Barbara J. King
@bjking.bsky.social
Anthropologist; animal advocate; science writer, next book coming on cats; caretaker of aging cats. Books include How Animals Grieve; Animals' Best Friends: Putting Compassion to Work for Animals; see www.barbarajking.com for more.
Pinned
Barbara J. King
@bjking.bsky.social
· Aug 21
Whales Mourn, Birds Show Self-Awareness, Plants Remember—Are Humans Really So Special?
Other species exhibit capabilities that were once thought to be exclusive to Homo sapiens
www.scientificamerican.com
Nice piece by @katewong.bsky.social @sciam.bsky.social on why we humans aren't as unique as some of us like to think... Great examples here from primates, fish, insects, and more. A nice shout-out to my work on animal grief too. #animals #nature #anthropology #evolution 🧪
Sorry never sorry Kim Davis, not happening: "The Supreme Court on Monday morning turned down a request from Kim Davis, a former county clerk in Kentucky, to reconsider its 2015 decision recognizing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage." #SCOTUS #samesexmarriage #LGBTQ+
Supreme Court declines to hear case on constitutionality of same-sex marriage
The Supreme Court on Monday morning turned down a request from Kim Davis, a former county clerk in Kentucky, to reconsider its 2015 decision recognizing a constitutional right to same-sex […]
www.scotusblog.com
November 10, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Sorry never sorry Kim Davis, not happening: "The Supreme Court on Monday morning turned down a request from Kim Davis, a former county clerk in Kentucky, to reconsider its 2015 decision recognizing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage." #SCOTUS #samesexmarriage #LGBTQ+
If the head of homicide had his way, every murderer would be arrested by citizens whose loved ones had been stolen from them. -- My #SundaySentence this week is from Louise Penny's The Black Wolf, the 20th novel in the Inspector Gamache series. #Booksky
November 9, 2025 at 4:11 PM
If the head of homicide had his way, every murderer would be arrested by citizens whose loved ones had been stolen from them. -- My #SundaySentence this week is from Louise Penny's The Black Wolf, the 20th novel in the Inspector Gamache series. #Booksky
November 8, 2025 at 5:15 PM
"Below the stands, intelligent, emotional, and social beings struggle in silent desperation while humans chatter and cheer above, either unaware of or unmoved by the reality playing out in the dirt ring..." On cruelty at #rodeos- and a better future, by Kim Hightower @panworks.bsky.social. #animals
From her Montana porch in the heart of rodeo country, PAN Works Community Fellow Kim Hightower examines the ways rodeos reinforce speciesism, and offers insights on moving toward a more compassionate world.
#animals #ethics #wellbeing #compassion #empathy #multispecies #intrinsicvalue #rodeo
#animals #ethics #wellbeing #compassion #empathy #multispecies #intrinsicvalue #rodeo
Lassoed Souls
Speciesism on the Western Front.
panworks.medium.com
November 7, 2025 at 5:09 PM
"Below the stands, intelligent, emotional, and social beings struggle in silent desperation while humans chatter and cheer above, either unaware of or unmoved by the reality playing out in the dirt ring..." On cruelty at #rodeos- and a better future, by Kim Hightower @panworks.bsky.social. #animals
Impressive journalism @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social regarding closure of New England Primate Research Center, recounting traumatic death of monkeys, inadequate veterinary care, and more. We know today that #animalfreescience = better science. cc @whenwejustify.bsky.social #primates #animalrights 🧪
The Unraveling of the New England Primate Research Center | Magazine | The Harvard Crimson
For 50 years, the New England Primate Research Center pioneered research in HIV, Parkinson’s, and addiction. But as a series of animal misconduct allegations eroded the center’s legacy, Harvard, the M...
www.thecrimson.com
November 7, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Impressive journalism @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social regarding closure of New England Primate Research Center, recounting traumatic death of monkeys, inadequate veterinary care, and more. We know today that #animalfreescience = better science. cc @whenwejustify.bsky.social #primates #animalrights 🧪
Dangerous, disappointing, wrong, any policy that would disallow self identifying one's gender on passports. #gender #transgenderrightsarehumanrights #passport www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/u...
Supreme Court Clears Way for Trump Transgender Passport Policy
www.nytimes.com
November 6, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Dangerous, disappointing, wrong, any policy that would disallow self identifying one's gender on passports. #gender #transgenderrightsarehumanrights #passport www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/u...
Exemplar for why rush to lethal management of "invasive" animals requires enormous caution: "Reptiles on a Mexican island were considered an invasive species, but DNA evidence proves they beat humans to the island by hundreds of thousands of years." #conservation #reptile #invasivespecies #maybenot
This Is What a Vindicated Iguana Looks Like
www.nytimes.com
November 6, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Exemplar for why rush to lethal management of "invasive" animals requires enormous caution: "Reptiles on a Mexican island were considered an invasive species, but DNA evidence proves they beat humans to the island by hundreds of thousands of years." #conservation #reptile #invasivespecies #maybenot
Reposted by Barbara J. King
Grateful to spend two days on the Klamath watching chinook, liberated by dam removal, return to streams from which they’d been precluded since the Titanic sank. Fish are everywhere, in numbers that stagger the mind & locations that biologists figured would take years to repopulate. Too beautiful.
November 5, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Grateful to spend two days on the Klamath watching chinook, liberated by dam removal, return to streams from which they’d been precluded since the Titanic sank. Fish are everywhere, in numbers that stagger the mind & locations that biologists figured would take years to repopulate. Too beautiful.
An energy rebound from silence, explained in research on zebra finches' dawn singing: "When light returned, everything released at once. That release – the shift from stillness to song – is what people hear as the dawn chorus." #birds #birding #nature #animalcommunication 🧪
Scientists discover why birds sing so passionately at dawn
Birds sing at dawn due to built-up energy from nighttime silence. When light returns, they release the energy through intense morning singing.
www.earth.com
November 5, 2025 at 4:36 PM
An energy rebound from silence, explained in research on zebra finches' dawn singing: "When light returned, everything released at once. That release – the shift from stillness to song – is what people hear as the dawn chorus." #birds #birding #nature #animalcommunication 🧪
Look what we did, Virginia! "Ghazala Hashmi, a Democrat who was elected as lieutenant governor, became the first Muslim woman elected to statewide office in any state." #Virginia #VoteBlue #BlueWave #Hashmi
Democrats’ Big Night in Virginia Makes History for Muslims
www.nytimes.com
November 5, 2025 at 2:10 PM
《EXHALE》 #Virginia #Spanberger
Here in Virginia, a critical race for governor. Like many thousands of others, I voted early. The polls show Abigail Spanberger securely ahead, but please please please Virginians, do not rest on that prediction--as is true also in NJ, in NYC, today is so crucial. #VoteBlue #Election2025 #Spanberger
November 5, 2025 at 1:26 AM
《EXHALE》 #Virginia #Spanberger
Here in Virginia, a critical race for governor. Like many thousands of others, I voted early. The polls show Abigail Spanberger securely ahead, but please please please Virginians, do not rest on that prediction--as is true also in NJ, in NYC, today is so crucial. #VoteBlue #Election2025 #Spanberger
November 4, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Here in Virginia, a critical race for governor. Like many thousands of others, I voted early. The polls show Abigail Spanberger securely ahead, but please please please Virginians, do not rest on that prediction--as is true also in NJ, in NYC, today is so crucial. #VoteBlue #Election2025 #Spanberger
Well, this counts as an intriguing foraging technique: When the orcas have paralyzed a juvenile great white shark, "they rip out and feast on its energy-rich liver, which is full of nutrients." #orcas #killerwhales #cetaceans #sharks #ocean #animalculture #animalcognition
Orcas filmed paralysing and eating great white sharks in the Gulf of California | Discover Wildlife
Warmer waters might be bringing more juvenile white sharks to the Gulf of California, where they are easy prey for killer whales.
www.discoverwildlife.com
November 3, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Well, this counts as an intriguing foraging technique: When the orcas have paralyzed a juvenile great white shark, "they rip out and feast on its energy-rich liver, which is full of nutrients." #orcas #killerwhales #cetaceans #sharks #ocean #animalculture #animalcognition
Hard no. We can do better than this for the cats and dogs who share our lives. "Competitive speed eating is an increasingly popular sport for pets in Thailand." #cats #dogs #pets #animals #veterinary
These Cats Do It for Glory, Not Salmon. (No, It’s the Salmon.)
www.nytimes.com
November 3, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Hard no. We can do better than this for the cats and dogs who share our lives. "Competitive speed eating is an increasingly popular sport for pets in Thailand." #cats #dogs #pets #animals #veterinary
My #SundaySentence this week comes from Wreck, Catherine Newman's sequel novel to Sandwich. It's a thought expressed by Rocky, a middle-aged mother, about her early-adult daughter living temporarily again at home: "My besottedness with her feels like a gift or an affliction or both." #Booksky
November 2, 2025 at 5:51 PM
My #SundaySentence this week comes from Wreck, Catherine Newman's sequel novel to Sandwich. It's a thought expressed by Rocky, a middle-aged mother, about her early-adult daughter living temporarily again at home: "My besottedness with her feels like a gift or an affliction or both." #Booksky
Reposted by Barbara J. King
Sarah Bays,contemporary artist, printmaker, living in Norfolk, UK producing prints from a small etching press on a tea trolley her dining room and is inspired by local nature....
#ReframingWomenPrintmakers
#ReframingWomenPrintmakers
June 1, 2025 at 5:13 AM
Sarah Bays,contemporary artist, printmaker, living in Norfolk, UK producing prints from a small etching press on a tea trolley her dining room and is inspired by local nature....
#ReframingWomenPrintmakers
#ReframingWomenPrintmakers
"The project that was terminated was on this hummingbird, the white-necked jacobin....I suspect that it has something to do with studying a species that doesn’t fit the binary." Researcher @jjinsing.bsky.social interviewed by @carlzimmer.com #birds #nature #science #fundscience #nonbinary 🧪
He Studied Why Some Female Birds Look Like Males
www.nytimes.com
October 31, 2025 at 2:03 PM
"The project that was terminated was on this hummingbird, the white-necked jacobin....I suspect that it has something to do with studying a species that doesn’t fit the binary." Researcher @jjinsing.bsky.social interviewed by @carlzimmer.com #birds #nature #science #fundscience #nonbinary 🧪
Intrigued to read these authors on non-biological kinship in prehistoric times--- beyond genetic reductionism! See link to paper, below. #anthropology #archaeology #genetics
🌟Delighted to see our collaborative paper integrating ethnography, archaeology, and ancient DNA published! It has been a joy brining such wonderful scholars together in #Vienna last year. Hopefully, the insights prove to be useful accross disciplinary boundaries. @oeaw.bsky.social @oeai.bsky.social
Happy to announce that reflections on our workshop about non-biological kinship in Vienna last year is already published!
@anahcorral.bsky.social @sabinacvecek.bsky.social
www.sciepublish.com/article/pii/...
@anahcorral.bsky.social @sabinacvecek.bsky.social
www.sciepublish.com/article/pii/...
October 30, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Intrigued to read these authors on non-biological kinship in prehistoric times--- beyond genetic reductionism! See link to paper, below. #anthropology #archaeology #genetics
@catsofyore.bsky.social I'm writing a book, combination science + personal narrative about cats, and frequently post about my cats. Could I please be added to the starter pack?
October 30, 2025 at 1:39 PM
@catsofyore.bsky.social I'm writing a book, combination science + personal narrative about cats, and frequently post about my cats. Could I please be added to the starter pack?