Mike Benard
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benardmf.bsky.social
Mike Benard
@benardmf.bsky.social
310 followers 150 following 82 posts
Biologist, ecologist, herpetologist.

Views expressed here are my personal opinions.

Professor & Department Chair at CWRU

https://sites.google.com/a/case.edu/benard-lab/the-benard-lab-at-cwru
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benardmf.bsky.social
It’s been a cold, snowy winter here in Cleveland. In 2923 and 2024, we caught our first salamanders around February 10th. I am now wondering if we won’t see them until late March this year? What’s your guess?
Scatterplot, with average daily winter temperatures in x-axis (-3 degrees c to 7 degrees C) On the y-axis is the first date of breeding (from 6 February to 9 April). Data points are for years 2012 to 2025. The points form a negative relationship so that coldest winters have latest breeding in late March to early April, and warmest winters have earliest breeding around 10 February. A photo in top right of figure shows a large salamander held in two gloves hands.
February 7, 2026 at 8:12 PM
Reposted by Mike Benard
emilytaylorscience.com
I am excited to share my new book, California Amphibians and How To Find Them, hot off the press from Heyday Books and ready to help guide your wet winter frog and salamander adventures! It is available now from my website or Feb 3 at bookstores.

www.centralcoastsnakeservices.com/shop.html
January 1, 2026 at 1:23 PM
Reposted by Mike Benard
edge-nature.bsky.social
Friends, could you take a moment to sign this open letter about a proposal to illuminate the Earth during the night with giant orbital systems. This would be incredibly disruptive to nearly all North American songbirds who migrate at night. darksky.org/news/orbital...
Sunlight on demand
As long as Earth has spun on its axis in orbit around the sun, the planet has known night. Each day, half the world slips into shadow, creating the natural…
darksky.org
December 28, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Reposted by Mike Benard
cameratrapsue.bsky.social
Happy Winter Solstice!

Beer can, pinhole camera photos of the Summer to Winter Solstice (2024) and the Winter to Summer Solstice (2025).

You never know quite what you're going to get with these photos, set the beer can pointing towards the sun at hopefully the correct angle and wait 6 months!
A pinhole camera photo taken from Summer to Winter Solstice. It's a bit blurry as the aperture was made with a tiny needle and no focus mechanism. There are yellow to green lines across the photo, that's the Sun moving across the sky over the course of a day. The top line is from the Summer Solstice, the bottom line from the Winter Solstice. Cloudy days don't have any lines or broken lines as the Sun was obscured by clouds. There are some trees on the left, right and in the background. A pinhole camera photo, a 6 month exposure from Summer to Winter solstice. There are trees on the right side and background. A house with two cars in the drive are visible almost in the center of the photo. The lines are made from the Sun moving across the sky with the bottom line being the Winter Solstice and the top line the Summer solstice. On cloudy days the lines are broken or not visible as the sun was obscured by clouds. The lines show some reflections from a tree trunk. The lines are mostly a white color with some hints of blue, green and yellow in places. Some of the colors could be from rain or snow staining the paper I was using. A solargram/pinhold camera photo taken from the Winter Solstice of 2024 (21 Dec) to Summer Solstice of 2025 (20 June). It's a 6 month long exposure taken with a beer can pinhole camera, it shows the sun's movement across the sky during that time period, each day the Sun scribes a line on the paper in the pinhole camera. The bottom line is Dec 21 2024 and the top line is 20 June 2025. This kind of photo makes the movement of the Sun during the day into visible trails on the paper in the camera. There is a long orange-yellow arc going across the paper showing the whole 6 months. There is a shadow of my tree on the image, the tree blossomed during the exposure. Shades of blue and pink are on the paper too. There is a black kind of semi circle at the top of the image, that's where the water was disintegrating the top part of the paper.
December 21, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Reposted by Mike Benard
nws.noaa.gov
Happy Winter! 10:03am ET today marked the Winter Solstice, the day of the year when the Earth's northern hemisphere is tilted furthest away from the Sun – making today the shortest of the year for those of us north of the equator.
Will wintry temperatures be in your area? 😬
Visit weather.gov to see
Graphic explaining the Winter Solstice on December 21, 2025 at 10:03 a.m. ET. Side-by-side Earth images compare December (winter solstice) and June (summer solstice), showing Earth’s tilt relative to the equator from the Sun-facing view.
December 21, 2025 at 4:38 PM
benardmf.bsky.social
How old are they?
December 7, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Reposted by Mike Benard
theonetruekat.bsky.social
The best part about amphibian season is touching all the things. California Tiger Salamander, handled with appropriate permits. #herps
December 7, 2025 at 3:12 AM
Reposted by Mike Benard
celestelabedz.bsky.social
It is also grossly ironic to use faulty data to cut the statistics program.
www.dailynebraskan.com/news/unl-use...
UNL used bad data to make $27.5 million cuts, faculty say
UNL's faculty takes issue with the data used by the university to propose program budget cuts. The eliminations are partially financial, but all of the programs up for elimination made more money in s...
www.dailynebraskan.com
December 6, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Reposted by Mike Benard
celestelabedz.bsky.social
It's over.

Despite the fact that the academic council recommended against it, despite the fact that the program brought in more tuition than it cost, and despite the fact that Nebraskans need & deserve this expertise, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences will be cut.

www.dailynebraskan.com/news/adminis...
BREAKING: ‘This hurts’: UNL eliminates 4 programs despite faculty, student pleas
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln eliminates the Earth and atmospheric sciences 8-0, educational administration 7-1, statistics 7-1, textiles, merchandising and fashion design 7-1 programs.
www.dailynebraskan.com
December 6, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Reposted by Mike Benard
apnews.com
Talipot palms in a Rio de Janeiro park are flowering for the first and only time in their lives.
Decades-old palm trees in Rio de Janeiro flower for the first — and only — time
Talipot palms in a Rio de Janeiro park are flowering for the first and only time in their lives. These palms were introduced by landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx in the 1960s.
bit.ly
December 4, 2025 at 1:00 AM
Reposted by Mike Benard
dcpaleo.bsky.social
Can you teach human anatomy - or know someone who can?

CWRU Anatomy is recruiting, and it would be great to have another paleontologist in the department!

More info and application: apply.interfolio.com/151831

Please share widely!
@societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social
Web page for the Anatomy Department, featuring a photo of brand new gross anatomy labs with empty stainless steel gurneys and a large video screen.
November 24, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Reposted by Mike Benard
somuchpingle.bsky.social
#FrogFriday > BlackFriday - Here's a male Uakari Poison Frog (Ranitomeya uakarii) hauling two of its tadpoles to a location with permanent water, where they can continue development. Rainforest in the Rio Tahuayo drainage north of Iquitos, Peru. #herps #frogs #NaturePhotography 🌿
Side image of a brightly colored frog on the trunk of a small tree, captured as it climbs the tree. The frog's body has alternating stripes of black and orangish-red, while the limbs have reticulating patterns of black and yellow. The most notable feature are the two large, gray tadpoles clinging to the frog's back.
November 28, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Reposted by Mike Benard
skwinnicki.bsky.social
When a meal fights back!

I’ve only gotten distant looks at Yellow-crowned Night-heron adults, delighted to find one close! It’s trying to eat a crab but the crab’s got its beak pinched.

Super compressed video quickly moved to my phone from my camera (sorry!) just too excited to wait to share
November 25, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Reposted by Mike Benard
gorizaola.bsky.social
🚨 HELP NEEDED!!!

Please, help us to evaluate how differences in aesthetic perception can affect the development of conservation strategies in #butterflies.

www.unveiling.eu/en_US/
November 26, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Reposted by Mike Benard
zschierl.bsky.social
Since BlueSky seems to like (or dislike enough to hit "like") snakes, here's my favorite photo of a snake I've taken:

A smooth green snake knots its tail in a last-ditch effort to avoid being consumed by a garter snake. Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, CO.

#photography #snake 🐍
A bright green snake has its tail in a knot as it is mostly swallowed by another snake with a multicolored pattern on its back.
November 23, 2025 at 3:44 AM
Reposted by Mike Benard
derfbackderf.bsky.social
Finished page from THE DISSIDENTS. I'm putting the last touches on this bad boy. It'll be in the can by Thanksgiving! What a relief.

Out in Fall 2026, y'all.
Freikorps militia gun down opponents during the Spartikus Revolution in Berlin in 1919.
November 22, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Reposted by Mike Benard
derfbackderf.bsky.social
A few of you will recognize this as an homage to the Otto Dix painting, Streetfight, from 1927. Dix was witness to the battle in Berlin. The Freikorps, of course, morphed into the Nazi Party.

It's an astounding painting, tragically destroyed during WW2, either on a Nazi bonfire or by bombs.
November 22, 2025 at 9:32 PM
benardmf.bsky.social
Baby Redback Salamander next to an Adult Redback Salamander. Plethodon cinereus. These are lungless, direct-developing salamanders. The babies skip the aquatic larval stage and upon hatching are completely terrestrial salamanders like miniature adults.
A baby salamander (left) next to the head and forelimbs of an adult salamander (right) on a white background. The baby is brown-black with a red-tan stripe down its back. The adult is a red-black with a dark red stripe down its back. If the baby curled up, it would be about the size of the adult's head.
November 22, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Reposted by Mike Benard
kenwhite.bsky.social
Revolting.
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · Nov 18
Trump suggests Khashoggi had it coming: "You're mentioning someone that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about. Whether you like him or didn't like him, things happen. But he knew nothing about it. You don't have to embarrass our guest."
November 19, 2025 at 12:50 AM
benardmf.bsky.social
Visiting family in the mountains of South Carolina, encountered these large, invasive joro spiders for the first time. Some spots were thick with their webs spread between trees.
A large spider hangs head-down from its web. Its legs are slender and black with orange bands. Its thorax is a silvery-white. Its abdomen is very large, almost swollen- looking. The abdomen has a pale yellow background, with irregular, light blue stripes. A pinkish blotch is near the back of the abdomen.
November 10, 2025 at 12:01 AM
benardmf.bsky.social
Neat to see such an important lab animal in it’s natural habitat
November 8, 2025 at 4:22 AM
Reposted by Mike Benard
somuchpingle.bsky.social
I'm a little achy, feverish and listless from a Covid vax, so I'm just processing photos tonight. For #FrogFriday here's an African Clawed Frog (Xenopus laevis), observed in SE Free State, South Africa. Note the upturned eyes, perfect for laying in shallow water. #herps #frogs #NaturePhotography 🌿
Angled-down image of a frog lying in shallow, muddy water. The frog's color is a very dark blackish-brown with small streaks of a lighter brown. All four limbs are partially submerged. The eyes are tiny, and are located up on the top of the head.
November 8, 2025 at 2:01 AM
Reposted by Mike Benard
emilytaylorscience.com
Tonight! act.gorgefriends.org/a/rattlesnakes
October 29, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Reposted by Mike Benard
solomonrdavid.bsky.social
BEHOLD the GARgantuan Alligator Gar!!!

This is the largest Alligator Gar I’ve encountered; at over 7 feet 10 inches (240 cm) and approximately 55 inches in girth, its weight is estimated at 300 pounds (136 kg)!

A true river monster, among the largest caught, tagged and safely released! #GarWeek
A giant Alligator Gar (fish) lies in a boat, captured for research and safely released after measurements and tagging.
October 28, 2025 at 8:00 PM