Andrew Iwaniuk
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evoneuro.bsky.social
Andrew Iwaniuk
@evoneuro.bsky.social
neurobiologist, ornithologist, scruffy looking nerfherder, social distancing since 1974, Canadian in Alberta, Treaty 7 lands
🇨🇦 🇦🇺 🧪🪶🧠 stuff
open access link for our book: https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/6000/Bird-Brains-and-BehaviorA-Synthesis
It's a spin on a talk I gave at Cambridge in November to a birding group. That one was lots of birds. This one ends with emphasizing the importance of blue sky research generally and then some specific benefits to the local community.
February 2, 2026 at 4:13 AM
Yep. Especially with it affecting working holiday visas. Good luck attracting workers from 🇬🇧 🇦🇺 🇳🇿 and EU when they don’t get healthcare coverage.

And for anyone who doesn’t know, our hospitals and clinics rarely know what to do with patients not covered by AHS
February 2, 2026 at 12:17 AM
Can’t wait to see how this pans out for multiple industries that have become dependent on temporary foreign workers in Alberta.
February 1, 2026 at 11:59 PM
Reposted by Andrew Iwaniuk
I don't think a lot of Albertans understand that when you have insurance, you still get the FULL bill. And you're on the hook for the FULL bill. You don't know what your insurance company will do about it. There are fights. It's a very stressful experience.

They've never seen a bill at all.
February 1, 2026 at 8:31 PM
It’s fewer people than what showed up to support the “Coutts boys”. 🤣
January 31, 2026 at 11:26 PM
In Alberta, there is ongoing rhetoric about how we need to provide more opportunities for hunters. This is because hunting participation is in decline. The reason for the decline is complex, but land access, widespread ATV use on public lands, and stupid human behaviour are all contributing factors.
January 31, 2026 at 7:44 PM
I will support both proposals if someone will hire me outside of Alberta. I admit that I made the wrong choice in 2008 to move here. My options were AB, MB and NS with the aim of not staying here more than 5 years.

In hindsight we should have never left Australia in 2003.
January 31, 2026 at 3:06 PM
The owls that don’t make it are the ones we have in our collection from both 🇦🇺 and 🇨🇦. Here in western 🇨🇦 we get a lot of large owls hit by cars in winter and very few of them recover. The museum doesn’t want them so at least with us using them their lives aren’t completely wasted
January 31, 2026 at 3:13 AM
We are currently sorting out export permits for some Aussie parrots from ANU. I do have boobook owl brains from my PhD courtesy of Healesville Sanctuary vets. But more Ninox would be great. I will ask a colleague at UQ if he has space to store them for a bit and coordinate export permits.
January 31, 2026 at 2:40 AM
Anyone in MB want to hire a middle aged neurobiologist? I have a lot of committee experience, good teaching evaluations, am a productive researcher, and I enjoy weather below -20.
January 31, 2026 at 2:05 AM