April 8th's Conservation Cafe with Dr. Sandra Klemet-N'Guessan will blend multilingualism, Indigenous knowledge systems, and social-ecology. Join us at 7:30pm at the Publican for some great stories of conservation in action. Free, as always, with a cash bar 🥂💬🐟

Summer is coming and with it, some less-than-charismatic fauna. Join us + Trent's own Dr. David Beresford on Tues the 11th for the science of the pesky flies that can so define time at the lake. The talk starts at 7:30pm and, as always, is free (with a cash bar on site).

We're back in February for more conservation science! Join Dr. Mark Ridgway for the scoop on Algonquin Park lake fish. There's more going on beneath the waters than we thought!

Next week's pub talk is salty! We'll hear from Dr. Stephanie Melles on the evolving science of road salt & lake ecosystems, with a particular look at the tiny but mighty parts of that food web: zooplankton. Do they like it briny? If not, how do we hold the salt? Join us at 7:30, Jan 7 @ the Publican

Let's end on a high note though: parasitic castration. Sacculuna barnacles attach themselves to history crabs, taking over its hormonal machinery to care for its own young. Only female crabs will do, so if a barnacles finds a male, it'll feminize him. That's complicated parenting!

True parasites, however, always get other species to do the work for them. Cowbirds are a local example, but Cuckoos are of course most famous to this end. (They're even skilled egg mimics! Could you spot the difference?)

So why not get cooperative? Greater Anis pool together and nest in groups. This helps with the shortage of nest sites, but doesn't give much in the way of active care (cool birds tho!).

In fact, you can catch us tonight with a fascinating look at cuckoos! How do bird brood parasites offload the work of parenting? Dr. Alexander Mills will give us the scoop, starting at 7:30 (though do come a little earlier to guarantee yourself a seat). If you can't make it, we'll skeet it out here.