Benjamin Larue
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benjaminlarue.bsky.social
Benjamin Larue
@benjaminlarue.bsky.social

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

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

Environmental science 61%
Biology 22%
Pinned
Wildlife deserves more than minimum viable populations.
Conservation should aim for ecosystems where species can thrive, not just survive. 💥🦬🌲

👉 Read more:
Wildlife recovery means more than just survival of a species
Current laws that deem species safe from extinction ignore their ecological role, geographic range and genetic diversity, as well as their relationships with people.
theconversation.com

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

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.

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

🌲 A beautiful story of restoration and long-term commitment to helping caribou thrive again in the Boreal Forest. Worth watching!
The Medzih Story - Restoring a Caribou Landscape
YouTube video by Fort Nelson First Nation
www.youtube.com

Nice, accessible overview from WWF on caribou and reindeer and why they matter in a rapidly changing Arctic. It's been great to collaborate with Jan Adamczewski and WWF on caribou research across northern Canada.

wwf.ca/stories/fact...

#Caribou #Arctic #Conservation
Same species, different stories: The facts about caribou and reindeer - WWF.CA
Are reindeer and caribou really that different? And what challenges are these deer-like animals facing across the Arctic?
wwf.ca

Another reason to stop building out! Stop the sprawl!!! More 🏞️ and less standalone 🏡
Wildfires are destroying more buildings than in the past because of increased development in the wildland–urban interface. But fires in the coterminous United States were also more destructive in the 2013–2022 period than from 2002–2012. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/HRk650XMxNC
A reminder: Biodiversity loss, climate change, and species invasions are among the top environmental drivers of infectious disease outbreaks.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A meta-analysis on global change drivers and the risk of infectious disease
Nature - Reducing greenhouse gas emissions, managing ecosystem health, and preventing biological invasions and biodiversity loss could help to reduce the burden of plant, animal and human diseases,...
www.nature.com
.. and not a word about scientists having been warning for years that this deadly parasite will be moved around by taxpayer-subsidized game farms. Do better, CBC
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Parasitic brain worm deadly for moose, elk, caribou found in Alberta | CBC News
A parasitic brain worm fatal to moose, elk, and caribou has been confirmed in northern Alberta for the first time.
www.cbc.ca

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

It’s nearly Christmas.

I can’t wait to give the gift of holding power to account for shitty decisions.

Subscribe and donate to:

@thenarwhal.ca
@thetyee.ca
@nationalobserver.com
@ricochetmedia.bsky.social
@breachmedia.ca
@readthemaple.bsky.social
@pressprogress.ca
@theijf.org

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

Wildfires are destroying more buildings than in the past because of increased development in the wildland–urban interface. But fires in the coterminous United States were also more destructive in the 2013–2022 period than from 2002–2012. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/HRk650XMxNC

🗺️ New Bathurst barren-ground caribou migration map now live!
A great visualization of seasonal movements and connectivity for one of the most iconic Arctic herds.

Explore it here → www.cms.int/gium/migrati...

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

More about RFK Jr.'s colonialist medicine.

The study team describes period before universal vaccination-at-birth in 2027 as a "unique window of opportunity".

In a sense they're right. It's a unique window of opportunity for a wealthy country to experiment on citizens of the global south.
Many people have been giving excellent updates about the $1.6 million that RFK Jr. has given to Danish researchers to “study” the HepB birth dose in Guinea-Bissau, and I’m glad this story is spreading.

The first thing that was confirmed is that the researchers are Benn and Aady, as many predicted.
Hepatitis B vaccine at birth – Bandim Health Project
Thanks to funding from the Pershing Square Foundation, the Bluebell Foundation and the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), researchers at the Bandim Health Project are now able to in...
www.bandim.org
As far as I can tell, RFK Jr.'s latest antivax stunt runs counter to the WMA Declaration of Helsinki. Withholding HepB vaccination clearly does not meet any definition of clinical equipoise. Doing it anyway, overseas, is straight up colonialist medicine.

Details in Dr. Jacobs's thread below.

Always fun to read about some wins for nature and climate amid all the bad news! 🏞️🌳
Seven quiet wins for climate and nature in 2025
Here are the year's breakthroughs for the climate and nature you might have missed.
www.bbc.com

It was great to spend time in Yellowknife and skiing to meetings with caribou co-management, community, and GNWT partners. The -35 C temperature was less nice 😅

Beautiful!
Lichens on a stick. Left to right - Vulpicidia, Xanthoria (I think), Physcia, and Hypogymnia. Northwest Territories, Canada.
#lichen #fungi #fungifriends

Great work by DeCesare! All you need to know about moose in Montana
DeCesare: weak effects of predation on moose pop dynamics in Montana. Age, nutrition affect both adult ♀️ survival and reproduction. Surprising +ve effect of summer temp on survival, no effect of ticks but -ve effect of arterial worms 🧪 wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
TWS Journals
Despite concerns surrounding the dynamics of moose along their southern range extent in North America, population growth rate estimates indicated stable to increasing trends within 3 study areas repr...
wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Do it for the birds!

We must stop worshipping the detached standalone home and instead focus on shared space, shared land, and collective living as the real path to sustainable lifestyles. 🌍💚
Why Grand Designs-style eco-homes aren’t a good blueprint for sustainable living
We can’t all live in rural idyll.
theconversation.com

Sounds like an incredible job!!!
Anyone interested in being the next polar bear biologist for Nunavut? Starting at $143,000/year including northern living allowance is not shabby though cost of living is truly insano up there. There is an opportunity for some work from home.

www.gov.nu.ca/en/jobs/wild...
www.gov.nu.ca
Conservation groups and an Iñupiat-led grassroots organization filed a lawsuit today seeking to overturn the Trump administration’s approval of ConocoPhillips’ winter seismic and exploration #drilling program in the Western #Arctic ➡️ bit.ly/3MWgiuM
Anyone interested in being the next polar bear biologist for Nunavut? Starting at $143,000/year including northern living allowance is not shabby though cost of living is truly insano up there. There is an opportunity for some work from home.

www.gov.nu.ca/en/jobs/wild...
www.gov.nu.ca

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

I tested GPTzero's ability to identify hallucinated articles. It flagged real articles as fake sometimes. Worse, it flagged many hallucinated articles as real. And the kicker: it even gave me (hallucinated) links as evidence that the fake articles were real.

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

WTAF:

@cityofwinnipeg.bsky.social considering removing bylaw for bird-friendly windows.

Bylaw only applies to new builds along major corridors & near malls!

But industry doesn’t like it. So nature takes the hit, literally.

Winnipeggers, you gotta write to council.

www.cbc.ca/player/play/...
Researcher 'shocked' as Winnipeg considers scrapping recent bird-friendly window bylaw
The City of Winnipeg is considering 'deleting' its bird-friendly window requirements for a mix of new builds along major corridors and near malls based on industry feedback that suggested the rule was...
www.cbc.ca

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

DeCesare: weak effects of predation on moose pop dynamics in Montana. Age, nutrition affect both adult ♀️ survival and reproduction. Surprising +ve effect of summer temp on survival, no effect of ticks but -ve effect of arterial worms 🧪 wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
TWS Journals
Despite concerns surrounding the dynamics of moose along their southern range extent in North America, population growth rate estimates indicated stable to increasing trends within 3 study areas repr...
wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Lichens on a stick. Left to right - Vulpicidia, Xanthoria (I think), Physcia, and Hypogymnia. Northwest Territories, Canada.
#lichen #fungi #fungifriends
UF Biology is searching for an Asst Prof in Evolution, Ecology of Infectious Disease - spread the word! @ufresearch.bsky.social @ufgeog.bsky.social @sse-evolution.bsky.social

explore.jobs.ufl.edu/en-us/job/53...
University of Florida - Details - Assistant Professor in Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Disease
explore.jobs.ufl.edu

Go Fort Peck! We need more bison restoration projects 🦬🦬🦬

Reposted by Benjamin Larue

Short-term gain for long-term pain: after the feds, Quebéc's provincial gov't proposes a law stating that major projects can bypass Environmental and Endangered Species laws. These projects may be examined and amended, but WILL be approved.
Projet de loi de la CAQ pour accélérer des projets majeurs: le gouvernement Legault se donne le droit de ne pas appliquer des dispositions des lois qui sont censées protéger la faune et la flore, dont les espèces menacées:

Reposted by Benjamin Larue