Phoebe Chapman

#BirdoftheYear 🇳🇿

Would love an add as well if possible Pamela!

Long-term parasite decline associated with near extinction and conservation of the critically endangered kākāpō parrot Boast et al. analyze a unique fecal record of the endangered kākāpō parrot to reveal >800 years of changing parasite communities. Parasite losses occur during the species’ decline to near extinction a...

Parasite extinctions in threatened species may be far more prevalent than previous estimates suggest. Our new study of kākāpō dung spanning from ~1,500 years ago to present, finds >80% of parasite species were lost as the host species declined.

a silly #SciArt redraw of the squish that cat meme, but it is a grey stickfigure squishing a mosquito (that looks like a little cat) with the text SQUISH THAT BUG!

You want to collect insects (and maybe other arthropods) for reference genome sequencing, but don't want to spend a fortune on dry ice shipping!

All you gotta do is SQUISH. THAT. BUG!

More details in our recent preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Ocean current scientists are very upset and you should be too | First Dog on the Moon It’s bad news for the Antarctic sea ice and everyone who relies on it being there (everyone)

Everyone knows about AMOC but have you heard about SMOC?! Stand by for extreme penguinity! www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Saw this somewhere on the socials today, seems… relevant.

Portrait of a plump gentoo penguin from chest up, looking straight into camera. A white chest, black neck and head with white band/crown running behind eyes. Orange and black beak. In the background are large black pebbles.

Better late than never for #worldpenguinday and #superseabirdsunday! Deadpan Gentoo had enough of my photography crap I reckon #marinelife 🦑 #birds 🪶

A Comprehensive Evaluation of Taxonomic Classifiers in Marine Vertebrate eDNA Studies Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding is a widely used tool for surveying marine vertebrate biodiversity. To this end, many computational tools have been released and a plethora of bioinformatic app...

My nightmare in #eDNA is to detect a rare or threatened species that turns out to be a false positive, so we set out to evaluate some of the commonly used taxonomic classifiers.

The results are finally out: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

1/3

Australia making a dent in plastic packaging pollution on coastlines, CSIRO finds Plastic pollution along Australia’s coastline has dropped by more than a third over the last decade. That’s according to new research from Australia’s national science agency CSIRO, published in the M...

Plastic pollution along Australia’s coastline has dropped by more than a third over the last decade. Researchers recorded a 39% decrease in coastal debris density and a 16% increase in areas with “no plastic debris at all.”

www.sbs.com.au/news/podcast...

Two children at school in uniforms and it looks like Japan, both of them look like girls or femmes. One is holding a giant tuba so that it's stuffed over the face of the other one that's pinned up against the wall. The one holding the tuba is labeled every company. The tuba is labeled unwanted AI And the one against the wall is labeled me

Weee yupes!!

A black penguin, turning back to look at the camera. The penguin has a pink beak and light coloured eye, with a yellow band running between its eyes around the back of its head. In the background are green ferns and tall reeds. The foreground is light green lush grass, obscuring the bottom half of the bird.

For this week’s #superseabirdsunday - hoiho / yellow-eyed penguin, Enderby Island
#seabird #birds 🪶 #naturephotography #penguin #newzealand

SAVE THE PENGUINS.
STOP TRUMP’S TARIFFS.

If you’re new here, welcome. Our Antarctica Nudist Colony Government was formed after Seal hunters left our land around 1920. We occasionally allow scientists to study our 29 mammals, multiple seabirds, and limited flora, but have no permanent human settlement. Australia partially protects us 1/2

"Trade war with penguins": Trump places 10% tariff on uninhabited Antarctic islands Planned tariffs shared by the White House included a 10% duty on imports from the barren Heard and McDonald Islands

Even when it's just the two of them, in an otherwise empty Oval office, Trump and Musk still aren't the smartest guys in the room.

Thought I'd revisit Star Wars.

Just in case anyone forgot what starts the whole saga: it's a #TradeWar about #tariffs

Hooray! Thank you :)

Oh yes please!

Three large albatross, predominantly white with black mottled wings and light pink bills. The centre bird faces away from the camera, and the birds on either side face inwards towards it; all three have their heads together as if discussing something. They stand on a hill covered in yellow, green and red herbs, mosses and grasses.

Three Southern Royal albatross sharing a juicy piece of gossip on Enderby Island (NZ sub-Antarctic)

#seabirds #superseabirdsunday #marinelife #wildlifephotography #naturephotography #birds

Renal myxosporidiosis by an unknown Bivalvulidan myxozoan parasite in Murray River turtles (Emydura macquarii) in Australia This case series provides the first published record of a myxozoan parasite in Murray River turtles (Emydura macquarii) in Australia. Thirteen turtles…

A bit of Saturday science - our new paper out this week is the first published record of a myxozoan parasite in Murray River turtles (Emydura macquarii) in Australia @vgonzaleza.bsky.social
#parasitology 🪱 #herpetology #turtle 🐢

And based in Dunedin!

I dunno about Harlequin but I can give a plug for my wife @zgrokit.bsky.social who writes lady-loving-lady romance

Two medium sized mottled dark brown birds having a tug of war over a long piece of brown kelp on a sandy beach.

Not much a skua won’t fight over. Enderby Island, sub-Antarctic New Zealand #birds #marinelife #seabirds #birdphotography

Back from two weeks aboard the HMNZS Canterbury as one of the scientists on the 2025 Blake Expedition to the NZ sub-Antarctic Islands. Will progressively drop photos and commentary here as I go through them #marinelife #naturephotography #sealion #pinniped

2025 Blake Expedition on Operation Endurance with the NZ Navy. Off to the sub-Antarctic Campbell and Auckland Islands to do some sciencing and inspire the next generation!

Takahē released to grow wild population Efforts to expand a wild population of takahē near Queenstown began yesterday with the release of 18 birds in the Rees Valley.

Next step… takahē world (or maybe just NZ) domination 🤞🪶

How a Canadian scientist and a venomous lizard helped pave the way for Ozempic - National | Globalnews.ca In 1984, Dr. Daniel Drucker, an endocrinologist from the University of Toronto, discovered a hormone that helped pave the way for popular diabetes drugs such as Ozempic.

This is the most relevant article to NIH and research cuts I’ve seen.

Imagine if this was today , how many people would be saying “Why are we studying Gila Monsters and their impact on diabetes ? That’s wasted money !”

globalnews.ca/news/9793403...

Revealing underwater secrets with new technique Scientists from the University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka are hoping their new research technique will help unlock underwater secrets of marine wildlife.

New tool for estimating prey size and energy content from animal-worn camera footage 🐧🦐

Well the award for most cowardly, boot-lickingest academic society has squarely gone to the American Society of Microbiology, who has taken down features of various non-white scientists. Absolutely pathetic behavior. Those articles are now coming up as “under review”. Truly sickening cowardice here.

An albatross sitting on the green-grey ocean surface, looking side on at the camera. The bird is mostly white, with dark grey wings and a peach/orange coloured hooked bill. It has black ‘eyeliner’ surrounding a pale yellow eye.

For #superseabirdsunday - the honey coloured (and slightly judgey) eye of a Campbell albatross. Otago Canyons, NZ #birds #marinelife