Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute’s Post

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There has been so much work in biology within my lifetime allowing us to firmly get away from either humans, or primates, or some small suite of vertebrates being the only ones that actually think and make decisions as opposed to working like genetically-programmed automatons. Does thinking and making decisions extend to invertebrates, too? In a new paper by Logghe et al. in the Journal of Animal Ecology titled "Unravelling arthropod movement in natural landscapes: Small-scale effects of body size and weather conditions", they conclude in their abstract that "movement speed and direction at patch boundaries are dependent on body size and prevailing weather conditions, and reflect an active decision-making process." https://lnkd.in/gFusDi68

Really great to see our new article in the journal Global Change Biology being covered by Scientific American and Daniel Shailer. Lost species tend to be threatened with extinction - we need to find them and protect them. However, we are losing tetrapod species (amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles) at a faster rate than we are rediscovering them. In our study, we aimed to identify the factors that influence their rediscovery.

Ever wondered what it's like working as a shrike research biologist in the field? In the newest edition of Community Unwrapped, Eesti Elu spoke to Helmi Hess, Wildlife Preservation Canada's Eastern Loggerhead Shrike Research Biologist, about her career in wildlife biology. Read the full article here https://lnkd.in/gvuyEFMa AND stay tuned next week as we will share the video interview!

"Despite this meme being funny about the unique animal species found in Australia, it took me back to evolutionary biology (the only history I ever enjoyed in university). Australia's isolated evolution is a fascinating study in adaptive radiation, where geographic isolation, varied habitats, and absence of competition have led to the emergence of some of the world's most peculiar and diverse wildlife. #EvolutionaryBiology #Australia #AdaptiveRadiation"

Our paper on demography of an Ethiopian Hedgehog population in Qatar features in this book packed with hedgehog research, available free as a pdf Nobby Yamaguchi

Our new research article titled “Low retention of restocked laboratory-reared long-spined sea urchins Diadema antillarum due to Spanish hogfish Bodianus rufus predation” just got published in Restoration Ecology! Following our research implications for practice are:  • Site selection based on predation pressure and shelter availability could increase retention of restocked Dia- dema antillarum. Sites with high Spanish hogfish or queen triggerfish abundances should be avoided unless temporal predator control is possible. • Scaling up larval culture techniques and juvenile rearing methods are necessary to effectively restore D. antillarum populations with a significant impact on a local and regional scale. • Laboratory-reared sea urchins should be acclimated in a protected semi-natural environment before restocking to increase survival. • Further studies are needed to determine the optimal D. antillarum size for restocking to maximize survival and minimize resource use. You can read the article here: https://lnkd.in/e5cKTT5h The work was done together with Alwin Hylkema, Oliver Klokman, Jilles Sijbrandij and Tinka Murk

Once you've read the first volume of "The Codex of the Endangered Species Act - the First Fifty Years" (Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group), you'll naturally be asking yourself, "so where do we go from here?" Fortunately the second volume - "The Next Fifty Years" - is already waiting for you. #books #conservation #history https://lnkd.in/gtF8rmqY

Reindeer and the quest for Scottish enlichenment (sic 😎 ) "In the hall of animal oddities, the reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) is the only mammal with a color-shifting tapetum lucidum and the only ruminant with a lichen-dominated diet. These puzzling traits coexist with yet another enigma––ocular media that transmit up to 60% of ultraviolet (UV) light, enough to excite the cones responsible for color vision. It is unclear why any day-active circum-Arctic mammal would benefit from UV visual sensitivity, but it could improve detection of UV-absorbing lichens against a background of UV-reflecting snows, especially during the extended twilight hours of winter. To explore this idea and advance our understanding of reindeer visual ecology, we recorded the reflectance spectra of several ground-growing (terricolous), shrubby (fruticose) lichens in the diets of reindeer living in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland." SOURCE: https://lnkd.in/gWrijmfY

New publication in Restoration Ecology titled "The Relative Effects of Artificial Shrubs on Animal Community Assembly". Extremely happy to get this project published! You can find the link to the paper here: https://lnkd.in/eF7Fa62K