Lake Télé is striking on the map. It’s a near-perfect blue circle in a sea of green. Yet it is not this peculiar shape, nor the rich biodiversity of the surrounding forest [1], that it is known for. Instead, it has its very own mysterious monster, Mokele Mbembe. Not to discount the importance of legend…

I came into work, sat down at my desk, and checked to see if my computer had finished analyzing the footage I had fed it the night before. I was trying to train a program called SLEAP to look at a video, pick out the four fish that were swimming around, and track their individual…

Many of my colleagues have lived alongside nature since birth, but I grew up in Seoul, Korea, where people rarely pass a tree on their way to work, and their exposure to nature generally begins and ends with household pets. Although I came to grad school thinking that my interest in animals and nature might…

If you’re driving through the foothills of California, you will likely see lush rolling hills speckled with lots of cows! If we look closely at these cows, we can see physical differences between individuals. They may be a different size, or color, or they may have horns while others do not. While most people may…

Flexibility is the cornerstone of any PhD – whether it be recovering from failed experiments or tumultuous unproductive field seasons. One of the most useful skills to learn as a doctoral student is how to adapt and be flexible within your program or institution such that you can navigate all the inevitable obstacles along your…

ABGG student Isabelle tells us all about her research on dairy cows and their abnormal behaviors.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a good deal of research was put on pause to protect the health of our global community and the animals we work with. While the pandemic is still an ongoing threat, some researchers have been able to safely resume data collection. The field notes shared here are from my September 2021 pilot field…