Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Zed Morgan Benfred @zedmorgan.bsky.social · Jul 18

Happy to advance another Middleton Island kittiwake project (rapid behavior changes associated with endogenous and exogenous corticosterone increases). This field site provides surreal access to these #seabirds - it's a dream for studying the physiology/behavior interface in free-living animals.

"The Middleton Island Tower". A muti-story, 12-faceted gray tower has a white door at the base and siding on the the bottom 2/3rds but a set of horizontal wooden beams on the outside of the top 3rd. On the beams are white spots that, upon magnification, are revealed to be small white gulls (kittiwakes)on nests. The tower is capped with struts and grating that extend over the edges of the main structure on all all sides, and also have kittiwake nests visible on them (though you're looking at the from below). The background, the sun is halfway below the horizon and casting an orange glow.

The view of a kittiwake nest from inside the tower. In the foreground, a shallow bowl-like nest made of brown dried vegetation contains two small white fuzzy chicks. One of them is facing the camera and has very black eyes and beak, the other is somewhat tucked behind the first so you cannot see its face. A large adult white gull with large black eyes and a yellow beak is standing on the back edge of the nest, facing you, with its wings partially extended up behind it. The wings are mostly white but the tips of the 5 longest primary feathers are black. In the background, green vegetation spread below, with the shiny surface of a small pond visible in the distance, and a larger shining (because of the sun reflecting on it) body of water (the Gulf of Alaska) beyond the shoreline. 3 white gulls are visible in the background, flying through the scene.

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Zed Morgan Benfred @zedmorgan.bsky.social · Mar 13

Nooooo! I had tayra to take the whole thing!!

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Elizabeth Hobson @elizabethhobson.bsky.social · Feb 27

I am recruiting 1-2 postbacs for my parakeet sociality & cognition project! This position is for people finished with undergrad but who have not yet started grad school. Must be totally fascinated by parakeet social drama (there's a lot of it!)🪶🧪 Job ad here: ornithologyexchange.org/jobs/board/s...

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Joe Spring @joespring.bsky.social · Feb 27

If you’re a federal scientist who has been fired, and are willing to talk about your work and its importance, please email me at [email protected]. Joe Spring, online science editor, Smithsonian magazine. (If you aren’t, can you repost this so more fired scientists can see it?)

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Daniel Bolnick @danielbolnick.bsky.social · Feb 6

I usually reserve this account for my personal views; but today I want to represent my position as President of @asn-amnat.bsky.social to post a message that will shortly go out to the membership of the American Society of Naturalists from the ASN Executive Council

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André K. Isaacs @drdre4000.bsky.social · Feb 5

Just got word that our Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Inclusive Excellence 3 (IE3) Grant was being canceled. All 100+ institutions. So even private funding is susceptible to this administration’s unraveling of DEI initiatives

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Heiko G. Rödel @heikorodel.bsky.social · Feb 3

Fully funded PhD position on Paternities and spatial kinship structure in a population of South African bush Karoo rats. Field work in South Africa. Analysis of existing long-term data at LEEC / Univ. Sorbonne Paris Nord. Please RT!
www-leec.univ-paris13.fr/documents/LE...

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Zed Morgan Benfred @zedmorgan.bsky.social · Jan 18

I love that this was all students. Long-live natural history!

Katie Hinde @mammalssuck.bsky.social · Jan 18

What an absolute cutie!! www.sfgate.com/bayarea/arti...

An elusive California mammal has just been photographed alive for the first time

Until last year, only one California mammal species had never been caught on camera. A group of Bay Area researchers just shared the first photo of it.

www.sfgate.com

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Anna N Osiecka 🍉 @aosiecka.bsky.social · Jan 10

#bioacoustics #scicomm #seabirds

My wonderful students/friends and myself are happy to share our sweet little zine summarising my PhD on the little auk's vocal communication :)

You can download the read & print versions here, and are more than welcome to share. Enjoy!
osf.io/h7msz/

A page from the zine, asking "So how can little auks communicate important messages in this crowd?" and showing two vocalising auks, or rather block prints.

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Ologies with Alie Ward @ologies.bsky.social · Jan 13

The mood in LA is anxious/devastated/exhausted/ braced for more.

It's NOT all rich people. Most are artists who scraped together a down payment. And the fire has leveled Altadena, a historically Black tight-knit community.

List of GoFundMes that could use love:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Displaced Black Families GoFund Me Directory

docs.google.com

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Zed Morgan Benfred @zedmorgan.bsky.social · Jan 7

This was one of my favorite talks so far! I love the integration of modeling with creative experiments and I cannot stop telling people about bespoke quail snack machines...

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Zed Morgan Benfred @zedmorgan.bsky.social · Dec 5

Come on, now. Don't be silly.
I was at least six.

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Zed Morgan Benfred @zedmorgan.bsky.social · Dec 5

Oof - multiple typos in my alt-text (can you edit that after the fact?!) but it's unusual (not "usually" as I wrote) at our colony in the Gulf of Alaska. Usually just a couple 3-egg clutches per year (out of hundreds).

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Zed Morgan Benfred @zedmorgan.bsky.social · Dec 5

It's totally wild that these little adorable things pop into the world, look around their new world all soft and warm under doting parents... and choose murder.

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Zed Morgan Benfred @zedmorgan.bsky.social · Dec 5

We have an ethogram, but currently, multiple aggressive behaviors are lumped - we quantify intensity via rate or proportion of time spent. We do single out "neck-wringing" as a particularly intense & vicious-seeming behavior. Parsing out the behaviors that comprise aggression would be worthwhile!

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Zed Morgan Benfred @zedmorgan.bsky.social · Dec 5

RE why I study this: it's a horrid and fascinating phenomenon at the interface of physiology and behavioral ecology - what's not to like?!

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Zed Morgan Benfred @zedmorgan.bsky.social · Dec 5

I currently study physiology & behavior of siblicide in a Pacific pop. of black-legged kittiwakes (𝑅𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑎 𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑑𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑦𝑙𝑎). I'm at a PUI (primarily undergraduate institution) & have amazing undergrads working on projects about the interactions of glucocorticoids, metabolism, behavior & sex. #seabirds

A small black cube (a GoPro camera) is in the foreground on the right, mounted on a black tripod and with a red indicator light illuminated, inidcating the camera is recording. The camera is pointed towards a wooden wall, but most of the frame is occupied by a rectangular clear glass window. Through window, you can see a mass of brown vegetation - a kittiwake nest. It's on a ledge and far below you can see blurry green vegetation. In the nest sits a white gull with grey wings and back, a yellow bill, and some reddish/orange visible at the corner of its mouth (part of its gape). It's sitting over a fluffy white chick with some grey on it's body, a black beak, and a red mark on its head (indicating that it is the first-hatched chick in the brood).

Three fuzzy whitish/grey chicks occupy the bulk of nest made of brown straw and vegetation, with blurry green vegetation visible in the background far below, and a grey strip of ocean in the very back. The chick on the left has a read mark on it's head (first hatched, or "A chick") and seems to looking at the chick next to it, who has it's black beak open with a pink mouth/tongue visible (this is the "C chick", usually at this colony). The chick in front of the other two is facing forward and has its beak planted in the nest, eyes closed. It has a blue mark on its head (second-hatched or "B" chick). The adult is standing over the chicks, but only it's white feathered belly and banded legs are visible (left leg has a silver metal band, right leg has orange, dark green then while darvic (plastic) color bands).

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The Seabird Group @theseabirdgroup.bsky.social · Dec 5

Hey #seabirders! Who's migrated to this platform and which #seabirds do you work on? Let us know! Pictures encouraged 😊

Dr Sjúrður Hammer @sjurdur.bsky.social · Dec 3

Hey #seabirds peeps, please feel free to share what you are up to these days? Doesnt have to be fancy - but which seabirds do you work on and why? 🧪🌍

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Black In Neuro @blackinneuro.bsky.social · Nov 21

You won’t want to miss this amazing workshop for first-time reviewers on How to Write Inclusive and Equitable Reviews, with @reviewerzero.bsky.social on December 4th!

Register here: blackinneuro47.wildapricot.org/event-5883989

#AcademicSky #PhDSky #Blackademics 🧪

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Society for Conservation Biology @society4conbio.bsky.social · Dec 3

Looking for your next opportunity in conservation?
The SCB Career Center offers tailored job alerts to keep you ahead in science, policy, education, & more. Sign up now and never miss a role! 🌍➡️
careers.conbio.org
#Conservation #Jobs #CareerCenter #biodiversity #ecology

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Zed Morgan Benfred @zedmorgan.bsky.social · Dec 3

Interesting #seabirds movement ecology pre-print - no evidence for reduced energy expenditure (actually, it was higher) or increased fitness for black-legged kittiwakes at the center of the winter range in the North Atlantic.

www.authorea.com/users/609656...

Low energy expenditure at the edge of a seabird's winter range suggests energy underpins the Abundant Centre Hypothesis

Understanding how geographic range limits are shaped is a central and challenging question in ecology that has become particularly critical in the context of global environmental changes. While such l...

www.authorea.com

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BirdLife Marine @birdlifemarine.bsky.social · Dec 2

🎉 Data is now loaded on the Seabird Tracking Database!
www.seabirdtracking.org

Home - Seabird Tracking Database

Seabird Tracking Database from BirdLife International is the premier platform for seabird researchers to share satellite tracking data with research and conservation communities worldwide.

www.seabirdtracking.org

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Florian Keil @floriankeil.bsky.social · Nov 30

I've been asked for the layperson's summary of this paper, so here it goes:

Because distinct groups of #seabirds across large regions like the North Atlantic grow and shrink together, conservationists in different countries also need to work together.

Florian Keil @floriankeil.bsky.social · Nov 23

In "Consequences of cross-season demographic correlations for population viability," the authors establish positive correlations between population growth rates for three distinct groups of Atlantic puffins.
t.co/vFyPXFI3yD

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Johan Lind @johanlind.bsky.social · Nov 28

Wisdom's still alive, she's back at her breeding grounds! This season she'll turn at least 74 years old. 🎉🎊💃

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Francesco Garzon @garzonfrancesco.bsky.social · Nov 27

What do you do when an orca eats your research project? Why, you continue tracking of course! #trackingNotSlacking 🌊
New paper describes how orcas catch bluefin tuna, and shows the longest high-resolution tracking of an orca ever!
@exetermarine.bsky.social 🦑🐠🧪

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

High-resolution biologging of an Atlantic bluefin tuna captured and eaten by a supposed orca - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - High-resolution biologging of an Atlantic bluefin tuna captured and eaten by a supposed orca

www.nature.com

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