Alex Courtiol 🐘🦇🦅👨💻
@datazoogang.de
Quantitative wildlife biologist based at IZW Berlin 🇩🇪 / datazoogang.de / #wildlife #ecology #demography #conservation #evolution #rstats #linux
Enjoying my low carbon footprint form of travel toward #ecobhvr2025, I am re-reading some accounts of environmental/societal destruction caused by the extraction of rare natural products that dazzle most of us...
My selection of illustrated stories:
- 1. mammoth ivory: www.rferl.org/a/the-mammot...
My selection of illustrated stories:
- 1. mammoth ivory: www.rferl.org/a/the-mammot...
The Mammoth Pirates
In Russia's Arctic north, a new kind of gold rush is under way.
www.rferl.org
August 9, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Enjoying my low carbon footprint form of travel toward #ecobhvr2025, I am re-reading some accounts of environmental/societal destruction caused by the extraction of rare natural products that dazzle most of us...
My selection of illustrated stories:
- 1. mammoth ivory: www.rferl.org/a/the-mammot...
My selection of illustrated stories:
- 1. mammoth ivory: www.rferl.org/a/the-mammot...
Just boarded a train with my bike in Berlin. If all goes smoothly I should reach Montpellier within 21 hours, with plenty of time before the launch of #ecobhvr2025. Only one change in Paris... So, time to unpack the laptop and check my slides (perhaps after an episode of Wednesday #2...).
August 8, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Just boarded a train with my bike in Berlin. If all goes smoothly I should reach Montpellier within 21 hours, with plenty of time before the launch of #ecobhvr2025. Only one change in Paris... So, time to unpack the laptop and check my slides (perhaps after an episode of Wednesday #2...).
I have just read the Anti-Autocracy Handbook and I think everyone else should too:
sks.to/autocracy
Thanks to @lewan.bsky.social and others for putting this together!!
sks.to/autocracy
Thanks to @lewan.bsky.social and others for putting this together!!
The Anti-Autocracy Handbook: A Scholars' Guide to Navigating Democratic Backsliding
The Anti-Autocracy Handbook is a call to action, resilience, and collective defence of democracy, truth, and academic freedom in the face of mounting authoritarianism. It tries to provide guidance to ...
sks.to
July 12, 2025 at 8:42 AM
I have just read the Anti-Autocracy Handbook and I think everyone else should too:
sks.to/autocracy
Thanks to @lewan.bsky.social and others for putting this together!!
sks.to/autocracy
Thanks to @lewan.bsky.social and others for putting this together!!
😱😱😱
We are delighted to introduce the first three keynote speakers
Emmanuelle Porcher cesco.mnhn.fr/fr/annuaire/...
Alexandre Courtiol www.izw-berlin.de/en/alex-cour...
Emily Shepard www.swansea.ac.uk/staff/e.l.c....
➡️For more details on their research ecobhvr2025.sciencesconf.org?lang=en
More to come!
Emmanuelle Porcher cesco.mnhn.fr/fr/annuaire/...
Alexandre Courtiol www.izw-berlin.de/en/alex-cour...
Emily Shepard www.swansea.ac.uk/staff/e.l.c....
➡️For more details on their research ecobhvr2025.sciencesconf.org?lang=en
More to come!
June 15, 2025 at 3:08 PM
😱😱😱
I just wrote a tutorial about how to use #Rstats & RStudio using a container system (podman): gist.github.com/courtiol/ce0...
I did this for myself (a linux user), but it may be useful to others too.
Let me know what you think of it.
I did this for myself (a linux user), but it may be useful to others too.
Let me know what you think of it.
using R & Rstudio using podman.md
GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.
gist.github.com
May 18, 2025 at 8:49 AM
I just wrote a tutorial about how to use #Rstats & RStudio using a container system (podman): gist.github.com/courtiol/ce0...
I did this for myself (a linux user), but it may be useful to others too.
Let me know what you think of it.
I did this for myself (a linux user), but it may be useful to others too.
Let me know what you think of it.
Do Spix's macaws really behave as they do in the animated films Rio? To find out, read our new preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
May 9, 2025 at 7:23 AM
Do Spix's macaws really behave as they do in the animated films Rio? To find out, read our new preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Our paper on how climate change impacts bat hibernation is out🎉 It was a long journey paved with many desk rejections despite a huge amount of work put in collecting and analysing the data, but we are proud of the result and very happy with the one journal that did review it: doi.org/10.1111/ele....
Shorter and Warmer Winters Expand the Hibernation Area of Bats in Europe
Our study pioneers a methodology integrating empirical physiology measurements with climate models, enabling accurate predictions of the distribution of hibernating animals under projected climate ch....
doi.org
May 5, 2025 at 8:53 AM
Our paper on how climate change impacts bat hibernation is out🎉 It was a long journey paved with many desk rejections despite a huge amount of work put in collecting and analysing the data, but we are proud of the result and very happy with the one journal that did review it: doi.org/10.1111/ele....
Working in or with Marine Protected Areas?🌊
We need your help! In this video, Christine Ward-Paige, introduces our workforce survey:
youtu.be/M3Nm5KuyN_Q?...
This is an effort involving Blue Nature Alliance, MCI, IUCN, @rewildorg.bsky.social, Leibniz-IZW and others.
Please share!!
We need your help! In this video, Christine Ward-Paige, introduces our workforce survey:
youtu.be/M3Nm5KuyN_Q?...
This is an effort involving Blue Nature Alliance, MCI, IUCN, @rewildorg.bsky.social, Leibniz-IZW and others.
Please share!!
MPA Workforce Study 2025 — Overview | 🌊eOceans®🦀
YouTube video by eOceans
youtu.be
April 29, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Working in or with Marine Protected Areas?🌊
We need your help! In this video, Christine Ward-Paige, introduces our workforce survey:
youtu.be/M3Nm5KuyN_Q?...
This is an effort involving Blue Nature Alliance, MCI, IUCN, @rewildorg.bsky.social, Leibniz-IZW and others.
Please share!!
We need your help! In this video, Christine Ward-Paige, introduces our workforce survey:
youtu.be/M3Nm5KuyN_Q?...
This is an effort involving Blue Nature Alliance, MCI, IUCN, @rewildorg.bsky.social, Leibniz-IZW and others.
Please share!!
Our paper on ducks in the city is out! Using 16 yrs of data (>1000 breeding events) collected by NABU Berlin (berlin.nabu.de), we looked at why many ducks nest on buildings. The landscape doesn't matter much, it's more an individual choice and the appeal of the breeding site: doi.org/10.1093/jue/...
Breeding site fidelity in the concrete jungle: implications for the management of urban mallards
Abstract. Understanding the selection of breeding sites in cities is key for the effective management of urban bird populations. We analysed 16 years of da
doi.org
January 12, 2025 at 9:55 AM
Our paper on ducks in the city is out! Using 16 yrs of data (>1000 breeding events) collected by NABU Berlin (berlin.nabu.de), we looked at why many ducks nest on buildings. The landscape doesn't matter much, it's more an individual choice and the appeal of the breeding site: doi.org/10.1093/jue/...
Anonymizing an #rstats 📦 for a submission to Methods in Eco Evo, I replaced names in DESCRIPTION, README, vignettes, doc... But calling packageDescription("pkg.tar.gz") revealed that the computer name is used as metadata 🤨
Solution: build your tar.gz in a terminal using R CMD build --user=anonymous
Solution: build your tar.gz in a terminal using R CMD build --user=anonymous
December 2, 2024 at 7:11 AM
Anonymizing an #rstats 📦 for a submission to Methods in Eco Evo, I replaced names in DESCRIPTION, README, vignettes, doc... But calling packageDescription("pkg.tar.gz") revealed that the computer name is used as metadata 🤨
Solution: build your tar.gz in a terminal using R CMD build --user=anonymous
Solution: build your tar.gz in a terminal using R CMD build --user=anonymous
Landed in Budapest. About to spend a week with the Finnish national team of horseback archery! 🏹🐴🇫🇮
July 8, 2024 at 3:44 PM
Landed in Budapest. About to spend a week with the Finnish national team of horseback archery! 🏹🐴🇫🇮
Why a growing population is not necessary a sign of its environment getting better?
Check out our latest preprint:
doi.org/10.1101/2024...
-> huge amount of work from former postdoc Liam Bailey, now data wizard for WWF.
It is also the result of the amazing data collected by hyena-project.com
Check out our latest preprint:
doi.org/10.1101/2024...
-> huge amount of work from former postdoc Liam Bailey, now data wizard for WWF.
It is also the result of the amazing data collected by hyena-project.com
Effects of environmental change on population growth: monitoring time-varying carrying capacity in free-ranging spotted hyenas
bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution
doi.org
May 2, 2024 at 5:50 AM
Why a growing population is not necessary a sign of its environment getting better?
Check out our latest preprint:
doi.org/10.1101/2024...
-> huge amount of work from former postdoc Liam Bailey, now data wizard for WWF.
It is also the result of the amazing data collected by hyena-project.com
Check out our latest preprint:
doi.org/10.1101/2024...
-> huge amount of work from former postdoc Liam Bailey, now data wizard for WWF.
It is also the result of the amazing data collected by hyena-project.com
I've just created a feed called "wildlife photography".
It catches posts with pictures that are about wildlife through a collection of hashtags that I will continuously refine to improve the feed.
It was easy thanks to skyfeed.app
Please pin/save and let me know what you think.
#wildlifephotography
It catches posts with pictures that are about wildlife through a collection of hashtags that I will continuously refine to improve the feed.
It was easy thanks to skyfeed.app
Please pin/save and let me know what you think.
#wildlifephotography
November 19, 2023 at 9:10 PM
I've just created a feed called "wildlife photography".
It catches posts with pictures that are about wildlife through a collection of hashtags that I will continuously refine to improve the feed.
It was easy thanks to skyfeed.app
Please pin/save and let me know what you think.
#wildlifephotography
It catches posts with pictures that are about wildlife through a collection of hashtags that I will continuously refine to improve the feed.
It was easy thanks to skyfeed.app
Please pin/save and let me know what you think.
#wildlifephotography
Reposted by Alex Courtiol 🐘🦇🦅👨💻
I took that photo in Tokyo (Higashi-Yukigaya 2002). The birds sometimes install such nests on power lines of Japan Railways and need to be removed in order to avoid power outages.
November 18, 2023 at 2:35 PM
I took that photo in Tokyo (Higashi-Yukigaya 2002). The birds sometimes install such nests on power lines of Japan Railways and need to be removed in order to avoid power outages.
IsoriX v0.9.2 -- an #rstats 📦 for building isoscapes using mixed models and inferring the geographic origin of samples based on their isotopic ratios -- is now on CRAN.
The main change between v0.9.1/v0.9.2 and earlier versions is that it no longer imports {raster} & {sp}, but {terra}.
More 👇
The main change between v0.9.1/v0.9.2 and earlier versions is that it no longer imports {raster} & {sp}, but {terra}.
More 👇
November 19, 2023 at 9:01 AM
IsoriX v0.9.2 -- an #rstats 📦 for building isoscapes using mixed models and inferring the geographic origin of samples based on their isotopic ratios -- is now on CRAN.
The main change between v0.9.1/v0.9.2 and earlier versions is that it no longer imports {raster} & {sp}, but {terra}.
More 👇
The main change between v0.9.1/v0.9.2 and earlier versions is that it no longer imports {raster} & {sp}, but {terra}.
More 👇
Reposted by Alex Courtiol 🐘🦇🦅👨💻
R? In the browser? What?!
#WebR makes it possible to run #RStats code in the browser without the need for an R server to execute the code: the R interpreter runs directly on the user’s machine.
George Stagg shares an overview of the 0.2.0 release on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mpq9...
#WebR makes it possible to run #RStats code in the browser without the need for an R server to execute the code: the R interpreter runs directly on the user’s machine.
George Stagg shares an overview of the 0.2.0 release on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mpq9...
webR 0.2 Overview: R in the browser | George Stagg | Posit
WebR is a version of the statistical language R compiled for the browser and Node.js using WebAssembly, via Emscripten.WebR makes it possible to run R code i...
www.youtube.com
November 14, 2023 at 6:04 PM
R? In the browser? What?!
#WebR makes it possible to run #RStats code in the browser without the need for an R server to execute the code: the R interpreter runs directly on the user’s machine.
George Stagg shares an overview of the 0.2.0 release on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mpq9...
#WebR makes it possible to run #RStats code in the browser without the need for an R server to execute the code: the R interpreter runs directly on the user’s machine.
George Stagg shares an overview of the 0.2.0 release on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mpq9...
Visiting the website of Even Rouault (a core developer behind GDAL and other spatial libraries used by many packages in #rstats, #python...), I bumped into this mini opinion about "Fighting misconceptions about Open source": www.spatialys.com/en/opinions/
November 13, 2023 at 7:18 AM
Visiting the website of Even Rouault (a core developer behind GDAL and other spatial libraries used by many packages in #rstats, #python...), I bumped into this mini opinion about "Fighting misconceptions about Open source": www.spatialys.com/en/opinions/
I just rediscovered that `lintr::lint_package()` is a great solution to check #rstats code in your package.
lintr.r-lib.org
lintr.r-lib.org
November 12, 2023 at 2:16 PM
I just rediscovered that `lintr::lint_package()` is a great solution to check #rstats code in your package.
lintr.r-lib.org
lintr.r-lib.org
Just discovered the root of a #rstats bug emerging only every 100,000 iterations 👇... (coercing is always dangerous, but I had not seen that one coming)
November 11, 2023 at 3:45 PM
Just discovered the root of a #rstats bug emerging only every 100,000 iterations 👇... (coercing is always dangerous, but I had not seen that one coming)
Tempted to measure how the correlation between 2 variables varies over time?
If the answer is YES, you may find my #rstats 📦 **timevarcorr** (newly on CRAN) useful: courtiol.github.io/timevarcorr/
I implemented the method described in this paper: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Enjoy!
If the answer is YES, you may find my #rstats 📦 **timevarcorr** (newly on CRAN) useful: courtiol.github.io/timevarcorr/
I implemented the method described in this paper: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Enjoy!
November 9, 2023 at 8:02 PM
Tempted to measure how the correlation between 2 variables varies over time?
If the answer is YES, you may find my #rstats 📦 **timevarcorr** (newly on CRAN) useful: courtiol.github.io/timevarcorr/
I implemented the method described in this paper: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Enjoy!
If the answer is YES, you may find my #rstats 📦 **timevarcorr** (newly on CRAN) useful: courtiol.github.io/timevarcorr/
I implemented the method described in this paper: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Enjoy!
Reposted by Alex Courtiol 🐘🦇🦅👨💻
pak 0.6.0 blog post about the new (more) automatic system requirements installation: www.tidyverse.org/blog/2023/09...
Change log:
github.com/r-lib/pak/re...
Installation:
pak.r-lib.org/reference/in...
#rstats
Change log:
github.com/r-lib/pak/re...
Installation:
pak.r-lib.org/reference/in...
#rstats
pak 0.6.0 - Tidyverse
pak installs R packages from various sources. pak is fast, safe and convenient. This post shows the improvements in system requirements support on Linux, in the just released pak 0.6.0 version.
www.tidyverse.org
September 5, 2023 at 1:10 PM
pak 0.6.0 blog post about the new (more) automatic system requirements installation: www.tidyverse.org/blog/2023/09...
Change log:
github.com/r-lib/pak/re...
Installation:
pak.r-lib.org/reference/in...
#rstats
Change log:
github.com/r-lib/pak/re...
Installation:
pak.r-lib.org/reference/in...
#rstats
Reposted by Alex Courtiol 🐘🦇🦅👨💻
The new evercran project (github.com/r-hub/evercr...) helps you run old (or ancient) versions of R, together with old (or ancient) snapshots of CRAN.
#RStats
#RStats
October 26, 2023 at 1:59 PM
The new evercran project (github.com/r-hub/evercr...) helps you run old (or ancient) versions of R, together with old (or ancient) snapshots of CRAN.
#RStats
#RStats
Reposted by Alex Courtiol 🐘🦇🦅👨💻
We are excited to announce that Wes McKinney has joined Posit!
When we changed our name to Posit our goal was to unify efforts around creating great tools for data science, regardless of language, and working with Wes is a huge step forward in realizing that dream.
When we changed our name to Posit our goal was to unify efforts around creating great tools for data science, regardless of language, and working with Wes is a huge step forward in realizing that dream.
November 6, 2023 at 7:05 PM
We are excited to announce that Wes McKinney has joined Posit!
When we changed our name to Posit our goal was to unify efforts around creating great tools for data science, regardless of language, and working with Wes is a huge step forward in realizing that dream.
When we changed our name to Posit our goal was to unify efforts around creating great tools for data science, regardless of language, and working with Wes is a huge step forward in realizing that dream.
If you develop #rstats 📦 and don't know about r-universe.dev , give it a try, it is really good!
For example, r-universe.dev/search/ allows you to identify the #rstats 📦 you contributed to.
They have even created a page for every maintainer listed by CRAN, e.g. for me: courtiol.r-universe.dev
For example, r-universe.dev/search/ allows you to identify the #rstats 📦 you contributed to.
They have even created a page for every maintainer listed by CRAN, e.g. for me: courtiol.r-universe.dev
November 5, 2023 at 9:22 AM
If you develop #rstats 📦 and don't know about r-universe.dev , give it a try, it is really good!
For example, r-universe.dev/search/ allows you to identify the #rstats 📦 you contributed to.
They have even created a page for every maintainer listed by CRAN, e.g. for me: courtiol.r-universe.dev
For example, r-universe.dev/search/ allows you to identify the #rstats 📦 you contributed to.
They have even created a page for every maintainer listed by CRAN, e.g. for me: courtiol.r-universe.dev
After using GitHub for years, I just got around to create a profile page: github.com/courtiol
I just wanted to create an organized list of my repos.
I find it helpful already as it helped me do some cleaning.
It alleviates the cost of storing all one's repos at the root, which everyone seems to do.
I just wanted to create an organized list of my repos.
I find it helpful already as it helped me do some cleaning.
It alleviates the cost of storing all one's repos at the root, which everyone seems to do.
November 3, 2023 at 10:28 AM
After using GitHub for years, I just got around to create a profile page: github.com/courtiol
I just wanted to create an organized list of my repos.
I find it helpful already as it helped me do some cleaning.
It alleviates the cost of storing all one's repos at the root, which everyone seems to do.
I just wanted to create an organized list of my repos.
I find it helpful already as it helped me do some cleaning.
It alleviates the cost of storing all one's repos at the root, which everyone seems to do.