king. What a good point to reflect on today.

A whole bunch of young birds in my neighborhood fledged this week. What did you accomplish, and is it better than learning to literally f***ing fly?!?!?!

The Blue Jay is a pretty awesome reptile.

Any pollinators here on BlueSky? I’ve got some sweet Lemon Bee Balm in the Irish Channel, New Orleans for you. Bring your friends.

Super proud of Audubon Zoo’s Herpetology, Hospital, and Communications teams for this work with Gopher Tortoise Conservation. These tortoises are really special to me, and great to see this work moving forward!

Headed home from a productive field conservation research trip in Costa Rica. One of the things that I love about this place is country is that it is wildlife- (and heavily frog-) themed. Here’s a giant frog sculpture in the airport, and even the airport carpet is printed with dart poison frogs.

something that stands out about this is just how cheap it is for us to have world-leading scientific capacity we spent ~6.75 trillion last year, and the combined budgets for NIH, NSF and NASA are barely more than 1% of that what an incredible waste to lose it all for a drop in the bucket

There are 2 previous historical cases of countries destroying their science and universities, crippling them for decades: Lysenkoism in the USSR and Nazi Germany. The Trump administration will be the 3rd. It's not just budgets but research, institutions, expertise, and training the next generation.

"The ‘silent’ half: diversity, function and the critical knowledge gap on female frog vocalizations" –Such cool work! Super proud of these three #HERpers latinas🇨🇴🇧🇷! 🎵🐸🎶 doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

If only people could replace their brains…

Saw this Tropical Milkweed in a pasture in Costa Rica. It’s so strange for me to see this species (a common ornamental in the US) in its native range. In the US, this species causes major problems for Monarch Butterflies.

No Mow Millenium!!

Bored with manicured lawns, some homeowners adopt No Mow May all year long

Seems like I’ve spent a lot my adult life looking for frog eggs and most humans just don’t know what they’re missing out on.

📣🧪 #NSF is deferring implementation of the 15% indirect cap on all new awards and subawards to institutes of higher education through June 13, when a hearing is scheduled to occur in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts in Association of American Universities v. NSF

I had the pleasure of speaking with NPR this week about how weird flamingos are. Filter feeding isn’t that complicated but flamingos have to *completely overdo everything,* including their morphology and behavior.

🧵5 Top Free Alternatives to BioRender for Scientific Illustrations! These five websites offer free scientific illustrations for biologists. Great for presentations, research papers and other research communication needs. Save and share the post!

Ocelots, one of the world’s coolest cat species, have just a toehold in the US in south Texas. It is estimates only 120 live in the US. It is so great to see some conservation attention for this species.

A year ago I planted my avocado tree, Joey, who has thrived in this world of chaos.

Went to watch birds in Audubon Park this morning. Found this blond-tailed squirrel.