Sea Otters Fight Climate Change
We've hit the big time, getting mocked in the Onion! Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, found that kelp forests were able to absorb 12 times more carbon dioxide in the presence of sea otters, a result of the aquatic mammals preying on kelp-eating...
Sea Otters Strike a Blow for the Environment?
From National Geographic, a short well-done article on our recent sea otter - carbon pub. When hungry sea otters whack spiky urchins against rocks on their chests, the mammals may also be striking a blow against global warming. By preying on urchins—which themselves...
The ghost cat: Mountain lion slips across Highway 17 regularly
From the Santa Cruz Sentinel/San Jose Mercury News, a nice article on 16m's penchant for crossing roads. Not sure where they got the name Atlas from, but so it goes. By the way, that large scare he has in the photo above on his rump - we think he got hit and dragged...
Predators, Prey and Lyme Disease
From the NY Times, a great article on our recent PNAS paper showing a possibly important role of predators in the emergence of Lyme disease. Be sure to read the comments section. Taal does a brilliant job of answering a number of tough questions about the study....
More coastal salmon spawning helps grizzlies and fisheries
From Conservation Magazine, a short article on our recent PLoS Biology article: Letting more salmon escape fisheries along the coast could boost both grizzly bear populations and fishery yields, according to a new study in PLoS Biology. Fishery managers already let a...
‘Smart Collar’ in the Works to Manage Wildlife Better
From the NY Times an article on our NSF funded collaring technology. There's some nice quotes from Terrie on her recent trip to Colorado. The collars, in development in academia and intended for commercial production in the next...
Luring mountain lions to learn to live amongst them
From Crosscurrents on NPR, I love this radio piece about our puma project. Pay close attention to my toothbrush quote! http://kalwnews.org/audio/download/1018688/WEB.BigCats.mp3 Although they live all around us, encounters with lions are unusual because there just...
Let Them Run
From Conservation Magazine, a nice little article on our recent paper in Conservation Letters calling for a small number of fully protected salmon runs. Ask not what a park can do for spawning salmon. Ask what robust salmon runs could do for the park – and for coastal...
Top 100 Stories of 2009
Discover magazine listed our PNAS article as #30 on its list of top 100 science stories of 2009. Humans are powerful agents of evolutionary change: Wild animals and plants that are hunted or harvested evolve three times as quickly as they would naturally, according to...
Human-Driven Evolution
From Science Friday on NPR, Chris Darimont discusses our recent PNAS paper on human-driven evolution. Listen to the full radio spot here. Can humans angling for the prize-winning fish shift the course of evolution? Research...
