Benjamin Larue
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benjaminlarue.bsky.social
Benjamin Larue
@benjaminlarue.bsky.social
180 followers 140 following 74 posts

Liber Ero Fellow | Université Laval
Collaborative caribou conservation research ❄️
Recherche collaborative sur la conservation du caribou ❄️

https://www.larue-wildresearch.com/

Videos
Environmental science 61%
Biology 22%
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benjaminlarue.bsky.social
Benjamin Larue @benjaminlarue.bsky.social · 22d
What’s happening on the Bathurst calving grounds?

We found strong spatiotemporal overlap between grizzlies and caribou during calving, highlighting potential risk during this sensitive period. Deeply grateful to the collaborators who made this work possible!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

picardonhealth.bsky.social
André Picard @picardonhealth @picardonhealth.bsky.social · 7d
The B.C. ostrich saga has come home to roost with a big bill. It’s not the government’s fault that it cost $6.8-million (and counting) to clean up this mess, by @picardonhealth.bsky.social www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/0fc7a92... via @theglobeandmail.com
The B.C. ostrich saga has come home to roost with a big bill
The only reason it cost so much was the stubborn refusal of the farm’s owners to comply with the cull order
www.theglobeandmail.com

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

j-fodi.bsky.social
John Fodi @j-fodi.bsky.social · 7d
Perú is also afflicted with the scourge of oil and gas development, often in protected areas and indigenous territories. How is it that peoples who have lived in the Amazon for thousands of years have such little say over the fate of their land?

#amazonia 🌍

news.mongabay.com/short-articl...
New data highlight Peru’s growing oil and gas footprint in the Amazon
New data show Peru has the Amazon’s largest oil and gas footprint and most lease blocks in rainforest areas overlap Indigenous lands and protected forests.
news.mongabay.com

benjaminlarue.bsky.social
Benjamin Larue @benjaminlarue.bsky.social · 9d
Cool piece about caribou in Alberta. Check it out! 🏔️

naturealberta.ca/get-to-know-...
Infographic showing the ranges of Alberta's woodland caribou and comparing the two caribou ecotypes. VICTORIA COLYN

Reposted by Tiziana A. Gelmi‐Candusso, Benjamin Larue

csee-scee.bsky.social
CSEE_SCEE @csee-scee.bsky.social · 10d
🎉 Big milestone alert! 🎉

The CSEE has reached 1,000 members, and is still growing!

A heartfelt thank you to every member for helping create such a supportive, inspiring community for ecologists and evolutionary biologists across Canada and beyond. 💚 Let's keep building this community together.

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

marcofesta.bsky.social
Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦 @marcofesta.bsky.social · 14d
Palm: If you build it, they will avoid it: new mines in the Canadian Rockies will further diminish habitat connectivity for G-bears 🧪 conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Changing grizzly bear space use and functional connectivity in response to human disturbance in the southern Canadian Rocky Mountains
We use simulated trajectories from fitted integrated step-selection functions to predict grizzly bear movements, space use, and functional connectivity in southwest Canada under three scenarios of hu....
conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

benjaminlarue.bsky.social
Benjamin Larue @benjaminlarue.bsky.social · 15d
Watching horrific events unfold in the US, I’m reminded of Neil Young’s Ohio—written after unarmed students were killed by the state while protesting the Vietnam War.

“What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground… How can you run when you know?”

What if you knew Renée Good or Alex Pretti?
Neil Young - Ohio [Live At Massey Hall 1971] (Video)
YouTube video by neilyoungchannel
www.youtube.com

Reposted by Anthony Ricciardi, Benjamin Larue

marcofesta.bsky.social
Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦 @marcofesta.bsky.social · 15d
True, very true. That is why I will have nothing to do with MDPI, Frontiers and Hindawi. Quote: "Now, even the most mediocre researchers receive a flood of invitations to edit one of these countless special issues, which have become a multi-million dollar business" 🧪

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

altnps.bsky.social
Alt National Park Service @altnps.bsky.social · 16d
What if you knew him?
What if you loved him?
What if you saw him lying dead on the ground?

How do you turn away from that?
How do you look elsewhere?
How do you just keep moving like nothing happened?

No video of a gun “brandished” at ICE soooooo manyyyyyy cameras were out there. Hmmmm…

Reposted by Jeremy T. Kerr, Roopika Risam, Mary Jane Curry , and 2 more

altnps.bsky.social
Alt National Park Service @altnps.bsky.social · 17d
Amazing! Way to go Minneapolis!

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

marcofesta.bsky.social
Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦 @marcofesta.bsky.social · 17d
Many Oz mammals only persist in fox- and cat-free islands or fenced exclosures. The role of these 2 introduced predators on mammalian extinctions should be obvious. Peddling of alternative facts by Compassionate Conservation types required a data-based rebuttal 🧪 academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...
Investigating the Causes of an Extinction Catastrophe: Controlling Introduced Predators Remains Essential for Conserving Australia’s Mammals
Abstract. At least 40 Australian mammal spcies have been driven to extinction since European colonization in 1788. For conservation management to be effect
academic.oup.com

benjaminlarue.bsky.social
Benjamin Larue @benjaminlarue.bsky.social · 18d
Last chance to contribute your voice againt more drilling in US coastal waters!

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

heidelyn.bsky.social
Lyn Heideman @heidelyn.bsky.social · 18d
You have a chance to say, NO! Earthjustice makes it fast and easy with a comment you can personalize and they'll send for you: earthjustice.org/action/stop-.... Comments due EOD Jan. 22. It takes minutes to save our oceans for generations. 🌎
Stop Trump’s plan to expand oil drilling in our oceans
Extracting oil and gas from beneath the ocean will harm millions of coastal residents and devastate countless ecosystems. Tell the Trump administration you oppose new oil and gas drilling off our coas...
earthjustice.org

benjaminlarue.bsky.social
Benjamin Larue @benjaminlarue.bsky.social · 18d
We need action now. Canada missed its 2025 conservation target while species decline and habitats keep being destroyed. Commitments without enforcement and funding are empty words. It’s time to protect nature, not just promise to. 🌱🇨🇦
thenarwhal.ca The Narwhal @thenarwhal.ca · 18d
The federal government said it would protect 25% of land and water by 2025. By December 2024, it had conserved 13.8% of land and fresh water and 15.5% of ocean areas, falling well short as habitat loss continues and pressure mounts to expand critical mineral production. thenarwhal.ca/canada-misse...
Canada falls short of 2025 conservation target | The Narwhal
Ottawa says it remains committed to hitting its next conservation milestone even as it races to expand critical minerals production
thenarwhal.ca

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

thenarwhal.ca
The Narwhal @thenarwhal.ca · 18d
The federal government said it would protect 25% of land and water by 2025. By December 2024, it had conserved 13.8% of land and fresh water and 15.5% of ocean areas, falling well short as habitat loss continues and pressure mounts to expand critical mineral production. thenarwhal.ca/canada-misse...
Canada falls short of 2025 conservation target | The Narwhal
Ottawa says it remains committed to hitting its next conservation milestone even as it races to expand critical minerals production
thenarwhal.ca

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

ryankbrook.bsky.social
Ryan Brook, PhD. Chairman of the Boar @ryankbrook.bsky.social · 19d
Caribou wearing hockey pucks?!

Some trail camera photos from summer of 2024 along the Hudson Bay coast in Wapusk National Park, of hockey puck sized something on these animals.

Papilloma is our best guess so far.

Have you ever seen this in caribou @irngutaq.bsky.social

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

pablo-ecology.bsky.social
Pablo Garcia-Diaz @pablo-ecology.bsky.social · 19d
Reading this paper on causal inference and attribution (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 🌎🌐), I came across this discussion. I used to favour simple models, even if I thought they could be biased, until my PhD cosupervisor (a math person) asked me "why would you choose a biased model?"
A screenshoot with the highlighted text reading "Researchers might gravitate toward simple models because they are often easier to interpret, reduce concerns of overfitting, and can lead to greater statistical power (e.g., by trimming explanatory variables) (Aho et al. 2014). Favouring simplicity, however, is not always beneficial for causal inference (Coelho et al. 2019). An imprecise but unbiased estimate (i.e., the expected value of the estimate is equal to the true value of the relationship being estimated (Dee et al. 2023; Simler-Williamson and Germino 2022)) is often preferred to a precise yet potentially biased estimate from a simple model."

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

sierramagazine.bsky.social
Sierra Magazine @sierramagazine.bsky.social · 19d
Habitat loss and development in the Rockies drove America's last caribou population in the lower 48 states to near extinction. The few remaining individuals were captured and sent to British Columbia. Now a mulitnational effort is underway to bring them back and protect old-growth forests. 🌎
Bringing Caribou Home
This Indigenous-led effort hopes to restore America's caribou population to the Northern Rockies
www.sierraclub.org

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

ekwo-tuktu.bsky.social
Ekwo-tuktu-caribou @ekwo-tuktu.bsky.social · 19d
After some reports of #caribou herd declines, some good news - the Baffin Island herd has reportedly rebounded to more than 48,000 after a low of 4,600 in 2014. New in our news section, www.northerncaribou.ca/news

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

marcofesta.bsky.social
Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦 @marcofesta.bsky.social · 21d
Last day to submit an abstract for the Toronto meeting of the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution, May 11-14
An excellent meeting in a functioning democracy. event.fourwaves.com/csee2026/sub...
Event Website - Fourwaves
Event Website
event.fourwaves.com

benjaminlarue.bsky.social
Benjamin Larue @benjaminlarue.bsky.social · 22d
Happy to discuss methods, limitations, or next steps — and to share a PDF on request.

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

romangoergen.bsky.social
Roman Goergen @romangoergen.bsky.social · 22d
🦬 Wildlife and the carbon cycle🧪
In Resurgence & Ecologist, I report on research showing how herbivores, predators and marine species influence vegetation, soils and fire regimes 🌍 — and how these interactions shape carbon storage in changing ecosystems.🌐
#Ecology #CarbonCycle #Science #climate

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

methodsinecoevol.bsky.social
Methods in Ecology and Evolution @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social · 23d
📖Published!

Can hierarchical modelling of co-occurrence data provide accurate inference into species interactions?

This review finds pitfalls in the use of hierarchical models applied to co-occurrence data in understanding species interactions🧪 🌍

Read more:
buff.ly

Reposted by Andreas Richter, Karen R. Lips, Daijiang Li , and 1 more

ipbes.net
IPBES @ipbes.net · 24d
New World Economic Forum Global Risks data provides a stark warning: While short-term crises dominate headlines, "Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse" jumps to the 2nd highest risk over the 10-year horizon.

The long term is sooner than we think. Science-based policies via IPBES are crucial.🌍
This infographic from the World Economic Forum shows global risks ranked by severity over two time periods: 2-year (short term) and 10-year (long term). The title reads "Global risks ranked by severity" with the WEF logo in the top right corner. The chart is divided into two columns, with risks color-coded into four categories: Environmental (green), Geopolitical (orange), Societal (red), and Technological (purple). In the short term (2 years), the top risks are: Geoeconomic confrontation Misinformation and disinformation Societal polarization Extreme weather events State-based armed conflict In the long term (10 years), the ranking shows: Extreme weather events Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse Critical change to Earth systems Misinformation and disinformation Adverse outcomes of AI technologies Both columns continue to rank risks through position 10, with environmental concerns featuring more prominently in the long-term outlook. The source is cited as "World Economic Forum Global Risks Perception Survey 2025-2026."

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

gregpriest.bsky.social
Greg Priest @gregpriest.bsky.social · 29d
Aldo Leopold was born OTD in 1887.

“We abuse land because we see it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”

#HpBio #HistSTM 🌎 #philsci #STS 🧪
Photo of Leopold in horseback. The Wilderness Society.

benjaminlarue.bsky.social
Benjamin Larue @benjaminlarue.bsky.social · Jan 5
"Cattle ranching is among the top causes of forest loss, with outsiders encroaching into Bosawás to clear forest for pasture. Indigenous advocates and residents say the loss of forest is threatening their way of life, and that they have faced violence due to encroachment."

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

j-fodi.bsky.social
John Fodi @j-fodi.bsky.social · Jan 5
More bad news. 🌍

news.mongabay.com/2025/12/defo...
Deforestation climbs in Central America’s largest biosphere reserve
Encompassing some 7,400 square kilometers, or 2,860 square miles, along the Honduran border, Nicaragua’s Bosawás Biosphere Reserve is the largest biosphere reserve in Central America. It’s home to the...
news.mongabay.com

benjaminlarue.bsky.social
Benjamin Larue @benjaminlarue.bsky.social · Jan 5
Just watched this documentary about Gwich’in struggles in Alaska 🏔️ — a powerful reminder of why caribou matter, and why I work on caribou conservation in the first place.

Especially urgent now, with renewed oil and gas drilling plans in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge!
The Refuge: Fighting for a Way of Life | Patagonia Films
YouTube video by Patagonia
www.youtube.com

benjaminlarue.bsky.social
Benjamin Larue @benjaminlarue.bsky.social · Dec 31
Incredible opportunity to work towards caribou restoration with an Indigenous-led conservation non-profit in British Columbia! ⛰️🌲
Executive Director
We are seeking an Executive Director to play a leadership role at an Indigenous-led conservation non-profit.
cariboufutures.ca

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

heidelyn.bsky.social
Lyn Heideman @heidelyn.bsky.social · Dec 25
Trump puts lumps of coal in Americans' Christmas stockings.

Trump gave 2 gifts to coal: 2 coal-burning power plants in Indiana to stay open, and hundreds of coal plants given an additional 5 years before they need to prevent toxic chemicals from leaching into sources of drinking water.