BraeuNERD

#inktoberStarfish #inktoberColor

Not entirely happy with this one, but it was good to play with colors for a change.

#inktober #inktober2025

Stippling drawing of a swordfish

#inktoberPierce

They slash more than stab when hunting, but won't shy from a true pierce in self-defense.

#inktober #inktober2025

#inktoberDeer

Still not comfortable drawing mammals and/with lines, but gotta start somewhere 😅.

#inktober #inktober2025

#inktoberMurky

Mudskippers thrive in murky, tropical environments like mangrove swamps and mudflats, utilizing both water and land for survival.

#inktober #inktober2025

Ink illustration of a royal flycatcher

#inktoberCrown

To impress, warn or threat, the royal flycatcher opens its feathery crown.

#inktober #inktober2025

#inktoberWeaving Jumping spiders don't really weave webs to hunt; but they weave little sleeping bags within leaves to chill.

#inktober #inktober2025

#inktoberWeaving Jumping spiders don't really weave webs to hunt; but they weave little sleeping bags within leaves to chill.

#inktober #inktober2025

The September AArk Newsletter is out! With 6 stories of hope for #frogs and #salamanders all over #LatinAmerica 🐸

English version here: www.amphibianark.org/fileadmin/up...

Versión en Español: www.amphibianark.org/fileadmin/up...

#ConservationScience🌎 #Conservation #wildlife #SciComm

First time I do the entire #SciArtSeptember 💪!! Now jumping into #inktober. I won't have the same time for October, and will try bigger/longer ideas, but here we go 🐒

#inktober2025 #inktoberMustache

Day 30: Dream

In several cultures, foxes symbolize adaptability, intelligence, transformation...this one dreams with the adaptability of all the ecosystems and species drawn in this #SciArtSeptember challenge! As for the transformation: that's on us 😉🦊

#SciArt

#SciArtSeptember Day 29: Foresight

With increasing water levels, birds that lost nests to floods nest higher or farther inland the next year—a glimpse of natural foresight? Wildlife will find its own ways to climate adaptation. Will we?

#SciArt

#SciArtSeptember Day 28: Harvest

Leaf-cutting ants clip foliage not to eat, but to farm certain fungi—an underground harvest that feeds the colony and recycles forest nutrients.

#SciArt

Ink drawing of an oasis viewed from above

#SciArtSeptember Day 27: Bounded

Oases form where groundwater reaches the surface, creating "islands" of other lifeforms bounded by desert. They're critical refuges for some migratory species. I'd love to see one/be in one, one day—have you?

#SciArt

Ink sketch of a hay bale

#SciArtSeptember Day 26: Forage

A quick late and tired sketch today 😅

Black ink drawing of a monarch butterfly

#SciArtSeptember Day 25: Tireless

At first I thought the Monarch butterflies flew tirelessly until reaching their overwintering grounds, but since finishing this drawing and looking it up I've learned they do take breaks. But still, +100km a day for a total of 4000 km?! Tireless!

#SciArt

Ink drawing of a cross cut of a tree, depicting the tree rings.

#SciArtSeptember Day 24: Numbered.

Tree rings record annual growth in temperate zones, letting dendrochronologists date age and even climate events. Tropical trees often lack clear seasonal rings though, making age estimates trickier, but not impossible.

#SciArt

#SciArtSeptember Day 23: Scouting

In many ant species, a lone or couple of lone scouts go out in search for food before recruiting the whole colony, leaving a pheromone trace along the way to find it again and to later "guide the crew".

#SciArt

Ink drawing of a butterfly "riding" on top of a turtle on top of a crocodile.

#SciArtSeptember Day 22: Fellowship

Wildlife is both brutal and beautiful, yet full of surprising partnerships. From mutualism to simple coexistence, we can take inspiration from these relationships and remind ourselves that collaboration takes us further, too.

#SciArt

illustration fragment of a colourful coral reef, full of marine life

#SciArtSeptember Day 21: Reef

Ink drawing of a coral reef seen from above

#SciArtSeptember Day 21: Reef

Coral reefs can reproduce both sexually and asexually. Some species are male or female, some are hermaphrodites, & some even switch sex with age! That's called 'sequential hermaphroditism' and it increases the individual's reproductive potential.

#SciArt

Ink sketch of a glacier

#SciArtSeptember Day 20: Glacial

Did you know 2025 is the International Year for the Conservation of #Glaciers?

If you know Spanish: this year we talked with LatAm & EU scientists in EpiSTEMas to raise awareness about the importance of these freshwater giants: youtube.com/playlist?lis...

#SciArt

#SciArtSeptember Day 19: Depths

The Mariana Trench goes up to about 11 km deep! It is the deepest point in our ocean (that we know of?). It is deeper than Everest is tall, and harbors microbes that survive those crushing pressures, cold, and darkness!

#SciArt

#SciArtSeptember Day 18: Cenote

These limestone sinkholes in Yucatán and northern Guatemala form as rain dissolves the karstic bedrock—and some trace their origin to the Chicxulub meteorite that started the end of the non-avian dinosaurs.

📝 More here: www.braeunerd.com/a-misunderst...

#SciArt

A sketch of a bamboo fish trap used in Indonesia. It is placed on the reef and weighted with stones. Fish swim into the cone shaped opening. Small fish swim back out through the mesh sides. The trap is not baited. Rather, its location is chosen to take advantage of the natural pathways fish use to travel across the reef. It doesn’t harm the sea creatures that are caught, eliminating bycatch (the fisherman keeps the edible catch and releases everything else). If the trap is damaged or lost, it quickly disintegrates into biodegradable components.

September 17: “trawl”
This is the opposite of bottom trawling: a traditional bamboo fish trap used in Alor Indonesia for subsistence fishing. See alt text for more info.
#sciartseptember #sciart #coralreefs #oceanconservation

Illustration of a roundnose grenadier on a dark blue background. The grenadier is an elongated, purple-grey fish with large eyes that looks a bit sad.

#SciArtSeptember 17 - Trawl

Bottom trawling has a devastating effect on deep-sea fish, including the roundnose grenadier, which is now classified as critically endangered.

Like other deep-sea fish, the grenadier grows and reproduces slowly, making it unable to tolerate industrial fishing.

This did not turn out how I wanted 😬 turns out I've no idea how to draw water this way 😅

Ink sketch of a trawling boat seen from above

#SciArtSeptember Day 17: Trawl

Bottom trawling scrapes seafloors and hauls huge bycatch, altering entire food webs and destroying entire ecosystems.

I do not, however, have an answer/solution besides reducing our seafood demand...any sustainable (for real) fisheries you know of?

#SciArt

#SciArtSeptember Day 16: Rift

Lakes form in many ways—volcanic craters, cauldrons, glacial scours—but some of the world’s deepest appear where tectonic plates diverge. 🚣‍♀️

💙 Lake-nerd-alert 🤓 I've some old blog posts on some lake formations here: www.braeunerd.com?s=lakes

#SciArt

Ink sketch of two frogs spawning in a lentic water body.

#SciArtSeptember Day 15: Spawning

Frogs have a variety of reproductive strategies. Some spawn on leaves above streams, tuck them in tree holes, or directly on different types of water bodies, depending on current, temperature, and threats like fish.

#SciArt #DependsOnTheSpecies

#SciArtSeptember Day 14: Mimic

Caligo butterflies fly at dawn to dodge birds, then rest with wings closed, showing their eye-spots that mimic an owl’s face (or at least some face that appears to be of something much larger than themselves).

#SciArt