Right?! The best smiles!

After two years I wrapped my observations exploring Eastern Hellbender behavior and spatial use under human care. Keep an eye out over the coming months for more updates on results as I work through the data, but in the meantime enjoy photos of these very cute creatures!

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Biophobia- people are scared of the wild from nature disconnect and want to strip it and urbanize it to make it more familiar of a setting.

Let me know what other questions you may have! Happy to answer more questions.

Great question! Thank you for asking.

Deregulation- there has been a big push on this admin to strip down the law and government regulation

Short term profit- they want to remove protections as much as they can to open for industrial extraction for short term profit, not considering long term.

And there are lots of organizations around the country with similar pages set up or you can reach out independently to your legislators. Your voice matters and there a variety of ways to use it!

The House is preparing to vote on a bill that would strip down the protections offered by the Endangered Species Act and severely deplete our nation's hallmark piece of environmental legislation. Speak up and speak out such as through the link below.

🌎🧪

engage.nywolf.org/site/Advocac...

I'd also see if your area has a City Nature Challenge and submitting your wildlife sightings to INaturalist, to help support research using those data sets!

For those local to the two project locations above, they cover urban, suburban and rural settings, recognizing reduced abundance in urban spaces. Where access is limited in urban settings, i'm excited for an upcoming launch of a photo idID project on zooniverse! Stay tuned for details to come.

They're such cool and underappreciated animals!! And definitely need our help.

Let's make some science happen in 2026! 🌎🧪 If you have any questions about any of these projects, feel free to comment or message me directly.

Cultivating Canid Coexistence (C3) WCC-IECL's C3 program supports human-canid coexistence through seasonal wildlife monitoring and public outreach.

Are you in Westchester County, NY, Fairfield County, CT, Gwinnett County, GA, or Cameron Parish, LA? Join the Cultivating Canid Coexistence project! When you see wildlife, take a note and report your sighting within those areas via the link below.

storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/592a...

CT People! 🐸 The FrogWatch season is here! Best time of the year! Sign up to volunteer and listen to frogs in and near your home. Join one of the largest chapters in the nation and in just 5 minutes a night help out your local frogs and roads.

Click here to sign up: frogwatch26.givesmart.com

New Year, new opportunities to get involved in community science ! Calling all community members, ecologists and anyone who spends time outdoors. Check out this thread for #communityscience opportunities for 2026. Fellow scientists feel free to add on your own projects to this thread.

for themselves and their team, please feel free to message me! I've got a limited number of free presentations I can deliver for in house learning or team professional development. Questions? Send me a message!

#herpetology

Hellbenders!!! If anyone is looking for a FREE presentation about Eastern Hellbenders or Eastern Hellbender Behavior under Human Care OR is interested in a FREE presentation on how to better communicate about less charismatic and under loved species using applied conservation psychology (1/2)

Only a few days left to comment on the proposed EPA Endangerment finding (Sept 22)! YOU TOO can do it - I submitted comment that DOE report EPA is relying on is flawed, particularly re: ecosystem impacts that cascade into human health & welfare. Pls add yours! www.regulations.gov/commenton/EP...

Today is the last day to submit your comment!

Happy Salamander Saturday from the Eastern Hellbender. Enjoy these photos of one of my favorite animals. They are currently up for potential listing under the United States Endangered Species Act due to a variety of threats.

#herpetology
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Amphibians' migration routines are getting more difficult. These brigades are trying to help Cars and climate change have made life harder for key species that provide nutrients for creatures all around New England and sequester carbon in soil.

As weather continues to warm this spring amphibians are coming out and migrating in great volumes! Sharing two really cool radio shows from CT Public Radio about the "Big Night" and amphibian conservation in CT!

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www.ctpublic.org/2025-04-24/a...

www.ctpublic.org/show/where-w...

The US has proposed changing the language and definiton, and rescinding the regulation of harm for the Endangered Species Act, significantly reducing protections to wildlife and ecosystems. Public comments can be made via the link below! Please share and comment!

www.regulations.gov/commenton/FW...

Free event! CT, USA folks join me and my colleagues for a night of FrogWatching in the field and learn about the diverse species of Connecticut. This event is hosted by the Catherine Violet Hubbard Animal Sanctuary. See the link for more information.
🐸

www.cvhfoundation.org/event/frogwa...

Blue-Tongued Skink laying on a basking platform. Tufts of grass line the back wall and left wall, with a shelf above them.

A red panda sleeps on a platform with one paw dangling below.

A Mexican flame leg Tarantula, with bright orange legs, climbs across tufts of grass

An American Bison sits in a field of snow.

Sharing some photo highlights today to remind us all of the amazing biodiversity of our planet! Enjoy the Blue-Tongued Skink, Red Panda, Mexican Flame Leg Tarantula, and American Bison and take some time today to soak up nature.

Maine Sea Grant in jeopardy after Trump administration terminates $4.5 million grant program The move to discontinue the four-year agreement — which comes amid the White House's efforts to slash the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's budget — leaves the fishery organization’s p...

Sea Grant is a powerhouse for coastal communities! Through research, education, and outreach, it helps protect marine ecosystems, support sustainable fisheries, and boost coastal economies. Sea Grant keeps our waters and communities thriving. We need sea grant!
www.pressherald.com/2025/03/01/m...

Working for Ohio Sea Grant and seeing their amazing work was one of the highlights of my career. They complete phenomenal work, and NOAA is integral to that. Please support NOAA and their work, and write to your Congress people / vote for science.

A screenshot of a Facebook post from the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory

NOAA's #GreatLakes Environmental Research Lab will be taking an "indefinite hiatus" from communications due to staff cuts. GLERL communicates critical weekly updates about the extent of harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie - like the one that left my hometown of Toledo without drinking water in 2014

The Trump administration’s attacks on scientific funding, restrictions on Federal scientist activities, and indiscriminate firing have caused chaos, panic, and harm. We need *specific* examples of harms caused by these policies to include in an open letter. Grants cut, projects cancelled, jobs lost. Feel free to send news stories, blog posts, or social media posts that mention these, as well as original contributions. Please send to WhySharksMatter @ gmail or DM me

Science (and science policy, and conservation) friends, I need your help!

We are collecting *specific, clear* examples of harms caused by the Trump administration's attacks on science, to be included in an open letter.

Can be links to news stories/social media posts. 🧪🦑🌎 #SciComm #SciPol

Scientists as political advocates Science, both teaching and doing, is under attack. The recent US presidential election of a person and platform with anti-science bias exemplifies this. The study of climate processes and patterns and...

"Now is the time for science, not silence." The war on science isn’t just politics, it’s our planet's future & the stakes have never been higher.🦈🪸🌊 As climate scientists, we must advocate & defend evidence-based policy.📄🌏 #ClimateAction #ScienceMatters www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @science.org

FrogWatch Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo invites residents to become Citizen-Scientist volunteers and participate in a “FrogWatch” census in area wetlands. In a collaboration between the Zoo, The Maritime...

Connecticut herp enthusiasts! This is your time to shine! Join me for a FrogWatch training in February or March and learn about the frogs and toads of CT and how to ID them! Then help support research efforts by observing them this spring and summer.
🐸💚
www.beardsleyzoo.org/frog-watch.h...

Restoring eastern hellbender (Cryptobranchus a. alleganiensis) populations through translocation of headstarted individuals We provide the first survival estimates and population projections for building eastern hellbender populations via headstarting. We show that, while survival post-release is low (0.16 over 3 years po...

Also check out some cool links below about reintroductions! Ohio has some great programs going on with different universities studying the populations and reintroductions alongside the Columbus Zoo.

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esj-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

www.columbuszoo.org/raising-hell...

Hellbenders are highly reliant on specific environmental conditions, which is one reason they are seeing population declines (habitat loss and degradation). I would NOT recommend them as pets for multiple reasons. Also a state listed species in numerous states, every individual counts!

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