It's #TransDayOfVisibility! Feels weird to post about it this year considering how visible I've had to become to drive my fundraising.

Being visible is a mixture of joy and absolute terror but, more than anything else, it's necessary for me right now 🏳️‍⚧️

I'm building an intro to R course to help students get up to speed on the basics. It's called 'R for Nervous Humans'. Modules 1-4 are up now. No interactivity though, for reasons. Feedback welcomed.

arcaravaggi.github.io/r-for-nervou...

#statistics #rstats

Awesome. Thanks. :)

Beware survivorship bias in advice on science careers For objective careers advice, talk to those who left science as well as those who stayed.

I’m not sure if I ever shared on Bluesky this article we wrote on how almost everyone giving career advice is susceptible to survivorship bias, but I think it was good and you should read it

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

I really want to get more involved on here but it's been a long time since I was consistently active. Since Twitter fell, really. Recommendations for follows, etc., would be much appreciated.

A google AI search result. Text with a photo of a jaguar. Text reads "A "Caravaggi snare" refers to a modified foot snare trap developed by researcher Anthony Caravaggi and his colleagues for capturing large carnivores like jaguars and cougars. It is a specific type of trap used in wildlife research for collecting biological samples and fitting animals with tracking collars, consisting of a thrower system, a holding system, and a monitoring system"

Gotta love AI sometimes. I was looking for the URL for one of my papers (a commentary on reporting ethics for live capture studies) and Google told me this:

📌Welcome to the bat-feed! A place for posts by bat-scientists, ecologists, photographers etc.

DM me to ask to be added as a contributor. Then use the 🦇 emoji for posts you want to show up in the feed. Rules in the next post:

bsky.app/profile/did:...

Decoding Owl Calls: Refining Occupancy Inference From Passive Acoustic Monitoring | doi.org/10.1002/ece3... | Ecology and Evolution | #ornithology #RaptorResearch 🪶

Let’s set aside the question of whether these edited animals *are* the species they’re claimed to be - what possible argument would there BE for releasing them into a wild that isn’t the ecosystem they went extinct from? It would likely be condemning behaviorally-unequipped animals to slow death.

I've had quite a few students try to use ChatGPT to do their stats but there were serious errors in literally every instance because they didn't know how to do the stats and coding in the first place. I still plan to teach R and stats, supported with the supervised and informed use of AI.

Come and have fun with me!
#seabirds

Pine Marten reintroduced to Exmoor Pine Marten has returned to Exmoor NP after an absence of more than a century. Nine females and 10 males were released during September 2025 at secret locations owned by the National Trust and Forestry England. The releases mark the return of an animal which was once common locally but lost due to hunting and the decline of its favoured woodland habitat. The Pine Martens were sourced from healthy wild populations in north-west Scotland.

Pine Marten has returned to Exmoor NP after an absence of more than a century:

JOB ALERT: We have an exciting Senior Research Assistant post available for a project tracking predators and prey simultaneously starting early 2026. We need someone with experience tagging adult raptors or wader chicks. This you? app.vacancy-filler.co.uk/salescrm/Car...

Greater noctule bats prey on and consume passerines in flight Despite billions of passerines seasonally migrating during the night at high altitudes, only three bat species have been found to consistently tap into this rich prey resource. However, it remains unk...

More evidence of bats chasing down and eating migratory birds at night 🦇 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

This is important.

Asscoiate Editor: "One of the reviewers has identified many serious problems in your manuscript"

Reviewer: "The study design is sound, my major comments revolve around more information required about the methods, and a few thoughts on the analysis."

AEs, do better!

🚨New Paper!🚨

Does a wildlife-aircraft collision cause a strike event with other wildlife species? We wanted to find out! ✈️

Have a read:
wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

@uccresearch.bsky.social @dublinairport.bsky.social @atu-ie.bsky.social @thonoir.bsky.social

Having some grub at Chapter with @thonoir.bsky.social. Like old times, but more bass apparently

‘Awe-inspiring and harrowing’: how two orcas with a taste for liver decimated the great white shark capital of the world A decade ago, up to 1,000 of the apex predators lived in one South African bay. Now they have gone, fleeing from killer whales. But the gap they have left creates problems for other species

Wild (non-political) story about how a couple of orcas fucked around and triggered a trophic cascade. I’m fascinated by these sorts of tales, in which *individual* animals, not just wildlife populations, prove powerful enough to alter ecosystems.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Has anyone from the UK taken out travel insurance specifically for #cameratraps? If so, do you have any advice? They're going in additional luggage but I'm unsure as to the level of insurance needed.

Labour’s desperation for growth at all costs including the environment and climate. They’ll fail on all fronts. They’ll be a one term government and let the Tories straight back into Downing Street. This’ll be a very damaging and wasted five years.

Image of a Nightingale perched on a branch alongside the wording: New study Nightingale tracking. www.bto.org/nightingale-connectivity. BTO logo top right of image.

1/ New #BTOScience using tracking data shows Nightingales breeding in the UK overwinter in a very small area of West Africa. This unusual degree of migratory connectivity has implications for conservation of this fast-declining species. Read the #OpenAccess paper➡️ bit.ly/nightingale-... #Ornithology

Early results suggest communities stop logging during basic income pilot project Three Indigenous communities in Peru’s Amazon are no longer engaging in unsustainable or illegal forest activities to make ends meet as they complete one year of a conservation basic income (CBI) pilo...

Preliminary results of a pilot program in the Peruvian Amazon providing communities with unconditional conservation basic income (CBI) payments show that the communities have stopped engaging in unsustainable or illegal forest activities. 🌍

news.mongabay.com/2025/01/earl...

Global meta-analysis shows action is needed to halt genetic diversity loss - Nature A comprehensive meta-analysis of global terrestrial and marine genetic diversity covering more than three decades of research demonstrates rapid loss of genetic diversity and identifies conservation i...

Out now in @nature.com! Our comprehensive meta-analysis of global terrestrial and marine genetic diversity demonstrates rapid loss of genetic diversity and identifies conservation interventions that could mitigate this process
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧪🌍🦤🧬
#consgen #PopGen

I've shut down X and Facebook and I missed my sci peeps so thought I'd try to pick things up again. Throw me follows, engagement tips, etc. and help me get going. Plz? Kthanx.

We often hear about the risks of trees in schools - falling branches or kids falling out of them - but trees can be highly beneficial for children's mental & physical health - and improve learning outcomes 🧪🌏

I'm getting more and more of these AI-generated job invitations via email and WhatsApp. Grumble.

I've since changed the lines in the legend and plot to all be solid. I've the colours after all. I've kept it at the top though as the shorthand into (N, etc) is needed for the overlap metrics.