Real Scientists

Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) in Mid‐Zambezi Valley, Zimbabwe: Implementation challenges and practices Biodiversity monitoring and data-management technologies can enhance the protection of persecuted species, such as African elephants (Loxodonta africana), through providing management-relevant inform....

Equipping rangers with reliable data collection tools (e.g #SMART) to track their patrols can help correct bias and improve poaching models.
However, it’s a challenging journey that may require a separate thread. For more insights, check out this piece: conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

However, ranger-collected data can be unreliable due to patrol bias, leading to inaccurate models. 🤔

Collaborations between rangers and spatial modelers can help correct this bias and create more accurate maps.🗺️
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Moving to poaching - it’s still a challenge in many landscapes, particularly in Africa.

Its encouraging that spatial models built using ranger-collected and remote sensing data can help predict the drivers and distribution of elephant poaching. 🐘📊

Co-creating connectivity maps with communities in elephant🐘- inhabited landscapes showed how Indigenous knowledge 🌍 complements geospatial analysis 🛰️ for validating elephant corridors in data-limited areas.

Community voices 🗣️ are key to tackling habitat fragmentation! 🌱

This makes identifying elephant corridors critical. But how do we assess and validate connectivity with limited telemetry data?🤔

2) Most potential pathways for anthropogenic expansion cut across potential wildlife dispersal areas between protected areas. www.mdpi.com/2673-7418/2/...

Our findings revealed that:
1) Human activities are encroaching on natural landscapes. 📉
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Since habitat fragmentation is a top priority threat to elephant conservation. Let’s dive into it first.

We used deep learning and circuit theory to assess land use changes in the Okavango Basin, part of KAZA-the largest TFCA and home to the biggest elephant population.🐘

Our findings revealed that:
1) Human activities are encroaching on natural landscapes. 📉:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S240584402309970X

In recent years, I've worked with various mammal species in #Africa, including hippos, buffaloes, hyenas, and elephants. Today, however, I will focus on my research concerning the endangered African Savanna Elephant #Loxodontaafricana.

Good morning! I’m Blessing Kavhu (@BleKavhu), and I’m excited to take over today for BlackMammalogists (@blackmammalogists.bsky.social) Join me as I dive into my work on mammals, with a focus on geospatial analysis. Currently, I'm a postdoc at #UCSC , and I can't wait to share my journey with you!

Thanks for joining me today folks! Have a restful weekend and, in the wise words of @sciencewithtyus.bsky.social, stay curious!

Give me a follow on Twitter @Science_Miathod as I start my PhD. 🫡

(Basic) definitions:

One Health- human, wildlife, & environmental health are all dependent on one another

Zoonoses- diseases from animals to people

Anthroponoses- diseases from people to animals

Spillover- disease from one sp./popu. to another

So yeah, that’s what I’ve been up to for the last few years…any questions?

My ultimate goal is to understand host-microbe interactions and their effects on host outcomes. This info will allow us to look at individual- and population-level effects. Since everything’s connected (#OneHealth), there can be large effects on the health of a system.

That project is wrapping up right now (trying to finish writing the code between tweets!)

It was definitely a pivot from what I had been working on, but a really interesting opportunity to get into microbiology.

I’ll let y’all know when that paper is ready too.

Me with my green KN95 and barrier lab coat showing you all the bright red plates I was about to streak.

Stacks of colorful, bacteria-filled plates.

Me in my pink KN95 mask and barrier lab coat showing you all the media plates I’m making. So scientific.

I cultured A LOT of bacteria this summer.

This summer I worked on a project assessing human enteric pathogens carried by feral swine with an interest in swine found near agricultural systems.

Essentially:
🐗 ➡️💩🦠🌾➡️😷🤢

Feral swine are an introduced species that have been implicated in quite a few problems in the US (e.g. ecosystem damage, disease, being incredibly cute, etc).

www.aphis.usda.gov/sites/defaul...

I’m grateful to the lab and my PI for all the experience and support they provided to this growing, first-gen scientist. I officially left my lab of 5 years to pursue my PhD and explore new opportunities.

Welcome to the summer of 50-60+ feral swine!

A tiny dark green frog sitting on top of a metal Sherman trap. We were in the middle of a bulrush marsh.

A roadrunner I was 90% was going to hop into the back of the car with me. It minded its business, running along the vegetation on the ground.

A bush of yellow desert daisies thriving in the rocky hills of the Mojave.

The desert and rodents are now permanently etched into my heart. The desert is a rich, unique ecosystem in need of your support and protection. It’s home to many beautiful and strange species.

Warning: non-mammals mentioned

Me in full PPE (face shield, blue KN95 mask, gloves, and a lab coat). I’m giving a peace sign because idk how to pose for pictures.

Olde faithful, the compound microscope I used to look at all of my samples.

After many dissections, hours at the microscope, and more gel electrophoresis than one could hope to do in 3 months, I wrapped up my thesis.

Once I publish, I’ll let y’all know the species I found 😉

For my MSc thesis, I looked at the gastrointestinal parasites MUMUs carry to see if they could spill over into Amargosa vole populations.

That study involved stomach nematodes crawling toward me…nightmare fuel.

Interspecific interactions, human proximity, and season affect spatiotemporal structure of a Mojave Desert wetlands rodent community with a highly endangered species - Mammalian Biology We analyzed the influences of interspecific interactions and environmental factors on rodent community assembly in Mojave Desert wetlands that support the endangered Amargosa vole (Microtus californic...

MUMUs carry an assortment of diseases and move readily between habitats, making them a big concern in this story. Over the last decade, they’ve expanded their range in the Mojave marshes, which are like little islands.

More marshes have MUMUs now. dx.doi.org/10.1007/s429...

Enter our next character: the house mouse, which I will refer to as MUMUs (MUs MUsculus).

House mice are highly adaptable commensal species, meaning they reproduce rapidly, live in many habitats, and follow human settlements.

“Mia, it’s almost noon and you haven’t mentioned disease!”

-you, screaming at your phone in front of the code that isn’t going to write itself

Endangered Amargosa Voles Begin to Repopulate Desert Habitat Seven years of carefully planned habitat restoration on private land in the Mojave Desert have yielded hope for the persistence of the endangered Amargosa vole.

Want more pup news? In 2022, pups were born after some adults were reintroduced to a marsh in their historic range. They hadn’t been detected there in decades. A conservation win!

www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/news/endange...

A little vole pup, still with a pink belly and dark back. Its eyes are closed while it curls up on dry vegetation.

Amargosa voles create little nests for their pups. Uniquely, both parents provide care! They shred dry bulrush to create soft nesting material. This creates insulation and helps break down the bulrush that dies annually, allowing its nutrients to return to the soil.

A colored camera trap photo of a coyote taking a stroll through a marsh edge.

A black and white camera trap photo of a bobcat butt exiting stage left.

A rusty brown Amargosa vole hanging out on a mix of brown and green bulrush vegetation. There’s a pink flag in the foreground to help us find traps.

In addition to it being incredibly cute, Amargosa voles are an important prey source to many predators in the ecosystem: bobcats, coyotes, birds of prey, etc.

They also engage in a process called bioturbation.

Collaborators have been hard at work fixing up these marshes which are vital to the survival of many native and endemic species, including the Amargosa vole.

Why do we care so much about this little rodent?