Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Rachael Shaw @wild-minds.bsky.social · 12d

A juvenile kekeno exploring the Te Whanagnui-a-Tara waterfront and soaking in the rays this morning. Guess it got the memo that you can’t beat Wellington on a good day…

A juvenile New Zealand fur seal having a scratch on a sunny rock, with Wellington harbour in the background

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Rachael Shaw @wild-minds.bsky.social · 13d

Super privileged to have Spike the tuatara at our school seminar today to demonstrate his amazing outreach powers. Spike, Hazel, Pheobe and Shorty, the tuatara cared for at VUW in partnership with iwi, have made huge contributions to our knowledge of their species (handled under permit by carer)

A male tuatara is held by a researcher with a crowd of students looking on in the background

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Rachael Shaw @wild-minds.bsky.social · 16d

I am in awe of anyone who has an up-to-date website and news feed for their research. It has taken me four years to finally write one paragraph and post it....

Time flies when you’re researching birds…

I never was one to keep a diary as a kid, and it turns out that I’m not much better at it as an adult! For the past few years this site has been sorely neglected while I’ve been navigat…

thinkingbehaviour.org

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Rachael Shaw @wild-minds.bsky.social · Jul 23

Not to be a cliche, but you really can’t beat Wellington (dog walks) on a still and clear winter day. I can even hear kākā yelling from the pines way in the distance. A great reminder that we live in a city where biodiversity is making a comeback.

Wilson, a black dog with a beard, admires a view over Southern Wellington on a cloudless winter day

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Rachael Shaw @wild-minds.bsky.social · Jul 16

So cool to find out that a population of this small but mighty kiwi has been hanging on in the South Island!

Nic Rawlence @nicrawlencenz.bsky.social · Jul 16

www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Little spotted kiwi found on New Zealand's mainland for first time in 50 years

"I'm not sure how to express how thrilling this rediscovery is for the conservation world," an expert says.

www.rnz.co.nz

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Rachael Shaw @wild-minds.bsky.social · Jun 25

My super talented friend Des Rusk has launched his own clothing label. Ethical merino clothes that are classics that are designed to last a lifetime. Check out his online store here: longform.co #foreverfashion seems like something that a lot of folk on here might love!

Longform

Longform pieces are designed for a lifetime, not a season. Using the finest merino for all-season comfort, these are refined staples that will never see the back of your wardrobe.

longform.co

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Reposted by Rachael Shaw

Nic Rawlence @nicrawlencenz.bsky.social · May 15

Listening to and participating in the worldwide critical media commentary about the dire wolf 'de-extinction', one thing struck me. Indigenous voices, which have a vital role in this debate, were largely silent, leading me to co-write this theconversation.com/return-of-th...

Return of the huia? Why Māori worldviews must be part of the ‘de-extinction’ debate

There is nothing to stop de-extinction companies using specimens from museum collections, despite little Māori support for reviving lost native species.

theconversation.com

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Reposted by Rachael Shaw

Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · Mar 19

Individual variation in spatial reference memory influences cache site choice in a wild bird #ProcB #OpenAccess royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

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Rachael Shaw @wild-minds.bsky.social · Mar 19

New toutouwai paper out today, led by Dr Tas Vámos! Individual toutouwai have specific preferences for where they cache prey - turns out birds that prefer spreading their caches widely also have more accurate spatial memory performance!
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Dr Tas Vámos sitting in the forest at Zealandia, holding a toutouwai chick ready for banding

A male toutouwai called Bruiser, holding a mealworm and staring at the camera

Some soldierfly larvae that a toutouwai has hidden inside a dried fern stem

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Rachael Shaw @wild-minds.bsky.social · Feb 21

I spy a Juniper spying on spiders!

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Manpreet Dhami @manpreetkdhami.bsky.social · Jan 23

RIP NZ CRIs. May your legacy be of a wholesome community that values scientific excellence, the natural environment and the people of Aotearoa.

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Rachael Shaw @wild-minds.bsky.social · Jan 16

The illustrated ‘Just So’ series in @nzgeo.bsky.social is a total delight! The very talented @rebekahwhite.bsky.social and Giselle Clarke have outdone themselves with their piece on memory in the December issue It even features my favourite old (toutouwai) guy Spark! www.nzgeo.com/stories/forg...

Forget me not

If our memories make us who we are, what’s it like to have a different type of memory entirely? What can animals remember? Do goldfish have a memory longer than three seconds? And can plants remember ...

www.nzgeo.com

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Rachael Shaw @wild-minds.bsky.social · Jan 7

It is! But then I’m completely biased at this point!

Rachael Shaw @wild-minds.bsky.social · Jan 7

Magical spot, right around the corner from where I’ve spent summers for the past 36 years! The change in biodiversity has been pretty striking. No rays spotted here either this year, or the orca that hunt them….

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Reposted by Rachael Shaw

Cilla Wehi @cillaw.bsky.social · Dec 30

🧪 #Conservation,#translocations & #Indigenous knowledge, and a wonderful emerging researcher leading this paper from #Aotearoa on #kākā.

Cilla Wehi @cillaw.bsky.social · Dec 20

Historical ecology has awesome tools to explore past relationships. In this case, we used place names and written historical sources to examine kākā distribution & ecology, to contribute to conversations about bio-cultural translocation. Ngā mihi e Fin mō tāu mahi ataahua. 9/9
tinyurl.com/53vse3hv

Supporting biocultural connections in conservation translocations

Translocation is an important tool to restore populations and safeguard species from anthropogenic climate change, habitat destruction and other threa…

tinyurl.com

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Rachael Shaw @wild-minds.bsky.social · Dec 28

The first picture is one of the fledgling toutouwai (robin) from our long term study population! Nice shot!

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Rachael Shaw @wild-minds.bsky.social · Dec 26

No skill involved at all - the weather did all the work for these… Imagine if I was actually any good at taking pictures! The photos have barely done it justice

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Rachael Shaw @wild-minds.bsky.social · Dec 26

Storm watching and listening to thunder, while also sitting in the shade to avoid a sunburn…

Storms on the horizon and a sunny northland beach in New Zealand in the foreground

Huge storm clouds on the horizon above a sunny beach scene

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Rachael Shaw @wild-minds.bsky.social · Dec 22

Very cool to see the first PhD paper from former VUW Honours student Daisy! So lovely to see students fledge the nest to go and do new and exciting things!

Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · Dec 21

Birds have complex social lives; they pair-up, divorce and repair, but we know very little about when and how these relationships form. New work from Daisy Abraham & Josh Firth on Wytham Woods Great Tits shows that divorce happens early - probably soon after breeding
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Pairing events analysed in a wild population of Great Tits by Abraham et al. (2024). Figure shows the different ways that pairs of birds associate between years for faithful, divorcing, newly pairing adults and newly pairing juveniles.

Figure showing seasonal change in association rates in wild population of Great Tits studied by Abraham et al. (2024). Figure shows the different seasonal patterns of association for faithful, divorcing, newly pairing adults and newly pairing juveniles.

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Rachael Shaw @wild-minds.bsky.social · Dec 21

Cilla breaks down our new paper, lead by the amazing Fin Johnson! We took a deep dive into archival and map sources of mātauranga to reveals places where kākā were once abundant. We suggest these spots should be a priority for future translocations, to help restore biocultural relationships

Cilla Wehi @cillaw.bsky.social · Dec 20

Need a little fun as we near Christmas? Here's something for you! We had a heap of fun writing about place names and kākā - cheeky #NZ parrots - and it's out. The work evolved over 2 summers, led by (then) undergraduate student Fin Johnson (on the right). 1/n

(Kaka photo copyright Oscar Thomas).

A North Island kaka sitting on a branch. Copyright photo by Oscar Thomas

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Reposted by Rachael Shaw

Margaret Stanley @ecostanley.bsky.social · Dec 12

Advertising for an MSc student to work on a feral cat management project - stipend + domestic fees for research year. @aucklanduni.bsky.social Working with different iwi & community partners. More details here: stanleylab.blogs.auckland.ac.nz/opportunities/

Trail cam image of a feral cat carrying a kingfisher in its mouth

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Reposted by Rachael Shaw

Royal Society Te Apārangi @royalsocietynz.bsky.social · Dec 16

The Royal Society Te Apārangi has sent an open letter to the Prime Minister about the importance of social sciences and humanities, following changes to the Marsden Fund terms that explicitly exclude research areas in the social sciences and humanities:
www.royalsociety.org.nz/news/open-le...

Open letter on importance of research in the social sciences and humanities

Open letter on importance of research in the social sciences and humanities Tēnā koe Prime Minister, The role of the Royal Society Te Apārangi, as set out in the Royal Society of New Zealand Act,...

www.royalsociety.org.nz

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Reposted by Rachael Shaw

Dr Lucy Stewart @lcsnz.bsky.social · Dec 10

Just so we're clear, aside from the social sciences and humanities, this description excludes:
- agricultural, vetinary, and food sciences
- earth sciences
- environmental sciences
- information and computing sciences
- ALL non-biomedical biological sciences

Ben Dickson @drbenomycin.bsky.social · Dec 10

It turns out that JC's definition of science is even narrower than it appears. Biological sciences have been reduced to biomedical applications only.

Presumably this is rushed by people who have no idea what they're talking about (i.e. JC didn't pay enough attention on school)

Incompetence reigns!

The current (Dec 11 2024) front page of the Marsden Fund website where the tagline reads:

Supports excellence in physics, chemistry, maths, engineering and biomedical sciences in New Zealand by providing grants for investigator-initiated research.

The previous (Dec 04 2024, via wayback machine) front page of the Marsden Fund website where the tagline reads:

Supports excellence in science , engineering, maths, social sciences and the humanities in New Zealand by providing grants for investigator-initiated research.

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Reposted by Rachael Shaw

Veronika Meduna @veronikameduna.bsky.social · Dec 6

"This decision defunds Māori research and researchers by stealth" Tahu Kukutai in my latest for @science.org on cuts to the Marsden Fund, NZ's only fund for "blue-sky" research; features Paul Spoonley, @nicgaston.bsky.social et al www.science.org/content/arti...

Amid cuts to basic research, New Zealand scraps all support for social sciences

Scientists shocked as “blue-sky” Marsden Fund has half its budget shifted to research focused on helping economy

www.science.org

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Reposted by Rachael Shaw

Associate Professor Siouxsie Wiles @siouxsiew.bsky.social · Dec 4

It’s a dark day for research in Aotearoa New Zealand and the ramifications for the country are huge. Minister Judith Collins has just announced our blue-skies funder will no longer fund humanities & social science research and that 50% of what is funded must have economic benefit.

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