fionamathews.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

There is huge interest in hedgehogs in UK, but worth remembering that we know almost nothing at all about some of the hedgehog species found across Europe. And ignorance rarely equals bliss! 🦔 @abigazzard.bsky.social @mammalconeurope.bsky.social.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Up bright and early today, delivering an online webinar to Australian ecologists about managing the impacts of wind farms on bats. Here is our secret to finding bat casualties! #searchdog #dog #wildlife #bats #Eurobats #turbines #renewable

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

It's #WorldWildlifeDay! 🐻 Our Professor @fionamathews.bsky.social recently returned from her latest research trip to #Ecuador with camera trap images of native wildlife including the Andean Bear, Puma, Tayra and Culpeo. Read about this vital conservation project: www.sussex.ac.uk/research/cen...

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

Which is odder: a species that's completely blind or one that's covered in prickles? Free webinar Monday 3rd April 12.00 CET on these amazing, threatened animals. Get a place here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mammal-con... @mammalconeurope.bsky.social @mammalsocietyyouth.bsky.social @ptes-org.bsky.social

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

Beavers will soon be on their way to somewhere near you (at least if you're in Britain). Wild reintroductions are now legal in England, they will swim to Wales, and beaver bombing 👉 large population in Scotland. Find out more: rss.com/podcasts/mam... #beavers #wildlife #nature #conservation

submitted 7 days ago • 2 comments

Whales sing when they’ve had a good meal. What an utterly gorgeous insight into our wonderful world 🌎

submitted 8 days ago • 8 comments

Cutting overseas aid is immoral and counter-productive. How about starting here: overspend on HS2 budget is (conservatively) £20Bn. Budget for overseas aid is £13.7Bn of which a third is spent in UK on asylum housing etc. 15 minutes faster to Birmingham or saving people from starvation and disease?

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

Wild boar on Dartmoor are attracting scaremonger headlines. Here is a podcast to help separate out fact from fiction. www.treesacrowd.fm/fiona-mathew...

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

Unbelievable. Donald Trump has been invited to a state visit to the UK. We should not be rolling out the red carpet to celebrate this man. Agree? Add your name to the petition today: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/no...

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

Excellent interview from @craigbennett3.bsky.social on Rights of Nature and why they matter.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

‘About time they got some credit’: why hoverflies are an underappreciated insect www.theguardian.com/environment/...

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

Glad to have something positive to talk about tonight. Thank you to the good people of Chumleigh, mid-Devon, who shared our delight that #beavers are to be released in England. @oneworldbooks.bsky.social @beavertrust.bsky.social. Well done to Devon Wildlife Trust, @alanputtock.bsky.social and more!

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

More exciting news from UK! (What is going on?!) Farmers invited to trial of a cattle vaccination against TB. Could be a game-changer, and is a welcome change from obsessive focus on badger culling, which has killed hundreds of thousands of animals and achieved little. www.gov.uk/government/n...

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Excellent news! Just hope the reality isn't bogged down with bureaucracy.

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Undoubtedly one of my favourite bats. So much attitude!

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Last call! Midnight tonight deadline to apply for a PhD with my group on serotine bat #ecology, helping develop rabies control strategy. Info here (nb. overseas fees waivers available & residency restrictions not relevant as project is field/desk not lab). www.sussex.ac.uk/study/fees-f... #bats

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Genuinely something to celebrate 🦫🦫! After years of foot-dragging, and recent government wobbles, beaver restoration in England is to be approved. Well done @naturalengland.bsky.social! www.theguardian.com/environment/... @mammalconeurope.bsky.social @mammalsocietyyouth.bsky.social

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

A question for ecologists/zoologists/conservationists. Did field courses propel you towards your career? They were critical for me: sad to see many universities cancelling them to cut costs. Still core in my @sussex.ac.uk teaching #ecology @cieem.bsky.social @mammalsocietyyouth.bsky.social #students

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

Delighted to welcome @fionamathews.bsky.social & @timkendall70.bsky.social in Chiswick on 18th March to speak to us about their life in mammal conservation and their fab book! Visit wildchiswick.com/event/mammal... to learn more and register. All welcome!

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

Nom nom! This hungry little guy we met in the cloud forest loves fruit (not blood 🧛‍♂️). So my students are monitoring seed dispersal by bats on our @sussex.ac.uk Ecuador field course. #bats #rainforest #conservation #zoology 🦇🥑🥭

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

🦇🇺🇦 Meet PRINCESS CINNAMON, the bat I've adopted from #BatsUkraine. CINNAMON was rescued in 2022, about the time the war began. Due to an injured wing CINNAMON is unreleasable.

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

Find out a bit about what I do at @sussex.ac.uk here: youtube.com/shorts/I7KAZ... #bears #wildlife #rainforest #conservation

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

Very glad to see that action being pursued here for damaging wildlife habitat. I have numerous other examples of blatant damage like this from Drainage Boards who think rules on environmental protection don't apply to them. #wildlife #conservation www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.bbc....

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

#BatsInArtSpecial In 2022, the year of Russia's attack on Ukraine, Ukrposhta @ukrposhta.bsky.social paid tribute to the country's rich biodiversity with this magnificent stamp. #BatOfResilience #StandWithUkraine

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

NFU President Tom Bradshaw boasts that last year the NFU "fended off the Right to Roam". Labour must decide whether to side with an unrepresentative lobby group, or the grassroots @righttoroam.bsky.social campaign whose ask is backed by 69% of the public. www.nfuonline.com/updates-and-...

submitted 12 days ago • 5 comments

Just a few more days to apply for a PhD with me! Use new technologies to study movement and ecology of serotine bats in UK. Evidence can guide future rabies control strategies, helping bats and people. Click on project 'Understanding transmission..' here: www.surrey.ac.uk/bbsrc-wessex... #PhD #bats

submitted 12 days ago • 3 comments

Are big bad badgers driving hedgehog declines in Britain? Hot off the press.. short answer is no says @richardyarnell.bsky.social. Very weak -ve relationship between the species but absolutely dwarfed by other factors, esp. road casualties. Read whole paper here: doi.org/10.1002/ece3... #hedgehogs 🦔

submitted 12 days ago • 1 comment

Fences are such a problem for so many species, including some very rare ones. This needs high-level action. www.newscientist.com/article/2107...

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

What can be done to conserve and monitor #hedgehogs? Looking forward to today's discussions at @londonzoo.bsky.social @ptes-org.bsky.social @hedgehogsociety.bsky.social where I will be talking about plastic ingestion, researched by @emilyzoologist1.bsky.social 🦔🦔🦔 #wildlife

submitted 13 days ago • 2 comments

Border fences are a huge problem to the world's wildlife, from blind-mole rats to zebras. Not sure how they get past Environmental Impact Assessments.

submitted 13 days ago • 1 comment

When an Andean bear decides to rearrange your camera trap! 🐻📷 #bears #wildlife #conservation #rainforest @wildlabsnet.bsky.social @andeanbears.bsky.social @bearconservation.bsky.social @shahselbe.bsky.social

submitted 13 days ago • 1 comment

Exciting news as part of our OneBat Horizon project. Next step will be Motus receivers to try to detect international movements. 🦇🌍 #bats #ecology #onehealth #conservation cyprus-mail.com/2025/02/21/g...

submitted 13 days ago • 2 comments

Graffiti horses drawn by Victorian quarrymen (plus a random head) I found underground this week. Did you know that faces are almost always turned to the left when drawn on walls by right-handed people? 👀. You're welcome! #history #drawing #caves

submitted 13 days ago • 1 comment

That's another another radio-receiver station installed today. Now we can sit back and wait for migrating #bats and #birds to be logged as they fly up the Axe Estuary (carrying radiotags as part of the #Motus network). @eastdevon.bsky.social #wildlife @axebirder.bsky.social 🦇🐦‍⬛📡

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

This week has mainly been spent underground, studying gorgeous greater horseshoe bats with @wiltsbatgroup.bsky.social 🦇🦇 #wildlife

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

Found a new greater and lesser horseshoe roost today. Wonderful when bulding custodians love their wildlife. Thanks @nationaltrust.bsky.social!

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

The things you find on bat surveys.. Have been crawling around underground for the past few days, monitoring bats and training new bat peeps. @wiltsbatgroup.bsky.social 🦇

submitted 17 days ago • 2 comments

Scarily, Europe is going the same way. Pushed by EU president Von der Leyen after her pony was killed by a wolf, Strict Protection for wolves under the Bern Convention was removed in December against scientific advice. Shout out to Albania and Luxembourg for objecting! @mammalconeurope.bsky.social

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

Reducing demand and paying fair prices are key parts of solution. Regulation comes with its own problems, disenfranchsing small farmers who can't afford cerification fees. Richest nations ‘exporting extinction’ with demand for beef, palm oil and timber 🌍 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

Wild boar are native to Britian: we wiped them out. They are messy, inconvenient creatures with a massive role in restoring our broken ecosystems. The straight tails strongly correspond with wild-type genetics. I'd like to see why they are described as "Feral pigs". www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

submitted 24 days ago • 3 comments

First lynx now boar. On @bbcscotlandnewsnot.bsky.social tonight, talking about the guerilla releases. Spoiller: nobody has EVER been attacked by a lynx, and almost all wild boar incidents are when they are being attacked by dogs or people: in my view that's self-defence. #animals #wildlife #nature

submitted 24 days ago • 2 comments

In need of good news? Here is some!🌳 🌍

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments