Bats (Order Chiroptera), like this bat from Madagascar’s eastern rainforests, are important contributors to their ecosystem. In Madagascar, insectivorous bats consume insects that are detrimental to rice crops, a staple of Malagasy cuisine. Meredith photo-caught this bat on her trail camera set up for her fieldwork in Madagascar (read more about her work in this…
Creature Feature: Ghost Shark
If you were to hand a toddler a crayon and ask them to draw a shark, chances are you might end up getting something that resembles the ghost shark! First caught on film in 2016, this creepy critter has been eluding the paparazzi for decades. Confusingly, ghost sharks, as they are colloquially called, are not…
Field Notes: Cattle Grazing is AMAZING!
I arrive at my beautiful field site in the Sierra Foothills a couple days before it begins. I help the folks that work at the research station move my willing subjects, adult female cows, close to where I will be conducting my assessments. I’m reminded that moving cows (or really any field work involving animals) takes longer…
Field Frame Friday: Horsin’ Around
This lanky boy is a quarter horse foal born at the UC Davis Horse Barn. Foals are able to stand within hours of birth, and some of their first directed behaviors appear towards their mother, including nuzzling and nursing. [Photo and caption by Isabelle McDonald-Gilmartin] Reference: Grogan, E. H., & McDonnell, S. M. (2005). Mare…
Sunday Sketch: An eggcellent bird
Check out this fun fact about chickens!
Field Frame Friday: Snake is king
The California kingsnake (Lampropeltis californiae) is a wide-foraging generalist predator which feeds on a variety of prey items including small mammals, lizards, birds, and even other snakes. Though this species is broadly, anecdotally known for preying on venomous rattlesnakes, recent studies highlight dietary composition reflective of seasonal and geographically available prey [1]. In the photo,…
Creature Feature: Saiga Antelope
The saiga antelope, also known as Mongolian saiga (Saiga tatarica), is a little-known species of antelope, recognizable by its distinctive facial features. While saiga antelope once inhabited Mongolia, the extant (i.e. current) populations of saiga antelope live in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and a small part of Russia. These antelope once ranged from France all the way…
Sunday Sketch: The uncanny Coati
Check out this fun fact about the cool coati!
Field Notes: Maybe She’s Born With It, Maybe It’s a Combination of Nature and Nurture.
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…
Field Frame Friday: Confetti Heads for Science
Sometimes the smallest changes can make the biggest difference in research! In rehabilitation, elephant seals get these nifty “hat tags” so that when there are a lot of seals in one pen, we can easily identify who is who with minimal disturbance (they like to sleep all piled together, and being sick, they like to…
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