Whitney Barlow Robles
@wbarlowrobles.bsky.social
Raleigh-based writer of natural history (and its history) 🐍 Author of CURIOUS SPECIES 🦝 http://bit.ly/3rMeLNQ 🐡 https://linktr.ee/wbarlowrobles 🐛 whitneybarlowrobles.com
One thing among many I love about the South is getting so many unexpected chances to collect pecans! Oh, and to glimpse lizards, even on this chilly day.
#lizards #pecans #southerncharm
#lizards #pecans #southerncharm
November 17, 2025 at 7:08 PM
One thing among many I love about the South is getting so many unexpected chances to collect pecans! Oh, and to glimpse lizards, even on this chilly day.
#lizards #pecans #southerncharm
#lizards #pecans #southerncharm
Finally an email I'm excited to open
I feel like there should be a law mandating all school photos have laser cats
I feel like there should be a law mandating all school photos have laser cats
November 4, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Finally an email I'm excited to open
I feel like there should be a law mandating all school photos have laser cats
I feel like there should be a law mandating all school photos have laser cats
Well this CAPTCHA is not exactly orca proof
August 31, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Well this CAPTCHA is not exactly orca proof
If Google Lens can't even find me Christopher Marlowe's jacket for sale, what is it even good for
August 29, 2025 at 1:12 PM
If Google Lens can't even find me Christopher Marlowe's jacket for sale, what is it even good for
For #InvertFest, I submit my favorite #InvertBook ever: Robert Hooke's 1665 Micrographia, full of larger-than-life foldout figures. The flea, fly, and louse are legendary. I also appreciate his eye for house homies like the book-eating silverfish and itty bitty pseudoscorpion ("Land-Crabs" to him).
August 28, 2025 at 2:31 PM
For #InvertFest, I submit my favorite #InvertBook ever: Robert Hooke's 1665 Micrographia, full of larger-than-life foldout figures. The flea, fly, and louse are legendary. I also appreciate his eye for house homies like the book-eating silverfish and itty bitty pseudoscorpion ("Land-Crabs" to him).
Why does he write like an 18th-century broadside?
And in case you need a reminder of how bad slavery was, here's an 18th-century broadside.
And in case you need a reminder of how bad slavery was, here's an 18th-century broadside.
August 20, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Why does he write like an 18th-century broadside?
And in case you need a reminder of how bad slavery was, here's an 18th-century broadside.
And in case you need a reminder of how bad slavery was, here's an 18th-century broadside.
Preparing slides for a lecture on Moby-Dick and natural history be like
July 9, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Preparing slides for a lecture on Moby-Dick and natural history be like
I must thank the great people of YouTube for their unending commitment to humiliating JD Vance
July 8, 2025 at 8:40 PM
I must thank the great people of YouTube for their unending commitment to humiliating JD Vance
What better way to gear up for a tropical storm than scouting for carnivorous plants in the rain? Feeling lucky to live in one of just two states where Venus flytraps lurk beneath our toes.
Not pictured: a camera-shy sundew
#bloomscrolling #nature #tropicalstorm #northcarolina
#carnivorousplants
Not pictured: a camera-shy sundew
#bloomscrolling #nature #tropicalstorm #northcarolina
#carnivorousplants
July 5, 2025 at 11:18 PM
What better way to gear up for a tropical storm than scouting for carnivorous plants in the rain? Feeling lucky to live in one of just two states where Venus flytraps lurk beneath our toes.
Not pictured: a camera-shy sundew
#bloomscrolling #nature #tropicalstorm #northcarolina
#carnivorousplants
Not pictured: a camera-shy sundew
#bloomscrolling #nature #tropicalstorm #northcarolina
#carnivorousplants
Tickled to be part of Volume 1 of the amazing new journal Animal History (@animalhistory.bsky.social). My piece on the history of NOT naming just dropped—with lots of #art, #animals, #naturalhistory, #museums, and #science. Many cute fennec foxes await you.
online.ucpress.edu/ah/article-a...
online.ucpress.edu/ah/article-a...
June 23, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Tickled to be part of Volume 1 of the amazing new journal Animal History (@animalhistory.bsky.social). My piece on the history of NOT naming just dropped—with lots of #art, #animals, #naturalhistory, #museums, and #science. Many cute fennec foxes await you.
online.ucpress.edu/ah/article-a...
online.ucpress.edu/ah/article-a...
I’ll just leave this here as a summary of this day in American politics
June 6, 2025 at 2:04 AM
I’ll just leave this here as a summary of this day in American politics
Kind of unfair to have to choose a book title when the best one is already taken
June 3, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Kind of unfair to have to choose a book title when the best one is already taken
I am mature. I am mature. Say it with me: we are mature.
May 23, 2025 at 6:41 PM
I am mature. I am mature. Say it with me: we are mature.
Today is Endangered Species Day! Let's not forget the species in trouble who have *not* been listed under the ESA, often for political reasons, like this lovely southern hognose snake hatchling I met (and helped save from the road—a major source of mortality for the species).
#EndangeredSpeciesDay
#EndangeredSpeciesDay
May 16, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Today is Endangered Species Day! Let's not forget the species in trouble who have *not* been listed under the ESA, often for political reasons, like this lovely southern hognose snake hatchling I met (and helped save from the road—a major source of mortality for the species).
#EndangeredSpeciesDay
#EndangeredSpeciesDay
Me googling if it's really so bad to have four jelly beans a day so I can feel human again
April 23, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Me googling if it's really so bad to have four jelly beans a day so I can feel human again
Strangely comforted to know it's not just my species
March 28, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Strangely comforted to know it's not just my species
Was tickled to find this surprise writeup in my alumni magazine. Filed under a neoliberal header that is making me giggle: "Output"
#booksky
#booksky
![A detail from a page of the Yale Alumni Magazine reviewing the book Curious Species: How Animals Made Natural History. Review text: "The word 'curiosity' has a convoluted and contradictory past," notes historian Robles in this captivating look at how "the [proverbial] thing that killed the cat" was also, in the eighteenth century, "the key to unlocking secrets of nature." That uneasy dualism is with us still. In this wide-ranging look at four groups of animals—corals, rattlesnakes, fish, and raccoons—Robles turns to historical archives and modern-day scientists alike to show how "this deliberately mixed bag of curious creatures helps capture the diverse ways animals have shaped human knowledge." Her book is about them and us, inextricably together and too often apart in the modern extinction era. "We are damned with animals," she writes, "damned without them."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:a33nnthrizuht2spajpcfjco/bafkreihwzhkvecjie6eiumknmldjgtqmdfwpxstpoxwv55cncfsu7esfzy@jpeg)
March 19, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Was tickled to find this surprise writeup in my alumni magazine. Filed under a neoliberal header that is making me giggle: "Output"
#booksky
#booksky
I just love a good r/herpetology exchange that escalates quickly
February 24, 2025 at 8:53 PM
I just love a good r/herpetology exchange that escalates quickly
A striking resemblance
(Airtight turtle beetle photo—species Chelonarium lecontei— by JC Jones)
(Airtight turtle beetle photo—species Chelonarium lecontei— by JC Jones)
February 13, 2025 at 8:14 PM
A striking resemblance
(Airtight turtle beetle photo—species Chelonarium lecontei— by JC Jones)
(Airtight turtle beetle photo—species Chelonarium lecontei— by JC Jones)
I always choose to believe a great blue heron in the morning is a sign of something noble and good—even if everything else seems to be going to shit
Now off to email my reps again
Photo by @willrobles.bsky.social
Now off to email my reps again
Photo by @willrobles.bsky.social
February 4, 2025 at 2:13 PM
I always choose to believe a great blue heron in the morning is a sign of something noble and good—even if everything else seems to be going to shit
Now off to email my reps again
Photo by @willrobles.bsky.social
Now off to email my reps again
Photo by @willrobles.bsky.social
In honor of the #YearoftheSnake, let's not forget how snakes have been powerful political symbols and calls to action the world over—for better and worse.
How might we, like this lady timber rattler I met in New Hampshire, huddle together in our refugia? What light might we uncover in the darkness?
How might we, like this lady timber rattler I met in New Hampshire, huddle together in our refugia? What light might we uncover in the darkness?
January 31, 2025 at 3:07 AM
In honor of the #YearoftheSnake, let's not forget how snakes have been powerful political symbols and calls to action the world over—for better and worse.
How might we, like this lady timber rattler I met in New Hampshire, huddle together in our refugia? What light might we uncover in the darkness?
How might we, like this lady timber rattler I met in New Hampshire, huddle together in our refugia? What light might we uncover in the darkness?
From Adriaen Coenen's Visboek (Fish Book), 1580. Having way too much fun poking around @pdimagearchive.bsky.social
pdimagearchive.org/images/f33fa...
pdimagearchive.org/images/f33fa...
January 16, 2025 at 3:01 PM
From Adriaen Coenen's Visboek (Fish Book), 1580. Having way too much fun poking around @pdimagearchive.bsky.social
pdimagearchive.org/images/f33fa...
pdimagearchive.org/images/f33fa...
Carolina snow—er, ice
January 11, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Carolina snow—er, ice
I was today years old when I learned there's a fossil salamander preserved in amber. And from the Dominican Republic, no less—these days a salamanderless land. It's the only such specimen known to date.
Photo by George Poinar, Jr., Oregon State University
Photo by George Poinar, Jr., Oregon State University
January 5, 2025 at 1:15 PM
I was today years old when I learned there's a fossil salamander preserved in amber. And from the Dominican Republic, no less—these days a salamanderless land. It's the only such specimen known to date.
Photo by George Poinar, Jr., Oregon State University
Photo by George Poinar, Jr., Oregon State University
#Deskdetritus in this house features 17th-century delft tile, an errant fish skin (as those who know me won't be surprised), and coral
December 30, 2024 at 1:43 PM
#Deskdetritus in this house features 17th-century delft tile, an errant fish skin (as those who know me won't be surprised), and coral