Raf De Bont 🟥

Today IUCN has officially declared the Slender-billed Curlew extinct, marking the first known global extinction of a formerly widespread migratory bird species whose range included mainland Europe, North Africa, and West Asia.

Read more here ⬇️
www.unep-aewa.org/fr/node/6632

Well, I read it in Richard W. Burkhardt's 636 page long history of ethology 😊

Just read that the doctoral thesis of Nobel Prize-winning ethologist Niko Tinbergen was 32 pages long. Efficient.

De Vlaamse hamstercoach, de favoriete pispaal van rechts, bestaat al lang niet meer: “Intussen is het beestje hier nagenoeg uitgestorven” Onder meer Vlaams Belang-voorzitter Tom Van Grieken blijft uithalen naar de “hamstercoach”, als symbool van een Vlaamse regering die haar prioriteiten niet op orde heeft. In werkelijkheid is de functie allang geschrapt en werd Vlaanderen onlangs nog veroordeeld omdat ze de wilde hamster, een Europees bedreigde diersoort, niet genoeg heeft beschermd.

Not so long ago, I wrote about the history of human interactions with (wild) hamsters.
A coda in the news today: the Flemish populist right makes the (no longer existing) “hamster coaches” a culture-war target - seemingly to discredit wider biodiversity efforts.
www.standaard.be/politiek/de-...

Een prettige samenwerking tussen de binnenstadsfaculteiten ook.

@fasosmaastricht.bsky.social is mooi vertegenwoordigd op het Weekend van de Wetenschap!

Poster depicting an owl hunting gerbils in a field, juxtaposed with an image of the zoonotic cycle of plague. Arrows connect a rat with fleas, and a man sleeping in a bed. The image reads 'Friend of the Farmer Conserve Owls'.

I am thrilled to announce that I have been awarded a Wellcome Trust Career Development Grant. Over the next five years I'll be directing the research project "Conserving Global Health: Biodiversity Protection and the Prehistory of Planetary Health".

Congrats, Jules! Sounds super-exciting!

My neighbors' red maple. Although considered highly adaptable, this one individual has been suffering under increasingly hot and dry summers. Still, every October, it is my favorite non-native species.

For those interested in a history of science take on Goodall's work: Robert Kohler has a great chapter on her in his book Inside Science.

Jane Goodall, world-renowned primatologist, dies aged 91 Jane Goodall Institute says ‘tireless advocate’ for natural world died in California during US speaking tour

RIP Jane Goodall — she forever transformed what it means to do fieldwork.
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

"The report stresses that climate change and environmental degradation pose a direct threat to Europe’s competitiveness."
Framing environmental policy in this way may well be strategic, but still sad to see the value of nature primarily expressed in terms of geopolitical and economic competition.

Makes me wonder what the primary sauces are. Béchamel, Madeira and Hollandaise?

Beatrice de Graaf: Antifa-besluit Tweede Kamer is ‘een knuppel om tegenstanders monddood te maken’ ‘Een schok’, zo noemt Beatrice de Graaf het besluit van de Tweede Kamer om de Antifa-beweging als terroristische organisatie aan te merken.

“Ik vind het echt schokkend dat in principe rechtstatelijke partijen als de VVD en de SGP meegaan met de populisten in de Tweede Kamer, die op deze manier de democratische rechtsorde willen inperken.”

Beatrice de Graaf is ook vernietigend over hun gedrag: www.historischnieuwsblad.nl/antifa/

Likewise Sadiah, it was really nice to meet up! Thanks again for organizing this great event.

The pleasure was all mine!

With some scary taxidermy during the lunch break.

On my way back from the "Planetary Futures" conference in Manchester, organized by @sadiahqureshi.bsky.social and @duncanwilson78.bsky.social
Two days of vibrant discussions on how the humanities can help us understand extinction.

We are seeking a PhD candidate with an interest in East–West European relations (1970s–1990s) to work with me and Aline Sierp. The deadline for submitting proposals is 28 September.

vacancies.maastrichtuniversity.nl/job/Maastric...

Impressions from #eseh2025: a speech by Linnaeus himself, grandiose academic architecture and a quaint natural history museum. But, above all, wonderfully engaging panels and workshops. And, abover all, catching up with old and new friends. Many thanks to the organizers!

Then we must be on the same train, Dominik!

Good morning Sweden! On the train towards #eseh2025

Raf De Bont (@rafdebont.bsky.social) discusses how computers changed zoos, touching upon databases, ‘infrastructural globalism’ and transcontinental flows of Siberian tigers!

Read it here: doi.org/10.1017/S174...

Reintroduction of Przewalski's horses in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia, 1990s. Transported by aircraft, arriving in crates. Photo by ITG, Ruth Baumgartner.

1/ Happy to share that my article “Beyond Homecoming: The Reintroduction of Seven Przewalski’s Mares in the Gobi Desert” has been published in Environmental Humanities.

It is the story of seven mares flown from Australian zoos to Mongolia’s Gobi Desert in the 1990s
doi.org/10.1215/2201... #envhist

Make sure to read @monicavasile.bsky.social's wonderful new article in Environmental Humanities - arguing we should think of reintroduction projects not as a form of 'homecoming', but as 'homemaking'. #MovingAnimals read.dukeupress.edu/environmenta...

Cover of OSIRIS, volume 40. The title reads "Animal Mobilities" in yellow letters on a blue background. Above there is a colorful illustration showing animals and planets on the seabed.

New special issue of OSIRIS: "Animal Mobilities" 🐫🐠🐛

The volume was edited by MPIWG Research Scholars Tamar Novick, @lisaonaga.bsky.social, and Gabriel N. Rosenberg of the working groups "Out of Place, Out of Time" and "Proteins and Fibers."

🔗 bit.ly/amv4025

#HistSci #EnvHist #STS #Zoology

📸🪶 Congrats to Pauw Vos on securing an #NWO PhDs in the Humanities grant! His project: "Narratives of the Nest: Early Dutch Bird #Photography and the Visual Construction of Conservation (1890-1940)”. Supervised by @rafdebont.bsky.social & Miriam Meissner.

Next time it will be better!

This is not a public transportation system.

Leuven-Basel: arrival with a 2,5 hour delay (1:30 at night). Basel-Leuven: stranded in Cologne, no more border-crossing trains today, because of an electrical defect.