Ollie Wearn

Over on the Other Place I would occasionally put this thread together, most recently during lockdown, four years ago in fact, and I realised I'd not done it here. So, bear with, and feel free to mute as this is an epic (genuinely, I’m not sure we won’t reach hitherto non-invoked thread limits tbh).

Two B&W camera trap images of the same snow leopard 23 days apart, but showing a strikingly similar pose, with the animal bent down sniffing the same small patch of ground (likely a regular scrape). Image (c) Snow Leopard Conservation Foundation / Snow Leopard Trust.

*Seeing double*

Nope, these images are not the same, or even from the same image sequence! They were taken 23 days apart, with raging snow storms & high winds between them.

#Snowleopards are creatures of habit, regularly coming back to the same tiny patches of ground to see who's been around.

Next Thursday (11th), join us to discover how 300+ local community members & camera traps generate vital ecosystem data, transforming biodiversity monitoring in the Sanjiangyuan. 📸🌿 Learn about innovative incentive models for #conservation in #China.

👉 bit.ly/SLNBioMonitoring

Confused writing is usually a symptom of confused thinking. As we struggle to clarify writing, we clarify our thoughts. AI writing aids rob us of that struggle, leaving clean-looking text and thoughts still confused for lack of inspection. Writing is not just a product; it is a diagnostic tool.

Global distribution of forest landscapes covered by airborne LiDAR

Only a pre-print for now, but after 4 years of hard work I couldn't resist sharing this!

The Global Canopy Atlas: analysis-ready maps of 3D structure for the world's woody ecosystems

📜: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Huge team effort led by the brilliant Fabian Fischer!

In Indonesia’s Rainforest, a Mega-Farm Project Is Plowing Ahead The Indonesian government is fast-tracking a massive agricultural project that is turning 7 million acres of tropical forest into rice and sugarcane farms. Critics say it is the world’s largest defore...

History appears to be repeating itself, with a new "mega-rice" project underway in South Papua, a repeat of the social and ecological disaster that was Mega Rice I in Kalimantan in the late 1990s. The UN says that > 50,000 Indigenous people will be directly affected
e360.yale.edu/features/ind...

Headline: Brazil secures Amazon allies for $125 million global forest fund

Consider the first headline -- "Brazil secures Amazon allies for $125 billion global forest fund" -- against the backdrop of everything else Brazil is doing. The hypocrisy from the host of the COP30 climate conference is staggering.

Incredible graph, and pretty much sums it up.

Teeing off as the world burns.

Here’s me kind of hoping it doesn’t shut down Libgen though, a vital lifeline for many who don’t have fancy pantsy university journal access (= vast number of researchers in Global South, plus almost everyone in the NGO world)

From last week spotting the turtle doves in the Knepp rewilding project, to having the same species at our garden pond here in Ronda, Spain!

Can we all agree macroecology is also lawful evil 😈

Spot on for Conservation ecology

Interesting 🤔 Seems like a good way forward to ensure rigour and accuracy in work.

I suspect there is a grey area, though, in deciding when genAI is acting as an assistant (which is allowed under their rules) and when it has stepped over the line into creator (not allowed).

AI challenge to find lost Amazonian civilizations draws critics Scientists, ethicists, and officials worry the OpenAI-sponsored contest sidesteps archaeological norms

AI challenge to find lost Amazonian civilizations draws critics | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

There are echoes here of how macroecologists mine satellite & other global data to make maps of conservation priorities, also often without consultation or validation on the ground.

Flying high for conservation: Opportunities and challenges of operating drones within the oldest National Park in the Alps Drawing on our seven-year experience flying drones in the Swiss National Park and its surroundings, we provided an overview of how innovative drone applications contribute to the goals and tasks of t....

Are drones fancy gadgets, or can they effectively guide management strategies and align with the overarching goals of protected areas?

Rossi & Wiesmann 2025 argue the latter 👌

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

A surprisingly effective way to save the capercaillie: keep its predators well-fed – new research Evidence suggests this alternative to culling the bird’s predators is effective.

My first @uk.theconversation.com article with @jackantbam.bsky.social and @lambin-ecology.bsky.social and @kennyafc.bsky.social

"Surprisingly effective way to save the capercaillie: keep its predators well-fed"

theconversation.com/a-surprising...

I wonder to what extent by carcass provisioning and feeding the mesocarnivores you’re replacing a lost ecological role played by wolves, and other large predators? In other words, might wolves have facilitated the existence of capercaillie?

A no-brainer if ever I saw one.

Evaluating the impact of two decades of USAID interventions and projecting the effects of defunding on mortality up to 2030: a retrospective impact evaluation and forecasting analysis USAID funding has significantly contributed to the reduction in adult and child mortality across low-income and middle-income countries over the past two decades. Our estimates show that, unless the a...

A new paper in The Lancet, one of the world’s foremost peer reviewed medical journals, estimates that USAID prevented 91 million deaths across 133 countries over 20 years.

The paper estimates that Elon Musk’s DOGE funding cuts to USAID will lead to 14 million deaths by 2030 (4.5 million children).

Related issues in #cameratrap AI exist, still unresolved.

E.g. Google’s SpeciesNet, ostensibly trained on public data (techcrunch.com/2025/03/03/g...) but actually trained on partly embargoed data, w/ little recognition for the 100’s of people in the Global South who collected & curated the data 😧

The SMART Approach to Conservation.pptx The SMART Approach to Conservation: A guide to getting started A practical guide to implementation and sustained use of the SMART Approach & SMART software © Edy Susanto / Fauna & Flora Version 1.1

A really clear and practical guide to implementing SMART and improving its effectiveness over time (written by the SMART Partnership and @faunaflora.bsky.social):

docs.google.com/presentation...

Nepal launches plan to boost science, awareness to save dholes KATHMANDU — Nepal has launched a species action plan focused exclusively on conserving the endangered dhole (Cuon alpinus), also known as the Asiatic wild dog. The new 262.9 million rupee ($1.9…

Nepal has launched its first-ever species-specific action plan for dholes (Cuon alpinus), allocating 262.9 million rupees ($1.9 million) over five years to address key threats such as habitat loss, prey depletion, disease and competition with larger predators.

Conservationists race to rescue England’s turtle doves from extinction Hundreds are being released across the country to reverse 98% decline in mating pairs since the 1970s

No mention of the disease risks. Or the welfare concerns of releasing birds into places that don’t suit them. This is pretend conservation, dressed up as the real thing and given a free ride by a serious environmental journalist. Hugely damaging.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Our friendly neighbourhood fox passes just under our bedroom window almost every night.

Taken with a @naturespy.bsky.social Ursus solar-powered ☀️ #cameratrap, which has been successfully powering itself across Dutch forests and Mongolia deserts recently. Goodbye battery changes! 👋

we're living through one of the greatest technological revolutions in the history of mankind and it's not AI

Thanks, I did charToRaw() and they were different 🙃 I think something to do with encodings (I did Encoding() & both were “unknown”) but it’s beyond me. iconv() also didn’t help. I ended up manually re-typing the data! Just when you think you’ve seen it all with camera trap data, another curveball 🤪

A screenshot of the R terminal showing two patently identical character strings that do NOT match according to R

Sometimes R just beats you up for no reason.

Springer Nature Discovers MDPI – The Strain on Scientific Publishing Home page for the paper ‘The Strain on Scientific Publishing’ by Mark A Hanson, Dan Brockington, Paolo Crosetto and Pablo Gomez Barreiro

Springer-Nature launched a series of "Discover" journals that closely mimic MDPI titles -- sharing *identical* journal names, and likely similar business model.

What is going on, and why researcher will - as always - fall for it?

A 🧵

the-strain-on-scientific-publishing.github.io/website/post...

The GSLEP Steering Committee meeting in Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan. A presentation is being given at a large roundtable on PAWS

I presented an update on PAWS, the Population Assessment of the World’s Snow Leopards. 6 of 12 snow leopard range countries have now concluded their national assessments! China has also completed surveys in all 8 snow leopard provinces and we await a national effort to collate these data.

Breaking news: it appears Emperor penguin populations in Antarctica are declining faster than predicted.

Latest satellite data shows a massive 22% drop in penguin numbers over the last 15 years in key regions.

This is more than double the rate of loss that experts had expected...

🧵 1/8

Image of Bishkek, with Kyrgyz Republic flag high in the sky at sunset

Image shows a large conference room with circular table and delegates sat around it.

Attending the 9th Global Snow Leopard & Ecosystem Protection Program (GSLEP) meeting in Issyk Kul, Kyrgyzstan this week. Ministers, representatives & partners from across all range countries met to discuss conservation progress & priorities, with the Tien Shan mountains as our backdrop! ⛰️🐆