Damian Lettoof

Our study ‘The #global #human impact on #biodiversity’ is out in @nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🌍🌐🐟🌿🪲

Unprecedented synthesis of >2000 studies led by @francoiskeck.bsky.social shows humans are not only shrinking species numbers—but reshaping entire communities across the planet.
🧵1/5

Ecologist Bush Heritage Australia - Arid Rangelands or Evelyn Downs Reserve, SA

We’re looking for another ecologist here in SA. Please share widely and check if out yourself. Happy to chat to anyone interested and suitably qualified. Come join the team!

nrmjobs.com.au/jobs/2025/20...

Skink zine! Physical copy Skinks! These incredible reptiles are one of the most diverse families of lizards, with well over 1,000 known species coming in all kinds of shapes and sizes. Ethan drew a bunch in October (Skinktober...

New in the shop! Physical copies of my SKINKS! Zone blackmudpuppy.myshopify.com/products/pre...

Bioaccumulation and metabolic impact of PFAS on wild-caught cane toads. Cane toads were collected across a known urban water PFAS gradient and were screened for 28 PFAS compounds. Metabolomics, lipidomics and proteomics-based approaches were applied to tissues. We found that PFOS was the dominant PFAS but concentrations in the liver were relatively low with minimal noticeable impacts on animal health.

Non-native cane toads accumulate PFAS and legacy metals that impact metabolic pathways. A new paper led by @lettsgetsnakes.bsky.social looks at what this means for their health and how it can guide managing urban pollution and impacts on biodiversity.
🧪🌏🌐 #bioinvasions
doi.org/10.1016/j.en... (OA)

Australia-first study finds rat poison in rare Perth Hills chuditch New evidence shows the first confirmed cases of rat poisoning in native Australian marsupial carnivores.

Great piece on our new research highlighting the severe impact of using second generation anticoagulant rodenticides. We are killing quolls snd Tasmanian devils when we poison rats. www.watoday.com.au/national/wes...

From volunteer to conservation manager: An exciting new chapter for Save The Snakes - Save The Snakes Snakes play an important role in our ecosystems and there are several threats that they face within those systems, including climate change, habitat loss and human persecution. Save The Snakes works t...

Thrilled to announce Dr. Hiral Naik @hiralnaik.bsky.social as our new Research & Conservation Manager on #InternationalDayofWomenandGirlsinScience!

Hiral, whose work you may know from South Africa, will lead our global conservation efforts after completing her PhD.

Learn more ⬇️

Despite what some folks claim, Nebraska does have venomous Copperheads—but only in the far southeast corner of the state. They’re ambush predators, relying on camouflage rather than aggression, so most bites happen when someone steps on or grabs them by accident, though bites are extremely rare. 🐍

Tiny black salticid with orange legs and white palps, perched on a gold pinhead

I'm contractually obligated to regularly post this picture of the smallest known jumping spider species in the world (Neonella camillae) on the head of a pin; so, here we are.
#EmotionalSupportSpood
Goodnight y'all 🖤

I was pretty happy! Tried for the bettongs and missed them but I didn’t have much time 😪

Here’s a long-nosed potoroo from Bruny Island in Tasmania 🥰 #WildOz

High altitude echidnas in Tasmania are so fluffy and friendly! A top tier Aussie native 😍 #WildOz

High altitude echidnas in Tasmania are so fluffy and friendly! A top tier Aussie native 😍 #WildOz

The INCREDIBLE Pipe Snake!🧡🖤
These COLOURS on this snake are just so mind-blowing, it is by far the most stunning snake I've ever seen!🐍
Even with intense colouration, the Pipe Snake is a non-venomous snake that is mimicking a coral snake in the rainforests of South America!🌳

Young Cyclodomorphus (this one is C. casuarinae) often act like little snakes! Very convincing! 😰

The Tasmanian tree frog (Litoria burrowsae), a now rare frog that breeds in isolated pool deep in the heath. So awesome to find! #WildOz

Young Cyclodomorphus (this one is C. casuarinae) often act like little snakes! Very convincing! 😰

The Tasmanian tree frog (Litoria burrowsae), a now rare frog that breeds in isolated pool deep in the heath. So awesome to find! #WildOz

Extinction of experience among ecologists Fieldwork-based research and education in ecology are under multiple threats and are progressively declining. We call for greater attention to this ongoing loss of direct field experience within the ecology community, as it could have widespread consequences for science and education, ultimately hindering efforts to address the ongoing biodiversity crisis.

Where are all the field studies?

This ⬇️ important but rather depressing paper describes how conducting, & crucially initiating, field studies is becoming harder & rarer.

A short 🧵 (and a call for more fieldwork)
www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

The Frog 🐸 of the Week is the Painted Reed Frog (Hyperolius marmoratus) from southern Africa. The frog comes in a variety of colors from black and brown to yellow and green with stripes, spots, or blotches.

📸 Gavin Falck, Bart Wursten, and Jessica Myburgh
learn more at https://buff.ly/4fVsyF0

Went searching for a now rare Tasmanian frog and was surprised seeing this tiger in ambush at night, hunting the same frogs we were! #WildOz

Extinction of experience among ecologists Fieldwork-based research and education in ecology are under multiple threats and are progressively declining. We call for greater attention to this ongoing loss of direct field experience within the ecology community, as it could have widespread consequences for science and education, ultimately hindering efforts to address the ongoing biodiversity crisis.

Extinction of experience among ecologists dlvr.it/THHFk2

A photo of a brightly coloured Cape Coral Snake against a neutral background.

Cape Coral Snake (Aspidelaps lubricus), venomous.

#snakesofsa #snakesofza #snakesofsouthafrica #herpingsa #herpingza #reptiles #snakes #wildlifephotography #africa #animalphotography #herps #snaketheworldsmarter #herpingtheglobe
#africawildlife #africanwildlife #southafrica

A lizard is just poking out from behind a clay sun ornament hanging outside on a stucco wall of the house.

A lizard is clinging to the side of a house on a warm December morning in Southern California.

One of our resident #backyard lizards that likes to hangout behind the big clay sun face. I don’t know if this weather confuses them or if they are just enjoying. Half an hour later, it’s plenty warm to go out exploring.
#herps Western Fence lizard SoCal

Skinks on a Plane: Does Human‐Mediated Transportation Impact the Behaviour of an Invasive Lizard? In order for invasive species to successfully establish in the non-native region, they must survive the journey and arrive in good condition; however, few studies have investigated the impact of huma....

Skinks on a Plane! For invasive species to be successful, they must be able to cope with transportation. Third-year student Jaclyn (@jaclynharris.bsky.social) exposed invasive delicate skinks to air and car transport to see if it impacted their behaviour. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

A #platypus works her way through a couple of natural dams made by fallen trees, foraging as she goes. The first one looks like a perfect platypus water-slide.
#Tasmania ##MammalWatching #WildOz #platypuses

Frog Fibres: What Muscle Architecture Can Tell Us About Anuran Locomotor Function Our study utilises a new, automated approach to digitally extracting muscle fibres from μCT data, allowing us to present the first digital analysis of muscle fibre architecture in frogs, including so...

The last paper coming from my #PhD thesis has just been published in the Journal of Morphology! 🐸 We use #diceCT and @fountainscholar.bsky.social 's GoodFibes package to examine how muscle fibre architecture varies across #frogs specialising in jumping, walking and swimming:

doi.org/10.1002/jmor...

The family dog had an unfortunate run in with this small Western Diamondback Rattlesnake the night before we were called out. Dave was able to find the snake, and the dog made a full recovery.

ALA Labs frontpage & text logo. ALA LABS text is in white, formatted as off-centre stacked text. Underneath is smaller text, "Experiments in code, data analysis & visualisation from the Atlas of Living Australia." The background is green grass with a Southern Brown Tree Frog in the middle, hanging onto the grass. It has a darker brown top and lighter brown underside. The frog's eye is a rich dark yellow, with a black pupil in the shape of an oval, stretching from the left to right side of the eye

An animated scroll through an ALA Labs post, showing code, text and visuals to make a data visualisation in R. The article is on how to make a hexagon map of Australia, where each hexagon is an area of Australia, and each point in the hexagon is positioned and coloured to represent a species.

Examples of dataviz that ALA Labs posts show how to make in R. They are colourful and fun. One of them is even 3D!

✅ Do you use R or Python?
✅ Are you an ecologist/biologist?

Then you might find our website ALA Labs useful!

ALA Labs is full of how-to articles to visualise or analyse biodiversity data. Some are for beginners, others are advanced/experimental 😀

labs.ala.org.au

🧪🌏 #rstats #python #quartopub

A collage of four pairs of holly leaves, each from a single plant. The leaves are dark green and glossy with a prominent midline vein of pale green or yellow. Each pair juxtaposes a leaf that has spines along its edge against a leaf with perfectly smooth edges. Credit: Carlos M. Herrera & Pilar Bazaga 2013 https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article-abstract/171/3/441/2416188?redirectedFrom=fulltext

We're used to seeing holly leaves depicted as exclusively spiny, but most wild holly plants have spiny and smooth leaves

Common holly (I. aquifolium) *changes its gene expression* to produce spines in response to damage by herbivores. Each pair here is from the same plant

📷 Herrera & Bazaga 2013

What a cool paper! 🤩 Using @inaturalist.bsky.social observations, Mayer et al. found that there are more melanistic snakes in colder regions than in warmer ones AND that melanistic snakes are more abundant with ⬆️ avian predator density 🐍🐦 Have look at it here: doi.org/10.1111/jbi....