As an early Christmas gift, @journal-evo.bsky.social accepted @kenstoyama.bsky.social and my paper on macroevolutionary patterns of ornament evolution in birds of paradise! 🦚

Check it out here:
academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...

www.bbc.com/future/artic...

I took a lot of photos in 2025. I tried to get it down to a top 10 but that was a bit too difficult so I have a top 25. All taken in the UK or South Africa. #wildlife #wildlifephotgraphy #birds #ukbirds 1) Some birds from Tophill Low

Come and join me and my colleagues at the Department of Biology, #LundUniversity in #sweden! We have am open position as Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in Biodiversity.

Apply here no later than February 11 2026:

https://lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/jobID:848749/type:job/where:4/apply:1

@qmul.bsky.social I know I’ve previously said I’m grateful for all the times the college has done something egregiously nasty and made me glad I decided to leave, but it’s been a few years now. You can stop, I’ll be fine.

One of the techniques the students learn to use on our #Wildlife #Conservation #MSc field course in #SouthAfrica is camera trapping to estimate mammal biodiversity. Sometimes the videos are more interesting than other times #leopard @uniofhull.bsky.social

Students on our ur #MSc #Wildlife #Conservation fieldcourse in the #KrugerNationalPark met these two fine fellows within about 10 minutes of each other @uniofhull.bsky.social #Wilddog #Lion #WildlifePhotography

A bit of scorpion hunting with a UV torch is always a good way to spend an evening. #HullWildlifeConservation #MSc #Wildlife #Conservation #Arachnid

Onthophagus rangifer, one of the most extraordinary horned dung beetles you might ever see. From a baited pitfall trap near Skukuza on our #MSc #Wildlife #Conservation field course in the #Kruger park. #HullWildlifeConservation #insects #coleoptera #wildlifephotography @uniofhull.bsky.social

Students on our #Msc #Wildlife #Conservation learning how elephants alter biodiversity and tree cover in the #krugernationalpark #HullWildlifeConservation. Exclusion experiments tell us how herbivores affect ecological comunities. When the herbivores are 🐘 you need serious gear to keep 'em out.

Just spent a significant amount of time walking through the bush in the Kruger Park, accompanied by a man with a rifle, searching for enough fresh elephant poo to fill a bucket. Yes this is my job. Yes they pay me to do this.🧪

WCS Celebrates Historic and Sweeping Trade Protections for Sharks and Rays Adopted at CITES CoP20 > Newsroom | All CITES shark and ray proposals pass – marking the most comprehensive advance in global shark conservation in CITES history.

She’s back! Wisdom is now at least 75 years old. Wonderful.

What do you think the primary goal of applied ecological/conservation research is?

1️⃣ <a href="https://poll.blue/p/PuXpIV/1" class="hover:underline text-blue-600 dark:text-sky-400 no-card-link" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link="bsky">Diagnose threats and impacts
2️⃣ <a href="https://poll.blue/p/PuXpIV/2" class="hover:underline text-blue-600 dark:text-sky-400 no-card-link" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link="bsky">Understand ecological processes
3️⃣ <a href="https://poll.blue/p/PuXpIV/3" class="hover:underline text-blue-600 dark:text-sky-400 no-card-link" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link="bsky">Inform management or policy
4️⃣ <a href="https://poll.blue/p/PuXpIV/4" class="hover:underline text-blue-600 dark:text-sky-400 no-card-link" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link="bsky">Something else (comment below)

📊 Show results

Black cat in front of a hot fire through a thermal scope.

Funded PhD studentship available on the way that mating system affects coevolutionary processes with natural enemies. #ecoevo #sexualselection looking for a great candidate spread the word! www.findaphd.com/phds/project... 🧪

This is fascism.

Bedtime for democracy...

The impact of climate change on sexually selected traits and it's consequences for evolutionary fitness

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Genomics and development of an exaggerated sexual trait in stalk-eyed flies

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Join us! 🧬🪰🎉🔬

We are currently advertising two #PhD projects to study the #evolution, #development and #genomics of sexual traits in stalk-eyed flies.

Deadline for applying is Wednesday, January 7, 2026. Get in touch for more info!

I've been avoiding reading articles on the death of James Watson, co-discoverer of #DNA's structure.

That is, until I saw that @statnews.com published one by Sharon Begley, a renowned science writer who passed in 2021.

Yes, you read that right.

www.statnews.com/2025/11/07/j...

🧪 (1/5)

Quote from the late and unlamented James Watson: “Anyone who would hire an ecologist is out of his mind”. I find myself proud to be a member of a group that he disliked. 🧪

Human Geography at Leicester is facing closure. Staff contracts are to end in June 2026; students are to be relocated to other universities, or taught out by a maximum of two (!) teaching-only staff. Other departments and subjects are facing closure, too. Please join the demo!

So given recent news I’ve been doing a bit of reading on James Watson. It’s hard to find anything positive to say about this sexist and racist bigot who happened to get in on the scientific discovery of the century. 🧪