Year in Review: What We Wrote 2016

Anna I feel as though 2016 has been a slow year for papers for me, with a number of works in progress taking longer than I thought they would. However, I am ending the year with a handful of papers either in review or almost ready to submit, so I hope that 2017 will be much better….

Is Man’s Best Friend Wildlife’s Best Friend?

Conservationists love to hate on cats because unfortunately they kill our feathered friends. The solution is easy (keep your cat indoors), but what about our other beloved pet, man’s best friend? You don’t hear much about the impacts of dogs on wildlife and dogs are a pet you have to let outside. Do they ever get the…

The Evolutionary Argument against Wildlife Pets

What do sun bears, slow lorises, bobcats, and pythons all have in common? They are all part of the global trade of wildlife for use as pets. And these are only a few of the species kept as pets.  There are no shortage of pieces describing the ecological, conservation, and/or ethical impacts of having wildlife…

What We’re Reading: Nov 20, 2015

When Do Dingos Stop Being Dingos? Oh the messy, messy history of the dog family. Adding a new layer of complexity into the overarching story of recent divergence and anthropogenic backcrossing comes a tale from Australia’s dingos (Canis lupus dingo). A new paper (sub) measured the proportion of domestic dog in dingos across the continent….

A Day in the Fishbowl: A Day in the Life of Postdoc Stephanie

To celebrate Ada Lovelace Day, Anna, Emily, and I each documented what “a day in the life” as women in STEM looked like. Here’s what a typical fancy scientist day looks like:  

Dogs in Conservation Part 2: Wildlife Tracking Dogs

                So because everyone loves dogs, let’s talk about how else they’re being using in conservation efforts! In particular, how they are being used to track elusive and endangered species. Dogs are trained to locate or retrieve species of interest for a variety of conservation studies. This is not a new practice, in fact many…

Conservation is Goin’ To the Dogs (or at least, Leaning Too Heavily on Lassie)

So let’s talk about dogs! Everyone loves dogs. In particular, let’s talk about Livestock Guarding Dogs (LGDs). For those who have let lapse their subscription to Working Dog Digest, let me bring you up to speed: in the effort to save wildlife throughout the African Continent, a few conservationists have become interested in the potential…