Here's the wrap on my three-part series on spider webs. Read on to learn how the insects take their terrible revenge. 🌿 open.substack.com/pub/richardc...

Here's the conclusion of my three-part series on spider webs. Read on to learn how the insects take their terrible revenge. 🌿https://open.substack.com/pub/richardconniff/p/a-spiders-life-hanging-its-butt-in?r=1fcr4&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

The better to understand how spiders live, I set out, on a climbing wall, to weave my own web. open.substack.com/pub/richardc...

In their heyday, magazines often paid me to do strange things. Building my own spider web was one of the strangest. 🌿 richardconniff.substack.com/p/oh-what-a-...

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Been to the Serengeti. Explored in the Amazon. Trekked in Bhutan. But watching spiders has been one of the most eye-opening experiences of my life as a naturalist. richardconniff.substack.com/p/spider-web...

You may be a policeman still angry that Trump freed Jan 6 rioters who battered cops, or a coal miner pissed that Trump has blocked regulations to protect you from black lung disease ... If you believe in America, it's your march, too. richardconniff.substack.com/p/heres-why-...

A reminder of the many patriotic reasons you should join today's "No Kings" protests richardconniff.substack.com/p/heres-why-...

A few reminders why you should join today’s protests against tyranny open.substack.com/pub/richardc...

ICYMI: “And now, a response from the leader of the frog resistance...” 🐸 🎵 #Colbert

Federal agents in Portland, OR, blocked an ambulance trying to take an injured protestor to the hospital & threatened to shoot the driver www.wweek.com/news/2025/10...

Stop buying wildlife pets—turtles, parrots, lizards, ferrets, even tropical fish—until the global pet industry gets serious about protecting and rebuilding species and habitats. richardconniff.substack.com/p/the-wildli...

Big news! @IUCN members approve Motion 108 to set guardrails on the global wildlife pet trade. open.substack.com/pub/richardc...

It's never been legal to export Galapagos iguanas from Ecuador. But pet dealers still sell them "legally" in Europe. Time to crack down on the wildlife pet trade. richardconniff.substack.com/p/the-wildli...

Some bats hunt and eat migrating songbirds at high altitude 🌿 richardconniff.substack.com/p/tally-ho-e...

IUCN will likely vote Monday to set guardrails for the wildlife pet trade. Originally just for terrestrial wildlife but now extended to ALL wildlife. open.substack.com/pub/richardc...

Halfway in, it dawned on me that this is a Halloween story. I’d never previously thought of the world’s top science journals scheduling articles for a publicity boost from seasonal holidays. But, hey, Science, you got me! 🌿 richardconniff.substack.com/p/tally-ho-e...

Some bats hunt and eat migrating songbirds at high altitude 🌿 richardconniff.substack.com/p/tally-ho-e...

Halfway in, it dawned on me that this is a Halloween story. I’d never previously thought of the world’s top science journals scheduling articles for a publicity boost from seasonal holidays. But, hey, Science, you got me! 🌿 richardconniff.substack.com/p/tally-ho-e...

Hey, #Connecticut residents, you can find your #vaccination record since 2020 here: ctwizpublicportal.dph.ct.gov

The shsssssssh-shsssssssh of boots walking through fallen leaves in the Connecticut woods

Cartoon by @mluckovich.bsky.social.

It's never been legal to export Galapagos iguanas from Ecuador. But pet dealers still sell them "legally" in Europe. Time to crack down on the wildlife pet trade. richardconniff.substack.com/p/the-wildli...

The IUCN will consider the wildlife pet trade at its meeting next week in Abu Dhabi. Time to act on a wildlife pet trade that's gone off the rails. 🌿

Stop buying wildlife pets—turtles, parrots, lizards, ferrets, even tropical fish—until the global pet industry gets serious about protecting and rebuilding species and habitats. richardconniff.substack.com/p/the-wildli...

The S. American nation of Suriname just pledged to preserve 90% of its forests in perpetuity. Congratulations to the Suriname people, to President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons, & to Russ Mittermeier of Re:Wild who has worked for years to make this happen. www.rewild.org/press/surina...

Five corporations control 90% of the US media market. Airlines merged from 12 major carriers in 1980 to 4 today. Four giants control 80% of meat processing. A handful of companies control the pharmaceutical industry. The evidence of corporate concentration is everywhere.

This is from back before the Jimmy Kimmel fracas, but it's just getting worse. richardconniff.substack.com/p/republican...

A kind word for rich folk on horseback and their packs of baying, slobbering hounds. open.substack.com/pub/richardc...

It wasn't a secret, but Trump admits he's using the power of the presidency to fatten his own bank account.

Border czar Tom Homan accepts bag stuffed w $50,000 cash, promises government contracts, gets recorded by FBI. Trump #DOJ says, "yeah, no credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing.” www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/u...

The first known U.S. dolphin-human fishing partnership has turned up in Florida. Plus: A tale of drunken monkeys. (Photo: Jefferee Woo) richardconniff.substack.com/p/when-dolph...

Air pollution from oil & gas kills >91,000 Americans yearly, particularly poorer communities. @richardconniff.bsky.social’s story highlights new research by @ucl.ac.uk Geography’s Prof. Eloise Marais & @kohrathefog.bsky.social. #AirPollution #EnvironmentalJustice #UCLGeography @uclnews.bsky.social

Haunting image of three southern slaveholders, c. 1850. The banal face of evil. Original daguerreotype in the Metropolitan Museum, colorized and restored by Frank Hellsten

These Canada geese have an almost mathematical idea of acceptable social distance

One rIght-wing activist calls c. 500 companies to blackball employees posting disapproval of Charlie Kirk. Keep it in mind next time you see someone posting sexist, racist, homophobic, or otherwise neo-Nazi beliefs. www.wsj.com/business/cha...

Authors will do almost anything to promote their books. But I'd draw the line at deliberately getting bitten by a black mamba. richardconniff.substack.com/p/how-to-get...

Authors will do almost anything to promote their books. But I'd draw the line at deliberately getting bitten by a black mamba. richardconniff.substack.com/p/how-to-get...

It’s not just wiping out rainbow crosswalks & BLM murals in St. Petersburg. The mini-fascists in Florida government also destroyed a memorial to the 102 dead and injured in the Pulse nightclub shooting. www.tampabay.com/news/st-pete...

So why aren't they reporting on Trump's frequent consultations with funeral home salespeople?

With regret, a new addition to the Wall of the Dead for lost species seekers. Donovan Kirkwood fell off a cliff in the Western Cape while searching for a critically endangered flowering plant. 🌿 strangebehaviors.wordpress.com/2011/01/14/t...

Is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s anti-science killing your children? That could be just be a photo op for him. richardconniff.substack.com/p/a-chronicl...

John Deering on the long-running Epstein File Distraction Strategy

It's getting to be end of summer--silly season, in old newspaper tradition (but I think that's now a year-round event). Anyway, you might enjoy this story. 🌿 richardconniff.substack.com/p/adventures...

Any clues what this might be? Found under a mattress.

Because of anti-vaxxers, scientists are now wasting time finding ways to TREAT measles, instead of just PREVENTING it with a vaccine. That means more people exposed to the most infectious stage. www.wsj.com/health/healt...

Brilliant timing by RFK Jr: He pulls $700 million in federal funding of highly-adaptable lifesaving #mRNA vaccine technology … on the same day scientists supported by federal funding announce a successful mRNA approach to an #HIV vaccine. www.anl.gov/article/new-...

Word to the wise for CEO types who think safety regs are just "red tape": You, too, could die in a catastrophic implosion as if being bitten by a whale. apnews.com/article/tita...