Spoorthy Raman

Wolves’ continued spread in California brings joy, controversy & conflicts With its enchanting eyes, powerful jaws, acute senses and haunting howls, the gray wolf (Canis lupus) — the largest member of the dog family — is a wilderness icon. Once the most widespread mammal on ...

California’s #wolves naturally dispersed south from Oregon & are now further expanding their territories, with more frequent encounters w/ people:

“We’re at the beginning of this really exciting recovery … so there’s a lot of unknowns.”

@spoorthyraman.bsky.social reports, w/ cool video of howling:

Indonesia’s voracious songbird trade laps up rare and poisonous pitohuis Among New Guinea’s rainforest inhabitants is a group of birds called pitohuis, chatty songbirds that stand out for their loud, attractive songs. But there’s more to these birds than their songs: their...

Evolution is so amazing, there's *poisonous birds* too but even those fall victim to the illegal wildlife trade

“A large part of the songbird trade in Indonesia is wild-caught birds [which] makes them unsustainable to be kept [as] pets.”

@spoorthyraman.bsky.social reports for @mongabay.bsky.social

Indonesia’s voracious songbird trade laps up rare and poisonous pitohuis Among New Guinea’s rainforest inhabitants is a group of birds called pitohuis, chatty songbirds that stand out for their loud, attractive songs. But there’s more to these birds than their songs: their...

My newest story for @mongabay.bsky.social on the #songbirdtrade in #Indonesia. Pitohuis, a group of birds endemic to New Guinea, have neurotoxins that can cause allergy-like symptoms. But that poison hasn't been able to protect these birds from the songbird trade.

news.mongabay.com/2025/01/indo...

Nope, not yet. Will look up!

Atlantic puffins are perilously attracted to artificial light, new study shows As the long summer days of August turn into nights, a few dozen volunteers gather in the small community of Witless Bay, a tiny town on the Atlantic coast about a half-hour’s drive south of St. John’s...

Presenting my newest story for @mongabay.bsky.social on cute little puffins. These little seabirds are found in the northern Atlantic Ocean. Newfoundland is the puffin capital in North America, so I had to write about these birds, but the story is one of caution.
news.mongabay.com/2025/01/atla...

EU demand for frogs’ legs raises risks of local extinctions, experts warn Each year, the European Union imports an estimated 4,000 metric tons of frogs’ legs. That sum is the equivalent of around 200 million frogs killed to feed demand, the majority of which are caught in t...

What probably started a century ago as a craze has had its repercussions in the wild.
news.mongabay.com/2023/01/eu-d...

The Giant Frog Farms of the 1930s Were a Giant Failure The get-rich-quick scheme couldn't fill the world's appetite for frogs' legs.

Went down a rabbit hole and found something interesting about frog meat!
www.atlasobscura.com/articles/fro...

New evidence spells massive trouble for world’s sharks, rays and chimaeras Evolution has perfected the world’s sharks and rays for more than 420 million years. Unlike the ammonites or pterosaurs that they once shared the oceans with, sharks and rays persevered through five m...

Happy New Year, everyone!

Presenting my first 2025 story for @mongabay.bsky.social on sharks, rays and chimaeras. These ancient fish survived five mass extinctions, but can they survive overfishing?

news.mongabay.com/2025/01/new-...

Experts say climate change is making #blizzards even fiercer. Discover why blizzards happen, how they are measured, and how we can prepare for them. My new book, "Blizzards," is a great introduction to the topic for readers 5 to 7 years old. Out on Jan. 7! amzn.to/4fIiC1t
#kidlit #nonfiction

Latest addition to Mongabay’s Bluesky starter pack, staff writer — & hardy Newfoundlander 🇨🇦 — covering all things wildlife, @spoorthyraman.bsky.social

Follow her and all our team for the latest news from nature’s frontlines:

Thank you so much, Starre and wish you the same! I hope the last stages of the book are shaping up well! I am so excited for you!

Spoorthy Raman Spoorthy Raman Science Writer Journalist Portfolio

Hello, BlueSky community! After a long hibernation 💤 here's me again and would love to connect with others here.

I am a science and environment journalist, and now a Staff Writer @mongabay.bsky.social, where I write about wild things and how human greed is hurting them.

Happy to say hi here :)

A Day in the Life of Spoorthy Raman - The Open Notebook Spoorthy Raman is an award-winning science and environmental journalist and author who mostly writes about our changing climate and how our lives are entwined with it. Her words have appeared in Monga...

@spoorthyraman.bsky.social is an award-winning science and environmental journalist and author who mostly writes about our changing climate and how our lives are entwined with it. Get to know her here. 🧪

A Day in the Life of Spoorthy Raman - The Open Notebook Spoorthy Raman is an award-winning science and environmental journalist and author who mostly writes about our changing climate and how our lives are entwined with it. Her words have appeared in Monga...

Spend a day in the life of @spoorthyraman.bsky.social and meet Pippi, who loves to start her day sniffing every blade of grass. 🧪

A Day in the Life of Spoorthy Raman - The Open Notebook Spoorthy Raman is an award-winning science and environmental journalist and author who mostly writes about our changing climate and how our lives are entwined with it. Her words have appeared in Monga...

She’s lived on three continents, and now calls the island of Newfoundland home. Get to know @spoorthyraman.bsky.social. 🧪

In Graphic Detail: Mouthfuls of Microplastic | Hakai Magazine A new study estimates how much microplastic is sprinkled into your food and the air.

How many microplastics are you eating?
🥄🚯

By @spoorthyraman.bsky.social

hakaimagazine.com/videos-visua...

How to Steer an Interview So You Get What You Need - The Open Notebook Conducting interviews that provide everything you need for an article, eliciting details from experts for color and juicy quotes, and building rapport with sources are essential skills for any journal...

Here, @spoorthyraman.bsky.social, @isobel-whitcomb.bsky.social, and other journalists share tips with Tyler Santora for helping sources feel comfortable and open up so you can better guide your interviews.

Cómo conducir una entrevista para obtener lo que necesitas - The Open Notebook Realizar entrevistas que aporten todo lo que necesitas para un artículo, suscitando detalles de los expertos para darle color y obtener citas jugosas y estableciendo una buena relación con las fuentes...

Aquí, @spoorthyraman.bsky.social, @isobel-whitcomb.bsky.social, y otros periodistas comparten consejos con Tyler Santora para ayudar a las fuentes a sentirse cómodas y a abrirse para que puedas guiar mejor tus entrevistas. #TONenEspañol

‘Shocking’ mortality of infant macaques points to dangers of oil palm plantations For 12 years, primatologist Nadine Ruppert and her colleagues have had one recurring task on their calendar: tagging along with a group of southern pig-tailed macaques in Segari, Peninsular Malaysia, ...

Beside other risks, a new study from Peninsular Malaysia finds that exposure to oil plantations also significantly increases the risk of death among infant southern pig-tailed macaques, @spoorthyraman.bsky.social reports:

Culture and conservation thrive as Great Lakes tribes bring back native wild rice In the late summer of 2023, thick stands of wild rice stood tall and shimmered gold in some of Lac du Flambeau’s lakes. The plant has been virtually absent in these lakes for decades, so for Joe Grave...

Across the U.S. Great Lakes & Canada, there’s a growing move among Indigenous communities toward wild rice restoration that revives the species, ecosystems & ancient foodways

“Wild rice is very important to us because of the teachings,” one restorer tells our reporter @spoorthyraman.bsky.social:

Culture and conservation thrive as Great Lakes tribes bring back native wild rice In the late summer of 2023, thick stands of wild rice stood tall and shimmered gold in some of Lac du Flambeau’s lakes. The plant has been virtually absent in these lakes for decades, so for Joe Grave...

An incredible, hopeful story from my home range by @spoorthyraman.bsky.social for @mongabay.bsky.social. We can restore instead of tear down. Read and eat some wild rice, y'all. It's delicious.

Wooohoooo, @theopennotebook.bsky.social is a teenager! Bring on the moodiness and the wobbly high heels!

Ooh! So lovely! Will read this :)

The Details Are in the Devil’s Tumors | Hakai Magazine There are three known wild contagious cancers in vertebrates, and Tasmanian devils have two of them. What does that mean for the endangered marsupials?

Thanks to @spoorthyraman.bsky.social or the suggestion she made as an @hakaimagazine.bsky.social fellow to update our older features. What's happening with Tasmanian Devils in 2023? Lots. One of our first features from 2015 has an update: hakaimagazine.com/features/the...

So very good. The complete package of writing and art from J. B. MacKinnon and Sarah Gilman. With rats. hakaimagazine.com/features/in-...

Congratulations, Adrienne! I'm so glad I was able to work with you when you were there! All the best with the next phase and welcome (back) to freelancing!

Hello world!

So the blue bird has changed enough for me to not recognise it anymore. So, I finally made the leap to Blue Sky!

Hoping to (re)create a community here.

I am a science and environment journalist based in the lovely city of St. John's, Newfoundland.

Love to connect with you all!