Taal Levi
@taaltree
Wildlife ecology and conservation, metabarcoding, eDNA, disease ecology, mathematical modeling. Prof of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation at Oregon State U
🧬 Las muestras genéticas que recolectamos junto a @taaltree, @foreignsands y @ellendymit nos ayudarán a comprender mejor los movimientos y la supervivencia de las Guacamayas Rojas en la Selva Maya.
I didn't begrudge Colossal for falsely claiming that they brought back the dire wolf since they’re trying to generate hype and investment, and a gray wolf with some dire wolf traits is part way there, but now the Secretary of the Interior is downplaying the need for ESA…
The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is to work with others to “conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people.” The Department of the Interior is excited about the potential of…
While it’s very cool to see a gray wolf with dire wolf traits, I think it’s disingenuous to called this bona fide de-extinction. It’s a great step, but there are many more than 15 genes worth of differences between the two species.
In Yellowstone’s predator hierarchy, cougars must navigate competition with wolves & bears. A new study from the team finds prey size influences predation patterns, food theft & shapes coexistence in unexpected ways. Check it out! nature.com/articles/s4200…
The Republicans had a generational opportunity to dominate politics after the left got too weird for the country. Instead, they're pursuing completely idiotic conquests and isolationism, getting even weirder and scarier. Can we just have normal leaders please?
Denmark's leadership has failed the people of Greenland, and their bullying tactics won't change that. Investment in Greenland's security is in America's best interest, and it will continue under President Trump.
Americans really want to be the good guys. It’s deeply ingrained in our identity. I don’t think any amount of propaganda will make taking over Greenland or making Canada the 51st state popular the way that Russia was able to sell the Ukraine invasion
Just 6% of Greenlanders want to join the United States. There are more people who think we faked the moon landing (~10%). 85% of Greenlanders are opposed. Meanwhile, less than 30% of Americans want Greenland to join the U.S. I've rarely seen anything so unpopular.
Please RT! Anyone in the wildlife ecology world in need of a good data analyst/ lab/ project manager or someone to help polish up those outstanding pubs? I have a brilliant graduating MS student looking. Photo from some of her work for attention!
Seeking a MS student interested in Natural History Museums to join my lab in the Dept Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Ecology at New Mexico State University @nmsu #museumjobs #museum jobs.rwfm.tamu.edu/view-job/?id=1…
Seems worth sharing that there is no such species as a "panther". This is a black color morph of a leopard, or "melanistic leopard". Jaguars can be melanistic as well. "Panthera" is the genus of several related big cats including jaguars, leopards, tigers, and lions.
Rescued panther raised with Rottweiler
Weird because it's in fact physics that has been in a crisis of insufficient progress on major issues (dark matter, string theory) while biology is going gangbusters with huge discoveries in the era of genomics, CRISPR, gene therapy, de-extinction, and ecological big data.
Peter Thiel said that the lack of progress in biology is partially due to a lack of talent. I think this makes sense. Something about biology's non-technical nature + people's inability to tinker w/biology outside of a lab/PhD make the smartest people select other fields.
Esta es una de las partes que mas me gusta de mi trabajo con las guacamayas rojas en la Reserva de la Biosfera Maya / Guatemala. Video - Rony Rodriguez y Víctor Delgado
There is a very significant chance that the entire Research and Development program at the US Forest Service is going to be dismantled in the coming weeks. This is going to be devastating and will hamstring our ability to manage public lands and the wildlife that depend on them.
Wait, has Tesla really lost a third of a trillion dollars in value over the last month?
No seasonal technicians this year, so the spotted owl monitoring program will be unable to survey nearly all of Federal land. latimes.com/environment/st…
You need to understand both General Relativity and Hubble expansion to correctly engineer Global Positioning System, which is a central part of modern civilian and military infrastructure. Here's why. 1/
Alright, I don't wish to be facetious, but what was the usefulness-value of Einstein's general theory of relativity, or of Hubble's analysis of red-shift? I mean in the sense that someone funding either of their work could speak of potential usefulness
I understand being mad at DOGE for bashing higher ed with a hammer — I am — but I do not understand academics who are not *also* furious at the inept higher ed “leaders” who torched our credibility, landed us a disapproval rating only rivaled by Congress, and put us in this spot.
All 5 are true: 1) DOGE has scrapped many stupid projects. 2) DOGE has axed many useful academic projects. 3) Universities lost their way, inviting the ongoing massive backlash. 4) The backlash is generally popular. 5) Universities have done little to regain the public’s trust.
Here is a recap of the Ukraine situation, for those choosing to reject propaganda and continue seeking truth: December 1994, Ukraine agrees to give up its nuclear arsenal in return for security guarantees from the US, UK, France, China and Russia. February 2014, Russia invades…
Sad spectacle today of the United States government siding with Russian aggressor against Ukraine. I would have resigned from any Administration that behaved so grotesquely. Secretary Bessent says I am wrong to have described him as seeking to impose Versailles-like terms on…
Save a little money now, lose a lot later by cutting the very thing that fuels American dominance in science and technology.
adding my voice to the chorus-- the NIH study section meant to review the renewal application for my grant (that works on pushing the frontiers of Deep Learning for population genetics) was cancelled...