Sandra Lai
@sandralai
Wildlife biologist in extreme environments ❄️🔥 Arctic | Carnivores | Behavioral Ecology | Movement Ecology | Conservation | Ecosystem monitoring 🦊🐺❄️
When for a trial of paid peer review, criteria to be a reviewer was ‘having a PhD + 5 years of experience’ (very valid criteria) but when nowadays, editors ask PhD students with NO PUBLICATION to review manuscripts, surely there is a big problem going on in academia 🫠
Most ecologists are not trained for the brutal reality that is conservation. Studying nature is not the same as fighting for it. Conservation research does NOT equal impact, nor does it make you a conservationist. There is a huge difference between good intentions and realized conservation impact.
You think seeing snow leopards is the most exclusive experience ever? Think again 🤣 Still a genuinely amazing experience 🙌 Safe distance from the animals is always respected to avoid disturbance 🤍 📸🐆: Chloé Warret Rodrigues, Dorge Angrup #SpitiValley #Kibber #Himalayas
Christmas at the Department of Biology? This means quiz! 🎄 Happy to have been able to join the WildCRU team this year for the Biology Christmas Quiz. It took place at the Life and Mind Building, with the Oxford skyline in the background.❤️ PS: we won! 😁 @biology.ox.ac.uk @wildcru.bsky.social
How it’s been at the new office lately… How’s yours? 🦊 @wildcru.bsky.social 🌱 @biology.ox.ac.uk
🔥 I am thrilled to have been chosen as a 2025 Flag Carrier by WINGS Women of Discovery! With their support, I’ll join the team in Ethiopia’s Bale Mountains to vaccinate and GPS-collar endangered Ethiopian wolves. ➡️ wingswomenofdiscovery.org/explorer/san... @wildcru.bsky.social @biology.ox.ac.uk
In 2020, a male Ethiopian wolf in the Simien Mountains sustained a severe leg injury caused by a gun shot. Unable to keep up with his pack, weak and bleeding, in a place as harsh and exposed as the Ethiopian highlands, that’s usually the end of the story. But this time, it wasn’t.
🌍🐺 Wolves Across Borders 2025 — EWCP joined the Himalayan Wolves Project and WildCRU colleagues in Lunteren to represent wolves from Africa, Europe and Asia. A powerful global gathering sharing field insights and coexistence strategies. Thanks to all who came to listen and share!
EWCP delegates, Prof Claudio Sillero, Dr Jorgelina Marino and Dr Sandra Lai, just arrived in Lunteren, Netherlands, for the International Conference Wolves Across Borders 2025! 🧵1/ #WAB2025 #WildCRU #OxfordBiology #OxfordUniversity #WolvesBorders #conservation #research
African wild dog playback experiment gone bad 😂 #PhDLife #Fieldwork #nevergiveup
“The three animals produced by Colossal are not dire wolves. Nor are they proxies of the dire wolf based on IUCN SSC guiding principles of extinct species for conservation benefit”—IUCN SSC Canid Specialist Group Read the full statement below ⬇️
When I look back at what we put our field cars through during the last field trip, I don’t even know how we made it successfully to the end… a miracle! All field cars know suffering… that’s universal fieldwork experience! What’s your worst field car story? 🎥 Abdi Samune
🚨New on the blog🚨 Can you guess how many Ethiopian wolves we captured?🦊 14 people, 10 days, 4 camps, 3 cars Read more about my most insane (but meaningful) fieldwork ever! ➡️ ethiopianwolf.org/news/notes-f... #EWCP #WildCRU @wildcru.bsky.social #Oxfordbiology @biology.ox.ac.uk
🦊 Fieldwork essentials🦊 Go ahead, judge me on anything! I’ll be posting about fieldwork with Ethiopian wolves soon! Stay tuned! ✨
Ethiopian wolves’ breeding season is fully on! Pups have started emerging. I took this video almost 2 years ago now. It was my first time seeing Ethiopian wolf pups. Because of how the den was carved under big rocks and a strong wind, they couldn’t see or hear us, leading to this miraculous sight!
What type of ‘actionable conservation scientist’ are you? (are you one?) I think there is a discrepancy between what people ARE, what they THINK they are, what they SAY they are, and what they actually WANT to be. A cause of internal and external conflict, which is quite damaging on all levels.
✨Happy New Year 2025! May your fieldwork be legendary, your data results finally be significant, and your camera traps not decide they’re done with you halfway through the field season.🤓 Here’s to surviving another year of chasing elusive creatures and funding! Let's goooo✨
Field biologists have the reputation of not knowing how to dress well, but what are stereotypes if we can’t break them? #HappyHolidays #MerryChristmas #Oxford
✨New publication✨ A curious case of wolves behaving like bees?! 🐝 🦊 🌱 ➡️ esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... @wildcru.bsky.social @oxfordbiology.bsky.social
Hi! Just migrated here! I’m a fieldwork biologist studying mammals living in extreme environments (Arctic and high mountains)! Please say hello! :)