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marcofesta.bsky.social
Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦
@marcofesta.bsky.social
1.4K followers 260 following 760 posts

🇨🇦🇨🇦 Retired ecology prof in Sherbrooke, Canada. Evidence-based wildlife conservation, mountain ungulates, kangaroos, ice-free fishing. 🇨🇦🇨🇦 elbows up!

Videos
Environmental science 41%
Biology 27%
Posts Replies Media Videos

marcofesta.bsky.social
Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦 @marcofesta.bsky.social · 14h
I am a member - highly recommend it!
balkissoon.bsky.social Denise Balkissoon @balkissoon.bsky.social · 1d
Speaking of which! If you would like to support pushy journalists demanding information about the environment and resource extraction from Canadian politicians and companies, I promise we'll use your dollars wisely. The vast majority of our budget simply pays journalists! give.thenarwhal.ca/donate/
Become a member | The Narwhal
Join the readers who power The Narwhal’s ad-free, non-profit journalism about Canada’s natural world.
give.thenarwhal.ca

Reposted by Marco Festa‐Bianchet

danmacnulty.bsky.social
Dan MacNulty @danmacnulty.bsky.social · 16h
Our critique is now published in Forest Ecology & Management. We show why the corrected 17.5× increase in average sapling density still overstates aspen recovery: mean-based metrics are driven by a small minority of plots, while most showed little or no change.
🧪 authors.elsevier.com/a/1mMLU1L%7E...

Reposted by Marco Festa‐Bianchet, Paul Nightingale

carlbergstrom.com
Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 17h
Every week, Nature publishes yet another breathless puff piece about some AI startup, based only unpublished claims from the company and interviewing only those who work there.

How can the leading scientific journal publish piece after piece that would make Kevin Roose blush?

I think it's that...

Reposted by Marco Festa‐Bianchet, Ryan K. Brook

balkissoon.bsky.social
Denise Balkissoon @balkissoon.bsky.social · 1d
Speaking of which! If you would like to support pushy journalists demanding information about the environment and resource extraction from Canadian politicians and companies, I promise we'll use your dollars wisely. The vast majority of our budget simply pays journalists! give.thenarwhal.ca/donate/
Become a member | The Narwhal
Join the readers who power The Narwhal’s ad-free, non-profit journalism about Canada’s natural world.
give.thenarwhal.ca

marcofesta.bsky.social
Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦 @marcofesta.bsky.social · 1d
Damn, 2 days later and you could have claimed to have spotted the first robin of the year!

marcofesta.bsky.social
Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦 @marcofesta.bsky.social · 3d
Not knowing much about insects, sighting a mantis is always a source of much excitement for me, even if on a somewhat unnatural habitat.

Reposted by Marco Festa‐Bianchet

alexandreshields.bsky.social
Alexandre Shields @alexandreshields.bsky.social · 4d
Les caribous de la Gaspésie toujours au seuil de la disparition: 14 bêtes en liberté. Le gouvernement Legault n'a pas mis en oeuvre le «projet pilote» promis pour leur protection et il a réduit une mesure importante en réponse aux demandes des chasseurs. www.ledevoir.com/actualites/e...
Les caribous de la Gaspésie toujours au seuil de la disparition
Le gouvernement a réduit cette année une mesure de protection afin de répondre aux « préoccupations » des chasseurs.
www.ledevoir.com

marcofesta.bsky.social
Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦 @marcofesta.bsky.social · 5d
Methinks it's more of a people problem. Especially people who think contraception is part of the solution. www.bbc.com/news/article...
Why Britain has a deer problem
Deer numbers have rocketed over the last 40 years and particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic.
www.bbc.com

marcofesta.bsky.social
Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦 @marcofesta.bsky.social · 5d
Fruit bats, Centennial Park Sydney. I think they are grey-headed flying foxes?

marcofesta.bsky.social
Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦 @marcofesta.bsky.social · 6d
Shame

Reposted by Marco Festa‐Bianchet, Margreet Zwarteveen, Jeremy J. Schmidt , and 1 more

ejmccann.bsky.social
Eugene McCann @ejmccann.bsky.social · 6d
In what could plausibly represent a Christmas miracle* SFU Geography has two (2) new tenure track hires. One is urban/climate, which I will repost below. The other is a Landscape Ecologist. Please share ... #academicsky

*actually just the good decisions of our new Dean
www.sfu.ca/geography/ab...
Assistant Professor of Landscape Ecology
www.sfu.ca

Reposted by Marco Festa‐Bianchet

theecologyprof.bsky.social
Scott Forbes🇨🇦 @theecologyprof.bsky.social · 7d
The Carney Conservatives are the most anti-environment govt since ... the Harper Conservatives. And they'll soon cave on domestic plastics too. Why? Because #BigOil & Danielle Smith want it. The Carney govt is run for & by the #fossilfuel lobby. #PlasticBan
www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art...
Ottawa pushes toward scrapping ban on single-use plastic exports
Plastic product manufacturing sector generated $35-billion, supported roughly 85,000 jobs in 2023, feds say
www.theglobeandmail.com

Reposted by Marco Festa‐Bianchet, Benjamin Larue

theglobeandmail.com
The Globe and Mail @theglobeandmail.com · 7d
Ottawa pushes toward scrapping ban on single-use plastic exports
Plastic product manufacturing sector generated $35-billion, supported roughly 85,000 jobs in 2023, feds say
www.theglobeandmail.com

Reposted by Marco Festa‐Bianchet, Raúl Pacheco-Vega, Colin M. Coates , and 1 more

stevenhigh.bsky.social
Steven High @stevenhigh.bsky.social · 7d
Instead of spending big money to recruit a few dozen academics from outside of Canada, I wish the Liberals invested in the outstanding talent coming out of our PhD programs. Postdocs could be extended (#, duration) for large numbers for the same price. It is top-down, headline seeking politics.

Reposted by Marco Festa‐Bianchet

christianlandry.bsky.social
Christian Landry @christianlandry.bsky.social · 7d
Worrying about the copyright of published scientific figures we would like to use for teaching is so dissonant when you could legally use generative AI to produce ones that are based on stolen material.

marcofesta.bsky.social
Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦 @marcofesta.bsky.social · 9d
Unbeknownst to most entomologists, some ants like to nest in Scrabble boxes. At least in Australia.
So we decided to have a Scrabble game and found these tiny ants had a nest in the box, with eggs and everything. Sydney, Australia.

marcofesta.bsky.social
Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦 @marcofesta.bsky.social · 9d
I often repost job opportunities, especially faculty jobs in Canada. You will not see here reposts of the 'new' jobs targeted at attracting foreigners, until Canada finances all Canada-based researchers adequately.

Reposted by Marco Festa‐Bianchet

alexandreshields.bsky.social
Alexandre Shields @alexandreshields.bsky.social · 9d
Même la crise des relations entre le Canada et les États-Unis est invoquée par le gouvernement Carney pour justifier la construction d’un nouveau pipeline, ce sont des intérêts américains qui profiteraient le plus du projet. www.ledevoir.com/politique/ca...
Vendu comme souverain, un pipeline canadien est célébré par Washington
Les investissements américains sont les bienvenus pour le pipeline devant nous «protéger» des États-Unis.
www.ledevoir.com

Reposted by Marco Festa‐Bianchet

donjheath.bsky.social
IsThatDonHeath? @donjheath.bsky.social · 9d
Far Side

Reposted by Marco Festa‐Bianchet

fisherspeaks.bsky.social
Chris Fisher @fisherspeaks.bsky.social · 9d
2025 was a very memorable year of #wildlifephotography. I was fortunate to travel to #Tanzania #Florida #Yukon and thru Western #Canada. Enjoy a quick look at my Best of 2025.

Reposted by Marco Festa‐Bianchet

aemonten.bsky.social
Alejandro Montenegro @aemonten.bsky.social · 10d
An important question is, who is citing those papers?

Should it be considered misconduct to not even check whether what you are citing *exists*?

Reposted by Marco Festa‐Bianchet, Jonathan A. Foley, Laia Balcells , and 18 more

nkalamb.bsky.social
Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 11d
I’m sorry, but it is disgraceful to be an academic who uses this technology to conduct research. It should be prohibited in all of our scholarly institutions, including universities and journals.

marcofesta.bsky.social
Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦 @marcofesta.bsky.social · 11d
AI slop meets poor 19th-century colonial taxonomy.
The gaur is not a bison and this is likely not a real bison.

marcofesta.bsky.social
Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦 @marcofesta.bsky.social · 11d
Went here to watch this with Australian granddaughters

Reposted by Anthony Ricciardi, Benjamin Larue

marcofesta.bsky.social
Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦 @marcofesta.bsky.social · 11d
.. and not a word about scientists having been warning for years that this deadly parasite will be moved around by taxpayer-subsidized game farms. Do better, CBC
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Parasitic brain worm deadly for moose, elk, caribou found in Alberta | CBC News
A parasitic brain worm fatal to moose, elk, and caribou has been confirmed in northern Alberta for the first time.
www.cbc.ca

Reposted by Matthias C. Rillig, Marco Festa‐Bianchet, Susanne Lachmuth

michiwagner4.bsky.social
Michael Wagner @michiwagner4.bsky.social · 12d
🚨 Postdoctoral Opportunity for Female Scientists🚨

The University of Vienna is awarding at least 20 fully funded 4 year postdoctoral positions to outstanding female scientists

Interested? Get in touch via direct message
careers.univie.ac.at/en/postdoc/e...

#MicroSky 🧪

#PostDoc @univie.ac.at

marcofesta.bsky.social
Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦 @marcofesta.bsky.social · 13d
Climate change leads mountain guides in the Alps to alter their choice and timing of high-altitude routes, reacting to increasing danger 🧪 gh.copernicus.org/articles/80/...
Mapping climate-change-related processes affecting most frequented routes by French mountain guides
Abstract. This paper examines the impact of climate change on alpinism in the western European Alps, focusing particularly on the routes most frequently used by French mountain guides. The aim is to i...
gh.copernicus.org

Reposted by Marco Festa‐Bianchet

richardsmiriam1.bsky.social
Miriam Richards @richardsmiriam1.bsky.social · 13d
In which Springer-Nature offers me the opportunity to do a huge amount of work - and get nothing in return!

Reposted by Marco Festa‐Bianchet

katharinehayhoe.com
Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 13d
"Without NCAR’s infrastructure + supercomputing abilities, many small colleges & universities wouldn’t be able to do research with the latest models. NCAR research influences every piece of weather & climate prediction in the US: air quality, droughts, hurricanes + more." - @carlonimbus.bsky.social
katharinehayhoe.com Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 14d
NCAR is quite literally our global mothership.

Everyone who works in climate and weather has passed through its doors and benefited from its incredible resources.

Dismantling NCAR is like taking a sledgehammer to the keystone holding up our scientific understanding of the planet.

Unbelievable.
Trump moves to dismantle major US climate research center in Colorado
The Trump administration is breaking up the National Center for Atmospheric Research, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs.
www.usatoday.com

marcofesta.bsky.social
Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦 @marcofesta.bsky.social · 14d
The Xmas bilby.