Orangutans are solitary species, so, theoretically, opportunities for early socialisation are scarce. What do orangutan mums do? They go out of their way to arrange playdates for their kids. Research by @oddjacobson.bsky.social @bjjbarrett.bsky.social et al: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧪🌏🐵

Do you know about the Biodiversity Heritage Library @biodivlibrary.bsky.social? A great resource for nature-related collaborative work, with biodiversity literature and images made publicly available. www.biodiversitylibrary.org Drawing of a dusky titi monkey, from Description des mammifères. 🧪🌍🪶🦊

I will speak. It shall be entertaining. 🪧The Animal Butt Compendium: the ABC of Zoological Rear Ends 🍑From species that breathe through their bums, to those using their derrieres as weapons and ones that communicate through farting - there's something for everyone. 📆 1 Jul, London 🎟️ Tickets below.

Exciting stuff - British pounds are getting a revamp and will feature wildlife. You can pick two animals in each category (mammals, birds and what looks like "creatures without eyelashes"). Vote here until July 3: www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/he... 🧪💷🌏

Dear @rspb.bsky.social, why would you choose to use what looks like AI-slop in your marketing, instead one of the amazing pictures you have of actual, real birds? Blue tit chicks are nothing like this awful misrepresentation. I quit my membership over this. #AITA? 🪶🧪🌏

🪶 Birds masturbate. 🦜 This is normal, and not (as often is believed) a maladaptive behaviour only found in captivity. 🍑 Pet bird owners - chill, and let your budgie have some fun. 🧪 Study of masturbation in 120 bird species, by @matildabrindle.bsky.social: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Have you heard of OneZoom Tree of Life Explorer? It's a great tool for visualising how all biodiversity in the world is related. And since it's #BiodiversityDay, well... Find yourself a friend whose love language is "I sponsored a slime mold for you". www.onezoom.org 🧪🌏 🦊🐦🐝 #biodiversity

Study by Sabrina Rondeau and @nigeleraine.bsky.social on what happens with submerged bumblebee queens. Spoiler alert: they are generally fine. royalsocietypublishing.org/rsbl/article... 🧪 #WorldBeeDay

🧪 In a study, bumblebee queens were overwintered in refrigerated test tubes - but an experimental mishap led to four tubes accumulating water. 🐝 Now we know that bumblebee 👸 can survive being submerged for a week - which makes sense, because in the wild their burrows may get flooded. 🌍 #WorldBeeDay

🕷️You're a smallish spider with big decoy ambitions 🕸️You patiently weave bits and bobs into your web to camouflage yourself, or to appear bigger 🏵️Your elaborate web decorations (stabilimenta) are made of delicate silk What do you get called? A "TRASHLINE orb weaver". 🤦‍♀️ Arachnologists... 🧪🌍

The first species to be named after David Attenborough (in 1993) is Attenborosaurus conybeari. The Attenborosaurus is an extinct marine reptile from the Early Jurassic. Over 50 species have been named after Sir David - who turns 100 today. Happy birthday! 🧪🦕🌍

Have you voted yet? @ianopolous.bsky.social and I have! #Oxford #election 🗳️

Your name in Landsat, courtesy of NASA: science.nasa.gov/specials/you... Addictive. 🧪🛰️

It's #EarthDay, so here's an invite to a topical (and free!) event. 🥬Lessons in resilience: Nature, heritage and sustainability - a panel discussion 📆 6 May, 17.30-18.30 📍The Hub, @kelloggoxford.bsky.social What can nature and our shared past teach us about surviving change? Come and find out. 🧪

The Modern Bestiary: like the medieval bestiary, but with less moralising and more wildlife. Also more butts, sex and grossness. I will be talking about bestiaries in general and The Modern Bestiary in particular at @pubsci.bsky.social in London on 15 Apr. Booking link below. #SciComm 🧪🪶🦊 #BookSky

"Oi, get your eyes off my eggs!" Fish know when you're staring at them - and they don't like it. Tourists, avert your gaze, please. 🧪🐠👀 Study of emperor cichlids: royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article...

Pangolins in numbers (thanks to @danchallender.bsky.social's brilliant talk): - Largest: a 48kg pangzilla (Indian pangolin) - Scaliest: Philippine pangolin, ~1000 per animal - Most vertebrae in tail: 47, long-tailed pangolin (duh) Pangolins are surprisingly strong - some enough to kill a leopard! 🧪

Want to 🧪 improve research skills and boost your confidence? 🎓 get a taste of the Oxford experience? The Graduate School in @oxlifelonglearning.bsky.social is offering research skills sessions for external postgraduate students in March-April (hybrid format). Apply (link below)! #Academicsky

Can slow lorises rescued from the pet trade be translocated and released? Not easily. Out of 9 tracked lorises in the study, only 2 survived beyond 6 months. Four were fatally attacked by other lorises. Released lorises showed signs of chronic stress. 🧪🦊 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Biggest spider web in the world: the area of a flat. Found in a sulphur-smelling cave in the Balkans, this ~100m² spongy web is maintained by two species of solitary 🕷️. The 110K inhabitants feed on midges, probably because they can't see the other spiders. 🧪 subtbiol.pensoft.net/article/1623...

Let's celebrate #DarwinDay by reminding ourselves that everyone has moments when they feel worse for wear. Darwin wrote to Charles Lyell in 1861: "But I am very poorly today & very stupid & hate everybody & everything." www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/DCP-L... So, hang in there, #academicsky! 🧪🌏🐵

Probably the floofiest professional meeting you will see on here today. College fellow (r) and a llama at @kelloggoxford.bsky.social. That's a llot of lls. 🦙

Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science! #AcademicSky 🧪 Visual by Jan Bajtlik

How can planners and urban designers best promote biodiversity at the urban scale? FREE Online Lecture 📅 10.03.26 18:15 GMT How to best connect up urban nature? Join Oskar Kindvall, Francesca Froy, Thomas Hesselber and myself to find out. Sign up: lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk/about/online... 🧪🌍🌿

They are two different species. The American one is the Virginia opossum, Didelphis virginiana. Looks strange, but generally a nice guy. The Aussie one is the brushtail possum,Trichosurus vulpecula. Looks cute, but is lethal for NZ birds.

Oh there are plenty - they just usually go by *O*possum.

Uh oh, Reform UK also got hooked on the penguin visual... 🐧 I think it's time to remind the world about our Bird Biodiversity and Population Monitoring Methods course. 🪶 📆 Apply by Jan 28th 🌍 Study online 🧪 Course run by @oxlifelonglearning.bsky.social lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk/courses/bird...

Yes - and it's still there.

Thanks to the White House about half the internet learnt that there are actually no penguins in Greenland. Yay #scicomm! BUT there *is* one 🐧living in the northern hemisphere: the Galapagos penguin, the only species found (just) north of the equator. No, the "penguin" on the WH tweet is not it. 🧪🪶

Today is the start of @rspb.bsky.social's #BigGardenBirdwatch. In 2025 the most common British birds were: 🟤 House Sparrow 🔵 Blue Tit ⚪ Wood Pigeon ⚫ Starling ⚫ Blackbird 🔴 Robin Take part in this years birdwatch to register what you see in your local area www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happen... 🧪 🌍 🪶