Jim Wharton, PhD

Close-up of the face of Chunk, a tiger salamander that lives at Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo. You can appreciate Chunk's wide grin, prominent and distinguished nostrils and bulging, wide-set eyes. He is speckled with substrate from his habitat. 📸 courtesy of one of our Zoo educators, Fiona Minton.

While not officially endorsing a candidate in the Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo Mayoral election...I encourage you to give Chunk, the tiger salamander a 2nd look. Who would you trust more to encourage bipartisan cooperation than the amphibian candidate?

fundraise.givesmart.com/vf/2026ZooMa...

As a person who walks around a zoo every day with a trash picker, what would you guess is the most common article of garbage I find on the ground? 🗑️

On The Shoulders Of Giants - Film and Storytelling | Seed&Spark GIANTS is the journey of two young biologists trying to save one of the planet's largest sharks. It’s a story of exploration in the face of the great unknown. It’s a meditation on empowerment, Irish history, and why scientific investigation is so vital to our planet in these challenging times.

Please support On the Shoulders of Giants. Scott DeGraw (producer of the Alien & Ninja Sharks series) has demonstrated his commitment to producing inclusive, conservation-forward shark programming. Basking sharks are long overdue for their turn in the spotlight.
seedandspark.com/fund/on-the-... 🦈🦑🧪

Did anyone actually watch Dancing with Sharks? I couldn't bring myself to do it, even out of morbid curiosity.

Sad that this is as relevant today as in 2019. If anything, SharkWeek is becoming even less science-grounded and less relevant as a cultural event. The fact that they don't even release descriptions of the programs anymore seems telling. 🦈🦑🧪

🦈🦑🧪

Happy Shark & Ray Awareness Day. Since it's hard to find good new shark media may I recommend finding: 700 Sharks, Alien Sharks (before F. Gallant), Ninja Sharks, the original Air Jaws, Shark (BBC One), GW Shark Babies, any of the SharkCam shows. What science/wonder-forward shark shows are you favs?

Lightning Talks: Seahorses and Seadragons - Seattle Aquarium Join us on Thursday, July 17 at 6:30pm PST to learn about seahorses and their elusive relatives, seadragons!

@seattleaquarium.bsky.social Lightning Talks looks great next week. The Seahorses topic has been in the queue for a while. www.seattleaquarium.org/events/light...

I'm really impressed...and a little depressed...by this intensely data viz-driven look at global inequality. Worth your time: globalinequality.org

What Ocean Ramsey does is not shark science or conservation: some brief thoughts on “the Shark Whisperer” documentary Netflix has a new (sarcastic air quotes) “documentary” out about Ocean Ramsey, who longtime readers and followers know is a serial wildlife harasser who also coordinates massive online …

Succinct and to the point, as always, from @whysharksmatter.bsky.social
www.southernfriedscience.com/what-ocean-r...

Duluth zoo celebrates crowning achievement in bear dentistry An ursine tooth procedure at the Lake Superior Zoo proves to be one for the record books.

I mean, kudos to the headline (and the zoo, I guess): www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/local/d...

Social media for fisheries science and management professionals: How to use Bluesky and Instagram, and why you should ABSTRACT. Social media tools have revolutionized how people communicate with one another. A 2018 paper in Fisheries summarized the use of Twitter, Facebook

New paper!

Social media for fisheries science and management professionals: How to use Bluesky and Instagram, and why you should.

This is the *first* paper in the peer reviewed scientific literature to explain how Bluesky works and how to use it for #SciComm 🧪🦑🐠

academic.oup.com/fisheries/ad...

Ranger, the red wolf, sits calmly on a bed of pin needles looking out over his habitat at Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo.

Ranger, one of our red wolves, enjoys a beautiful early spring day at Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo. Red wolves are critically endangered in the US and require strengthened, not relaxed protections to ensure their survival. As has been shown in other regions, wolves are good for habitats.

48 Scientific Societies Representing Almost 100,000 Scientists Ask Congress to Protect the Future of Science 48 scientific societies representing almost 100,000 scientists signed on to a letter asking Congress to protect the future of science

Today, a broad coalition of scientific professional societies who represent over 92,000 scientists are speaking out against the politicization and demonization of Federally funded science and government scientist jobs.

It was an honor to help the Union of Concerned Scientists with this! 🧪🌎

Extinct relatives of #RedPandas followed temperate forests as their distributions shifted w/ changing climate…but that was then. Now wild spaces & extant pops are fragmented by human development and local extinctions which will make it harder to respond to current (and more rapid) climate changes.

There was an extinct species closely related to #redpandas in Washington state?! Known from a single tooth, tho.

Red panda at Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo traversing the climbing structures in their habitat.

The little false thumb in red and giant pandas evolved independently. In first pandas, as a climbing adaptation, probably to escape predators and to feed on arboreal lizard, fruits, and eggs. #RedPanda

Red panda standing on a wooden platform at Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo.

Surprised to learn that #RedPandas have not been a big part of the culture and lore of range states. Happy that the pelt and pet trades are also limited. All probably related to view of bright pandas as good luck…rare to begin with, becoming more rare with habitat losses.

Lovely picture of a stump in our leopard habitat at Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo. Couldn’t find the cat.

"Welcome to Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo" sign in a light snow.

We just got a dusting. The Zoo is lovely in the snow.

Learning lots even in the introduction of my new red panda text…pandas are called Wha or Chitwa in their home range due to their vocalizations. Also, super tired of reading about Europeans “discovering” animals. Aren’t we done with that old chestnut? #RedPanda

Just heartbreaking.

I may do this just to stretch a bit. My art may be story or something other than drawing/painting/etc…IDK. We’ll see. And I work at a zoo so lots of interesting animals live “near” me. #SciArt #NearbyNature2025

I'm proposing a #SciArt Challenge for 2025!

Every month, make art of one of the animals that lives in your area. Post your work with the hashtag #NearbyNature2025 along with something you find interesting about them.

Bonus points for organisms that most of your neighbors won't know live close by!

Orca Tahlequah’s new baby dies J61’s birth was of symbolic importance to the region. Her mother was Tahlequah, who 2018 carried her dead calf 1,000 miles over 17 days.

Thank goodness I don’t believe in bad omens and the like. Not the first bit of news you’d like to see to start the year: www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...

#Tahlequah #orcas #SouthernResidents

2024 featured two pretty significant events/transitions for me. We opened the Ocean Pavilion: an exhibit and conservation program a decade in the making *and* I left the aquarium to run a Zoo? Can’t make this stuff up.

Ocean guy brushing up on the new neighborhood.

a graphic that says Scientists we need you, then an old school rotary phone that has a speech bubble saying "talk with classrooms across the globe" and a bulleted list Volunteer for 1-5 Q&As per semester Get matched with the right teacher for you via email 35+ categories of scientist, from squid to space It’s free for teachers" and then "sign up at skypeascientist.com"

Scientists!

We are trying to get 1000 of us into the volunteer database by Jan 1.

You'll be volunteering to speak with classrooms over video chat about your work, and answer their questions! You can volunteer for up to 5 sessions per semester.

Sign up here! www.skypeascientist.com/sign-up.html

Guys.

GUYS.

WE GOT A HIPPOPOTAMUS FOR CHRISTMAS.

That movie drove me nuts. Why he spent more than 1 minute talking to that guy on the earpiece was baffling. Red One seemed much more believable overall.