Rachel Larson, PhD

Don’t be afraid to share struggles with other grad students. It was especially a relief to hear more senior grads say “yeah that sucked; I struggled with that, too”. It’s validating to learn from others that something is a ‘grad school is hard’ problem and not a ‘you’re incompetent’ problem

I worked in the scat analysis part of this as an undergrad way back when! So cool to see this work published thanks to Kate Weiss

Rodent indent not self-evident: a case of mistaken identity of the ‘Chicago Rat Hole’ | Biology Letters The ‘Chicago Rat Hole’ is a remarkable full body impression ostensibly created by a brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) crossing fresh concrete in Chicago’s Roscoe Village that became a viral sensation. Whi...

This crucially important and obviously visionary work makes me feel vindicated for having said the same thing last year, albeit with much less evidence, while being mercilessly mocked by the city and its residents. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

The GRFP lives!! (due end of October)
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

You may know this already but cat pee fluoresces under UV light. I have a cheap blacklight flash light for these exact scenarios. Also, when you find the pee, treat it with Nature’s Miracle cleaner - it removes the residual pheromones that attract cats to keep peeing in the same spot

So amazing our team’s work is getting recognized on @npr.org for our successful bi-national translocation of California red-legged frogs. Was super fun chatting with Nate about the project!

EEB Mentor Match Visit the post for more.

EEB Mentor Match for 2025 is now open!
This is an opportunity for students applying to graduate school in Ecology, Evolution, or Behavior to be matched with a mentor to guide them through the application process. Mentors can sign up too!
eebmentormatch.com

On my way home with my fresh-off-the-needles raccoon socks from the best conference in the world. Hope to see everybody again in 2027 in Milwaukee! #IUWC2025

Now that #UWIN has expanded to include cities in Mediterranean climates around the world (SoCal, Italy, S. Africa) it would be cool to do multi-city comparisons of impacts of urbanization on these high-endemism regions!

a close up of a cat with its mouth open and a baby cat in the background . ALT: a close up of a cat with its mouth open and a baby cat in the background .

From Akinwale Oladimeji (my academic sibling): Patterns of wildlife occurrence in urban Cape Town 🇿🇦 - there are significant species-level differences, but most species responded negatively to impervious cover #IUWC2025

From Shawn Fujioka: A plant talk at a wildlife conference! Increased management effort by park staff leads to increased native plant biodiversity and reduced threats from invasive species #IUWC2025

From Mark Johnston: Powerline right-of-ways as corridors for movement of wildlife through urban landscapes #IUWC2025

a bird is perched on a feeder in the snow ALT: a bird is perched on a feeder in the snow

From Nicole Kemon: Bird feeder cleaning is correlated with motives behind feeding birds, with attitudes of care & environmental stewardship leading to more frequent cleaning compared to self-interested feeders #IUWC2025

From @kayleebyers.bsky.social: Based on currently-published literature, we know very little about chronic wasting disease dynamics in urban landscapes #IUWC2025

From Zehidul Hussain: Looking forward to seeing the integration of behavioral videos, collar data, and landscape information to understand urban deer ecology #IUWC2025

From Andrea Darracq: An interesting longitudinal (and ongoing!) dataset of coupled human health & biodiversity data to investigate OneHealth mechanisms #IUWC2025

a close up of a rat chewing on a green leaf ALT: a close up of a rat chewing on a green leaf

From Andrea Flores: More frequent rat sightings reduces the perceived restorative benefits of connection to nature in Chicago’s urban gardens #IUWC2025

a person is holding a microphone with the number 3 on it in front of a deer ALT: a person is holding a microphone with the number 3 on it in front of a deer

From Marie Lilly: Functional connectivity for deer drives distribution of tick-borne pathogens in New York City #IUWC2025

Ready to (almost) close out the all-day UWIN symposium with my talk on white-footed mice! Come learn about the small warm-fuzzies in the big city! #IUWC2025

Which is fantastic because using Wildlife Insights has cut down in my camera workload drastically

From Amanda Zellmer: AI detection tools work really well to catch most target species for wildlife cameras. They just don’t work as well for smaller species like rats/lizards/songbirds #IUWC2025

From Laura Limonciello: A super interesting overview of the state of urban biodiversity research & urban mammal occupancies in Italy 🇮🇹 #IUWC2025

The author has a BlueSky account! @emilyablackwell.bsky.social

a fox is standing in the snow near trees ALT: a fox is standing in the snow near trees

From Taylor Readyhough: Red fox avoidance of coyotes is dynamic and was significantly impacted by COVID lockdowns in Cleveland #IUWC2025

From @sciencewithtyus.bsky.social: Cat temporal oscillation effect - cats alter their space use throughout the day to maximize access to resources (anthro subsidies in residential areas during day; natural areas at night to hunt prey) #IUWC2025

a raccoon sticking its pink tongue out ALT: a raccoon sticking its pink tongue out

From Emily Blackwell: Raccons may be more susceptible to heat stress, given their responses (site occupancy & activity patterns) to urban heat islands #IUWC2025

Looking forward to future camera collar data from @mellamorooster.bsky.social on urban white-tail deer! #IUWC2025

From @urbanzoochory.bsky.social: Mangy coyotes are more likely to occur in cities with milder winters & higher humidity. Thus, mange could become more common in cities at higher latitudes under climate change #IUWC2025

a baby deer is standing in the grass and looking at the camera ALT: a baby deer is standing in the grass and looking at the camera

From Austin Green: Fawning mule deer alter their activity patterns in response to urbanization and coyote presence more strongly than lone deer #IUWC2025

From @testudinidude.bsky.social: cool work emphasizing the importance of species-level variance within bird responses to urbanization #IUWC2025