Field Frame Friday: Sea Turtle Meets Sea Cube

A curious turtle inspects a calibration cube used to reconstruct the 3D view that two GoPros capture in stereo. The videos are used to record fish swimming behaviors in the field. This work was done in Bonaire in April 2023 by Darien Satterfield.  [Photo and caption by Darien Satterfield] [Edited by Ian Ramshorn Haliburton]

Creature Feature: California Quail

In California, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area encompasses 80,000 acres of land smattered along the north and south entrances of the San Francisco Bay and connected by the Golden Gate Bridge. To the south of the iconic bridge are 30,000 acres of steep, rolling hills of buildings, busy streets, snuggled Victorian era houses, and,…

Field Frame Friday: Hot, Sweaty, Fieldwork Ready

Taking breaks and having fun is important in all professions, but especially in field work! Kirsten and Jon found that putting frozen Gatorade bottles on their foreheads and dubbing themselves ‘gatorade unicorns’ was the perfect way to take a break from looking for little fish in an urban waterway (above) and have a laugh in…

Field Notes: Amped Amphibians

Growing up, I had a friend who was extremely outgoing, had boundless energy, and liked to take more risks than most other people I knew. I remember asking myself, “Where does all that energy come from? What gives this person such a confident personality?” Bold, confident personalities in people can make them seem like ‘go-getters,’…

Field Frame Friday: Spotty Dads are not Shoddy Dads

A Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularius) father keeps a vigilant eye on his nearby nest from a creek-side perch. In Spotted Sandpipers, males take on most of the parenting duties, including incubating the eggs and protecting the newly hatched chicks, while females provide less parental care. One goal of my research is to determine how parental…

Field Notes: The Winding Path to a PhD with Zoo Animals

I’m a first year PhD student in the Animal Behavior Graduate Group, but I’ve had many different titles over the last ten years: zookeeper, animal trainer, and most recently, veterinarian. When people discover I am a licensed veterinarian, most are justifiably confused. “Why are you still going to school? Haven’t you had enough?” they ask….

Field Frame Friday: Gobble Grabbin’

Wild Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) can be common backyard birds in some cities—like here in Davis, CA! Texas A&M PhD Student Amanda Beckman visited Davis as part of a study spanning the country to learn more about the genetic and behavioral impacts that urban living might have on Wild Turkeys, receiving some help in the field…

Field Frame Friday: A Little Moo for You!

Jersey dairy calves (like the cutie seen here) are smaller than their Holstein counterparts, which are the black and white spotted dairy cows. Jerseys typically weigh around 60 pounds (27kg), compared to Holstein calves who can be born at over 100 lbs (45kg)! These are the two most common breeds of dairy cows in the…

Field Notes: Calves, collars and cuteness

You’d think that looking at baby animals all day would be the perfect job, but it certainly comes with some unique challenges… ______________________________________________________________________ I study abnormal behaviors in dairy cattle (for more info on what it’s like to do research at the Dairy, check out my previous field notes piece here), which are performed across…

Creature Feature: Three-toed Sloths

Here is a species that lives up to its namesake. Sloths are known for being extraordinarily slow, with a maximum speed of around 250 meters per hour moving amongst the trees [1]. For comparison, humans tend to walk around 5000 meters per hour. Have you ever wondered why these animals are so, well, slothful? Let’s…

Science Heroes: Hedy Lamarr

It’s the mid-1910s and the bustling city of Vienna, Austria is alive with gossip about the end of World War I and the fall of the Habsburg Austrian-Hungarian empire. Zippers have recently been invented, freeing women to move about much more comfortably than while wearing their restricting, recently abandoned, corset-bound attire. In a Jewish neighborhood…

Field Frame Friday: Simply Ravenous

Common Ravens (Corvus corax) are famously smart, adaptable and opportunistic, and while these traits serve them well, they can often get them into trouble, too. What kind of trouble do you think the raven on the left got itself into to earn a bright blue tag and the attention of scientists? The tagged raven and…

Creature Feature: Seahorse

As orange sunlight begins to creep over the shallow seabed and scatter across the tropical water, seahorses emerge from their hiding spots within the gently-swaying marine vegetation. Before long, they wriggle toward one another, pairing up at predetermined rendezvous points and begin swimming up and down, tails oscillating side to side. The ritual dances have…

Sunday Sketch: Giddy Goats

In recent years, a popular way to help control overgrown vegetation is to hire world’s cutest gardener—the goat! Goats will eat woody vegetation and dry grasses, making them efficient at clearing a field. Studies have shown they have a positive influence on vegetation composition. Art by @heathertaylorsart, fact by Cassidy Cooper [Edited by Isabelle McDonald]…

Field Frame Friday: Who’s this chick??

A Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularius) chick shows off its shiny new leg band, which contains a unique ID number used by researchers to identify this individual. This chick will continue growing throughout the summer, migrate south for the winter, and perhaps return to its birthplace in the Mono Basin to breed next summer. [Photo and…

Field Notes: Chatting with Cetaceans

Throughout my scientific career, I have mainly studied our closest non-human primate relatives and their quirky behaviors (see my previous field notes here). However, when my graduate school advisor asked if I’d be interested in helping with a research project on humpback whales, I was excited at the prospect of starting something entirely new and…

Field Frame Friday: Turtle party!

Meet Testudo hermanni hermanni, a Mediterranean tortoise present in Italy, France and Spain. Its captive breeding was made necessary by the destruction of its native habitat. The challenge for current breeders, unlike most of the species bred as pets, is to maintain as much as possible the purity of the species, subspecies and, if possible,…

Field Notes: The First of Many Lasts

As I pack up my car on a breezy August day, I take one last breath of the cool, ocean air filled with scents of sagebrush and eucalyptus, realizing that while this wouldn’t be my last trip to the Marin Headlands, this is the last time I will be collecting data for graduate school.  —…

Field Frame Friday: This is how I show my love – QUAIL

A California Quail (Callipepla californica) poses majestically on a shrub. California Quail participate in brood-mixing, where multiple female quail will raise multiple offspring (related and not-related) in communal family groups. It is suggested that females involved in communal family groups also live longer than those in single family groups. There are benefits of being a…

Field Frame Friday: Flexy Fanaloka

Check out this trail cam photo of a spotted fanaloka (Fossa fossana) taken in Madagascar during Meredith Lutz’s field season. Spotted fanaloka adjust their activity patterns to avoid humans and invasive carnivores, like dogs, during seasons of increased human and dog activity. [Photo and Caption by Meredith Lutz] Reference: Farris, Z. J., Gerber, B. D.,…

Creature Feature: American black bear

We’re about to finish checking our bird traps at Tioga Pass when I spot it– a moving black lump in the upper right hand corner of my eye. We freeze.  “Holy–” I say. “Is that…?” I slowly raise my binoculars. It is. Standing on a boulder, huffing its huge steaming snout in the morning air,…

Field Notes: Four Field Perspectives

Field biology is almost always a team endeavor. Field crews often include people with different levels of experience and biological backgrounds—and each member brings something valuable to the team, from budding young scientists to experienced researchers. Going into the Summer of 2022, my second field season researching Spotted Sandpipers (Actitis macularius), I was nervous ….