I got new results today; like really exciting results! Results I have spent the past five years dreaming about producing! My first inclination was to post about it on Twitter because I.Am.So.Excited!!! But of course I didn’t because that’s not how we roll in science. I’ve got to confirm my new results in several ways…
Want to Change the Culture of Science? Talk it Over on Twitter
Story 1- A few months ago, I wrote about my long-held view that graduate students should not bring snacks to committee meetings (even if they want to). Then in April while attending a committee meeting a student proudly whips out some snacks. I promptly (put my foot in my mouth by) tsk-tsk-ing them, and encouraged…
Behind the paper: taxonomy and conservation of grassland earless dragons
I’ve used some of these photos in previous posts (here and here), but now I need to post an update. This little dragon is now known as the Monaro grassland earless dragon. I’m excited to be a co-author on the paper, published last week in Royal Society Open Science (open access), that describes this species….
What We Read- Favorite Papers of 2018
Anna I’ve selected three favourite papers from 2018: a research study, a think piece and a technical review. I was really excited to read “Digging mammals contribute to rhizosphere fungal community composition and seedling growth” (subscription) because I’m interested in how conservation management actions – in this case conservation and potential reintroduction of digging mammals…
Conservation in action: videos and teaching resources
I’m a fan of celebrating conservation success stories and sharing conservation optimism. In fact I’ve written about this before. Today, I want to share some wonderful teaching resources, that also highlight some reasons for hope in wildlife conservation. A little while back, I asked twitter to recommend short videos about mammal conservation in Australia, to…
Grad Students- Nix the Snacks
As a graduate student I never brought snacks to my committee meetings. It was definitely a thing in our department though- the bakers would prepare homemade cakes and pies, the I-can-burn-cereal-set would pull out the fruit and cheese, and the coffee lovers made sure there was a very full pot for the whole committee. And…
Happy 5th Blogiversary WildlifeSNPits
I’m writing this year’s blogiversary post as me, Emily, instead of as the blog. When I started SNPits one of my goals was for it to be an active blog at 5 years. So YAY, today’s the day! But while it’s still here (and growing annually in hits), I know (and take responsibility for) the…
The Future of Wildlife Management?
I recently attended the Western Black Bear Workshop and like many of these meetings the theme was on how to reduce human-bear conflict. The workshop is mostly a forum for managers from different states and provinces to gather and exchange ideas on management problems and solutions, population trends, and hunting regulations. I tried to capture…
What We’re Reading- June 8, 2018
Stakeholders Diverse Interests in Endangered Vulture Conservation The Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus) is an endangered bird native across northern Africa, the Middle East, and as far east as the Indian subcontinent. Researchers asked diverse stakeholders including hunters, ranchers, and tourists in northern Spain (the upper range of the vulture’s distribution) about their knowledge of the species…
What We’re Reading- March 2, 2018
Rock Art Natural History Many ecologists are interested in the distribution of species and how community composition changes over time. In the present, we can go into the field and survey for species presence and absence. However, to infer species distributions in the past we either have to have fossils or zooarcheological evidence, or less…
What We’re Reading- Feb 23, 2018
Wallaby Phylogeny Based on both morphological and limited genetic markers, the phylogeny of wallabies was uncertain. This paper (open) sequenced the genomes of 11 species of wallabies and kangaroos and built a multi-locus phylogeny. Three of these species are IUCN listed as “near threatened” (yellow-footed rock wallaby, black wallaroo, and parma wallaby). The authors observed…
What We’re Reading- Feb 9, 2018
A Lion Roars Back Lions have not been observed in Gabon for 20 years, until a camera trap project set up to investigate chimps captured a photo in 2015! The Gabonese government expressed interest in translocating lions into the country to establish a breeding population. One consideration for translocation projects is to move genetically similar…
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