Benji Jones

The fascinating link between cherry pie and this bird Meet the unpaid animal laborers who help safeguard our food.

Thank you, @benjij.bsky.social, for making me newly obsessed with this fierce little falcon 💙

Fascinating piece about the link between tenacious predators and how they not only benefit the landscape — but our food, too.

Well worth a read: www.vox.com/climate/4711... @vox.com

Colorado has wolves again for the first time in 80 years. Why are they dying? A controversial reintroduction program is off to a messy start.

Colorado brought wolves back for the first time in 80 years, but now a few years into the historic reintroduction, many of them are dead.

Restoring predators is never simple and the real test is just beginning.

@benjij.bsky.social for @vox.com: www.vox.com/climate/4700...

I appreciate you reading!

It should be free to access without a membership -- but let me know if you're having trouble!

yes! if i could take money off my gym membership or home energy bill i would be LEAN

here for it

Every time I ride a stationary bike I think of how dumb it is that I am literally using my body to turn a wheel and yet the bike USES energy and generates nothing. Meanwhile, using stuff (wind, coal, etc) to rotate wheels is literally how electricity is made. Dumb!

Anyone??

omg thank you. so weird/cool

Insect people! Does anyone know what this is?

(Seen in Madagascar.)

Scientists are testing a surprising approach to fighting hunger in one of the poorest places on Earth Madagascar is reeling from political unrest. But there’s another problem that no one’s talking about.

"It’s a complicated situation: The health and well-being of people along the coast depends on fishing, yet too much fishing is a key reason why the reef, and the fishery it supports, is in decline."

@benjij.bsky.social for @vox.com: www.vox.com/climate/4650...

wow i somehow didn’t hate rereading this!!!

wow, that’s so kind. thank you, and thanks for reading!

Most animals on this island nation are found nowhere else on Earth. And now they’re vanishing. The only way to save them is to put people first.

🚨Just launched: @vox.com's most ambitious biodviersity reporting project of the year.

@benjij.bsky.social went to Madagascar to find out what it takes to save one of the world’s most unique ecosystems — and learned that the answer begins with putting people first.

www.vox.com/climate/4649...

Scientists are testing a surprising approach to fighting hunger in one of the poorest places on Earth Madagascar is reeling from political unrest. But there’s another problem that no one’s talking about.

Coming out of silence to share a story that's very meaningful to me — a look at what's going on in southwest Madagascar. Coral reefs that sustain entire communities are failing, despite decades of conservation. It highlights the need to rethink how conservation works.

www.vox.com/climate/4650...

The search for Earth’s most mysterious creatures is turning up extraordinary results We still haven’t documented 90 percent of animals on Earth

We’ve climbed Everest, mapped the oceans, and trekked to the poles. Yet 90% of Earth’s species remain unknown. The golden age of discovery is happening now — as scientists race to catalogue our planet's "dark taxa"

@benjij.bsky.social w/ this fascinating story @vox.com: www.vox.com/down-to-eart...

The search for Earth’s most mysterious creatures is turning up extraordinary results We still haven’t documented 90 percent of animals on Earth

I wrote about the search for "dark taxa" — groups of animals, like certain flies and wasps, in which the bulk of species remains unknown to science.

Among the facts that blew my mind while reporting this: Around 90 percent of all life is still undescribed. Like, what!?

www.vox.com/down-to-eart...

This is not the year of positive wildlife stories, but I've got one. And it's about jaguars.

I spent a week in Sonora, Mexico last month looking for cats and learning about a creative project to save them — involving the very people that once hunted these animals down.
www.vox.com/down-to-eart...

Lesser Prairie Chicken May Lose Endangered Species Status The Department of the Interior seeks to remove the lesser prairie chicken’s endangered species designation. What would that mean?

We kick off with @benjij.bsky.social who joins us to talk about the Department of the Interior's move to strip endangered species status from the lesser prairie chicken, and other science news of the week.

www.sciencefriday.com/segments/les...

Trump officials are trying to yank this animal’s last shot at survival The administration’s attack on nature, explained by a dancing chicken.

The Trump administration is trying to remove protections for a very odd bird on a technicality and maybe that doesn't sound like a big deal but it's actually a very big deal and signals something scary for all other species near the brink

www.vox.com/down-to-eart...

having my annual “oh yeah i guess i like new york” moment

cherishing it before it vanishes in 30

The fate of this beloved American creature is in Trump’s hands Trump says he’s pro-America. Will his administration protect its most iconic butterfly?

Hi. I wrote about America’s most beloved insect: the monarch butterfly.

They’re not doing well.

USFWS finally proposed federal protections for them late last year.

Trump is already moving to dismantle regs to protect wildlife.

What will happen to monarchs?
www.vox.com/down-to-eart...

just a normal reader email

Oops, we accidentally drugged the world’s fish The bizarre link between your anti-anxiety drugs and salmon.

In research published yesterday, scientists monitored what anti-anxiety drugs did to salmon as they migrated from a river out to the Baltic Sea. The results are fascinating.

@benjij.bsky.social for @vox.com: www.vox.com/down-to-eart...

The extraordinary reason why scientists are collecting sea turtle tears Researchers are hoping they may unlock one of animal biology’s greatest mysteries.

Talked to a scientist who collects SEA TURTLE TEARS for her research. If that's not strange enough: She's looking for signs that those tears contain a kind of *magnetic* bacteria because that might help turtles navigate??? Science is cooooool.
www.vox.com/down-to-eart...

A marine biologist discovered something incredible in a beer bottle on the seafloor Sometimes nature thrives in the most unlikely places.

Need a palette cleanser from all of the news this week?

@benjij.bsky.social has this adorable and fun story about one marine scientist's unexpected discovery: www.vox.com/down-to-eart... @vox.com

thank you!

Can anyone point me to an octopus expert in the Caribbean/Florida region? I need help with an ID!

well i’m officially that person who takes their dog to water aerobics

We got rid of acid rain. Now something scarier is falling from the sky. Here’s why you should never, ever drink the rain.

The US and Europe largely solved the acid rain problem. Hooray! But now our rain is full of something a lot scarier — microplastics, PFAS, and other modern chemicals. And these pollutants are much harder to clean up. www.vox.com/climate/4016...

America’s protein obsession is bringing back cow’s milk. That’s a problem. The rise and fall of dairy milk in America, explained in 8 charts.

soy milk rules

unsurprisingly love this @mbolotnikova.bsky.social piece www.vox.com/future-perfe...