We’ve been publishing a lot these days! Here’s a digest of what we’ve published from September 2024 – November 2024: Keep up with all of our research following us on Instagram, Facebook, or X/Twitter!
Research updates: fall 2024 Read More »
Excerpt from UW News: “Thousands of whales are injured or killed each year after being struck by ships, particularly the large container vessels that ferry 80% of the world’s traded goods across the oceans. Collisions are the leading cause of death worldwide for large whale species. Yet global data on ship strikes of whales are hard to come by —
Ship collision risk threatens whales across the world’s oceans Read More »
Be sure to check out Eric Wagner’s newest essay for The Last Word On Nothing, called “Snapshot: The Penguins at Twilight” ! Featured image photo credit: Eric Wagner
Eric Wagner’s newest essay – “Snapshot: The Penguins at Twilight” Read More »
From the highlights section: “Biologging sensors enable broad-scale, high-resolution measurements of the physiological, behavioral, demographic, social, and environmental interactions underpinning patterns in nature. We present a framework, case studies, and outstanding questions for integrating biologging data with theoretical concepts to facilitate process explanation and prediction.” Authors: Roxanne S. Beltran, A. Marm Kilpatrick, Simona Picardi, Briana Abrahms, Gabriel M. Barrile, William
Maximizing biological insights from instruments attached to animals Read More »
From the abstract: “We found that Spheniscus penguins have pale feet at hatching and the feet become darker with age throughout the lives of individuals. We showed that we can accurately predict the age structure of a colony of Magellanic penguins Spheniscus magellanicus, but not the ages of individual penguins, based on a sample of foot colors.” Authors: Ginger Rebstock,
Foot darkening with age in Spheniscus penguins: applications and functions Read More »
Written by Dr. Kasim Rafiq In June 2024, postdoctoral researcher Dr. Kasim Rafiq and PhD candidate Leigh West from Dr. Briana Abrahms‘ lab returned to Wild Dog Camp in the Okavango Delta and were joined by Briana’s new PhD student Marie-Pier Poulin. The team successfully deployed six new tracking collars on African wild dogs, including in two brand new packs,
Field Updates: Botswana, summer 2024 Read More »
Congratulations to Leigh West, Dr. Abrahms’s graduate student, who just recently published her first paper as lead author. Her research article, “Droughts reshape apex predator space use and intraguild overlap,” was published in the Journal of Animal Ecology on October 4th, and also serves as the second chapter of her dissertation. This is an exciting milestone for Leigh as she
Abrahms Lab grad student Leigh West publishes first article Read More »
In July 2024, Dr. Dee Boersma and Dr. Caroline Cappello traveled to the Galápagos Islands for a penguin expedition unlike any they’d experienced before. Since 2010, CES has collaborated with Galápagos National Park and conservationist Godfrey Merlen to visit penguin breeding areas and conduct research. After Godfrey’s passing in 2023, CES—with heavy hearts but optimism for the future—sought a new
Field Updates: Galápagos Islands, summer 2024 Read More »
From the Abstract:Droughts are increasing in frequency and severity globally due to climate change, leading to changes in resource availability that may have cascading effects on animal ecology. Although several studies have demonstrated the ecological impacts of drought, the behavioural responses of individuals that scale up to these broader-scale effects are not well known, particularly among animals in top trophic
Droughts reshape apex predator space use and intraguild overlap Read More »
Summary adapted from social media post by Anna Testorf: One of our recent studies illustrates how noise from large ships and other vessels decreases overall foraging success of fish-eating killer whales through a process known as auditory masking. Knowing how vessel noise affects killer whales can inform actions to mitigate noise and promote health and survival of these vulnerable populations
