Charlie T
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agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
Charlie T
@agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
1.7K followers 1.6K following 210 posts
Herpetologist & PhD student studying range dynamics and conservation of T. cristatus under global change 🐸

Conisseur of all things slimy, scaly and generally underrated🐍

I go to gigs 🤘 sometimes I draw stuff 🦎
All views my own 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🍉
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agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
✌️ I love being a scary lefty activist
A quote from someone on a social media app which says "just another day pushing my far left extremist agenda of wanting to make sure everyone is fed and able to go to the doctor", this is overlayed on top of a picture of a pink rose in the sunshine
November 20, 2025 at 10:43 PM
agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
Wonderful catching up with Rob today, chatting about his and my group's work on range shifts and species dynamics. Very interesting to hear about his work on butterflies in Spain and how changing climate is affecting species diversity at different altitudes.
Presentation slide explaining some results of research looking at the magnitude of range shifts, the effects on adaptive capacity of butterflies and how species with greater wingspans have moved further upwards. Presentation slide on understanding the biological mechanisms of range shifts, with some picture of people working in the field and the lab. There is also reference to a paper entitled "Clustered warming tolerance and the nonlinear risks of biodiversity loss on a warming planet" from Royal Society B publishing.
November 20, 2025 at 4:41 PM
agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
Looking forward to this week's department seminar with Rob Wilson @robwilsonmncn.bsky.social from the #science museum in Madrid, invited by @camilarocabado.bsky.social
A seminar slide in a lecture theatre which reads: population and community effects of global change revealed by butterflies
November 20, 2025 at 12:04 PM
agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
Very moving presentation from one of the recipients of the EUEA award from @eseb.bsky.social . As a trans academic myself, seeing effort being put into inclusivity has been refreshing. Thank you for platforming this topic and supporting people like this speaker 🏳️‍⚧️
A picture of a presentation slide which reads "The path to freedom, surviving as a trans academic". To the left is also a banner displaying the logo of the ESEB conference and in front are a few chairs facing the stage. Another presentation slide which contains some Qr code links to resources and some steps which academics could take to make space for trans academics. These steps are as follows: - apply for DEI grants - support LGBTQ+ scholarship funds - learn about local medical/legal systems to offer newly-arrived colleagues guidance - Avoid harmful rhetoric and behaviours
August 22, 2025 at 9:39 AM
agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
A selection of the wonderful #herp posters I have seen this week at #ESEB the European society for evolutionary biology conference 🐸 the sheer breadth of topics being covered is awesome, from population trends and conservation genetics to transposable elements and sexual dimorphism in meiosis!
The following pictures in this post are all of scientific posters at an evolutionary biology conference which show the methods and/or results of research currently being conducted on a wide range of topics, often accompanied by figures, pictures and graphs that help with the explanation. The title is usually displayed at the top of the page along with the authors names and their contact information, some people also choose to put a picture of themselves on the poster so that people recognise them and can talk to them at the poster session.
August 21, 2025 at 9:10 PM
agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
Having a great time at the European society for Evolutionary Biology conference! Loads of interesting talks and posters, including a strong Aberdeen contingent, favorite title so far definitely goes to Eva Ringer with "who let the frogs out" 🐸 #evolution #biology #conference #herpetology
A room full of people watching a presentation entitled "who let the frogs out?" A room of people at the conference watching a presentation entitled "uncovering the genetic and mechanistic basis of phenotypic polymorphisms in island populations of wall lizards" A room of people watching a presentation entitled "sexual selection shapes eco-evolutionary dynamics at range margins. A room of people watching a presentation, the slide is about diversification and adaptation in a changing world.
August 19, 2025 at 6:06 PM
agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
Looking forward to presenting my poster later at ESEB 2025 🐸 board 166 come find me if you're here
A person standing in front of a scientific poster and smiling
August 18, 2025 at 1:01 PM
agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
This is where the heat is at I'm telling y'all
A picture of a Livestream on a computer monitor from the "rattlecam" project which is a Livestream showing rattlesnake hibernacula. On screen is a rattlesnake basking on some rocks in the morning sun.
June 10, 2025 at 2:14 PM
agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
Update: still watching rattlecam, I'm going crazy on R, but these silly goobers are a nice distraction
June 10, 2025 at 1:47 PM
agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
Happy Pride Month @uniofaberdeen.bsky.social it has been over a year since we opened a complaints process regarding the transphobia in SBS and have been met with a wall of silence ever since. Performative gestures like this are not enough to reconcile the harm that has been caused.
A picture of the old King's College Aberdeen university chapel building, which is in the late gothic architectural style, with with a progress pride flag flying from a flag pole atop the building.
June 2, 2025 at 5:34 PM
agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
A selection of posters from the Aberdeen school of biological sciences post-grad research conference, a TOTALLY unbiased, definitely not just my friends whose wonderful posters I wanted to show off 🐸 #eDNA #entomology #herpetology #genetics @sebastianrvh.bsky.social @blahttodea.bsky.social
A scientific poster titled "characterising mother-offspring interactions in a sub social cockroach: limited evidence of care and novel use of the Hinde index" by Georgia Cash A scientific poster titled "Next generation diagnostic technologies for DNA based bio surveillance of non-native mussels in the South Atlantic" by Sebastian van Hellemondt. A scientific poster from a project titled "The Effect of climate change and land use on stream frogs in Malayan rainforest of Hala-Bala wildlife sanctuary, Thailand" by Ruthairat Songchan A scientific poster titled " The K-tabase: a comprehensive database of plant genetic diversity and population structure statistics for macro genetic analysis" by Tinu Adenegha
May 23, 2025 at 2:06 PM
agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
This was a nice full circle moment for me. 4 years on from being an undergrad learning about #reptile and #amphibian ecology, I got to pass it forward and teach some Aberdeen students a bit about adder ecology and survey techniques at the Muir of Dinnet Nature Reserve in the Cairngorms.
A class of students standing around a large topographic map of the Muir of Dinnet reserve with the reserve manager pointing towards the map, mid-explanation. A sign post standing in the middle of some grass with trees in the background. The sign has a warning on it to visitors that they are entering an area with adders and that they should keep their dogs on the lead. A juvenile adder shelters at the base of a tree, obscured by some long Tufts of grass.
May 21, 2025 at 10:24 PM
agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
Excited about this department seminar today!
A title slide for a presentation which reads "Study 1: The oldest and only whole genome from ancient Egypt" by Linus Girdland Flink, a lecturer at Aberdeen University.
May 1, 2025 at 12:05 PM
agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
Fantastic work from the Herp folks at @zslofficial.bsky.social and the Natural History Museum in London using Wild-ID software and the unique patterns around caecilian cloacas to identify different individuals! Great fun 🐸 www.researchgate.net/publication/...
A figure from the linked research paper showing two caecilian cloacas annotated to show pattern differences. The figure legend reads: Figure 1. Key characteristics used to identify individual Herpele squalostoma. The left image is unaltered for comparison. The right annotated image shows characteristics - A. The outline shape of the cloacal disc region, B. The extent and shape of the annular grooves and C. The proximity of adjacent annular grooves.
April 1, 2025 at 6:32 PM
agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
World frog day was Thursday but the celebrations are continuing at this woodland pond in Aberdeenshire where breeding season is in full swing! If you up the volume you can hear them call! 🐸 #herps #frogs #worldfrogday
March 23, 2025 at 2:08 PM
agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
This might be one of my favorite threads. Not a creature card but the bloomburrow reissue of run away together has insane queer energy to me. Libo and Pulla are relationship goals 🐸 #mtg
An image of a magic the gathering playing card called "run away together" which is an instant. It has an illustration of a frog and an otter sat in a little wooden sail boat holding hands, around them growing out of the water are lily pads. The text on the card reads "Choose two target creatures controlled by different players. Return those creatures to their owners' hands" underneath this is some lore which reads "nobody bothered to look for Libo and Pulla, because everyone knew they didn't want to be found".
January 24, 2025 at 8:17 PM
agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
I hope everyone's had a restful holiday, Solstice certainly has
An orange cat wrapped up in a brown blanket, sitting on a bed An orange cat stretched out on a blanket facing towards the camera, her paws are close to the camera and she has a relaxed expression.
January 3, 2025 at 11:27 AM
agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
This is your sign to visit the zoo when it's misty!
A mother and baby rhinoceros from a distance in a field, which is heavily shrouded in mist. A large pond with trees in the background and a misty haze, on the pond are several flamingos foraging and preening, in the very foreground is a juvenile which is grey instead of the characteristic pink of the adults also present.
December 27, 2024 at 10:26 PM
agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
Fantastic visit to the Royal Academy of Arts in London to see the "Drawings of the Renaissance" exhibition which primarily features drawings from Da Vinci, Raphael and Michaelangelo along with some paintings and the fantastic Taddei Tonto marble. Absolutely worth a visit #artsky buffs
A marble tonto (round) sculpture/carving titled The Virgin and Child with the Infant St John, ca. 1504-05 by Michelangelo Buonarroti. The following description is taken from the Royal Academy website: The 'Taddei Tondo' is the only marble sculpture by Michelangelo in Great Britain. At the left side of the tondo stands the infant figure of St. John the Baptist, with his attribute of a baptismal bowl. He presents what appears to be a goldfinch (representing the Passion) to the infant Christ, who momentarily turns away, towards his mother, symbolically anticipating his future destiny. An image of "The Burlington House Cartoon" by Leonardo Da Vinci ca. 1506-1508. This is a layered charcoal drawing on canvas. On loan from the National Gallery to the RA for this exhibition, the following description is from the National Gallery website: The Virgin Mary sits on her mother’s lap, her attention focused on the wriggling Christ Child. Her mother, Saint Anne, looks intently at her through deep-set eyes and points upwards to the heavens, indicating the child’s divinity. Christ’s cousin, Saint John the Baptist, leans against Anne’s lap as the baby Christ tickles his chin. A close up section of a copy of Leonardo Da Vinci's "The Battle of Anghiari" (the fight for the standard). This was made by an unknown artist and later retouched by Peter Paul Reubens. In the central scene of the mural Da Vinci focuses on 4 military leaders locked in ferocious combat. This close up focuses on a man lying on the ground on his back with horses looming over him, panicked expressions on their faces.
December 27, 2024 at 10:20 PM
agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
Not bad, not bad! #bluesky #wrapped
A screenshot from bluesky wrapped which says "59.8%, you're a natural at sparking interesting conversations" in reference to post engagement. A screenshot which says #herps, which was my most used hashtag A summary of stats from my bluesky wrapped which states my most active month was November, I posted a total of 112 posts and my longest streak was 13 days, which has earned me the bluesky wrapped "rising star award"
December 27, 2024 at 10:50 AM
agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
Slipknot at the Glasgow Hydro, damn what a show #metalsky whole set from 1999!
3 musicians from the band slipknot standing on stage, the lighting is hazy and green. The bass player and Corey both have their fists raised in the air. You can also see part of the slipknot banner in the background and in the foreground the heads of the members of security who are watching the crowd. A wider angle of the stage where you can see 4 members of the band and the entire backdrop with "Slipknot" written on it, from left to right is Jim Root on guitar, then Alessandro Venturella on bass, Corey Taylor on vocals and just visible far to the right is Mick Thompson also on guitar. Sid Wilson's turntable is just visible between Alessandro and Corey further back on the stage. With this wide angle you can also see the height of the domed roof of the hydro arena.
December 21, 2024 at 10:13 AM
agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
Very cool implications from Renoir Auguste about the utility of passive acoustic monitoring for amphibians, would definitely like to see this used more widely to plug some of the gaps in our knowledge of amphibian conservation assessments in underrepresented countries #herps 🐸🌍
A slide from a presentation titled "Amphibians are of conservation concern", and detailing how amphibians are the most threatened class of vertebrates. On the right is a picture of a starry dwarf frog. Another slide from the same presentation which has pictures on it of 6 species of Anuran that were visually detected on Trinidad and Tobago where the study was carried out.
December 13, 2024 at 1:51 PM
agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
Last day of the @britishecolsoc.bsky.social Annual Meeting 🌍🧪 it's been an absolutely packed 3 days, looking forward now to getting home but not before I hear from Renoir Auguste about sampling protocols for Neotropical Anurans (of course!) 🐸
December 13, 2024 at 12:55 PM
agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
Great talk from Angela Julien on the plight of adders in the UK, the declines we have seen particularly in smaller populations and what we can do to restore them at the landscape level. Been following the make the adder count project for a while, great to see results coming from this data 🐍 #herps
A presentation slide on a large projector in an auditorium which reads "The vanishing viper! investigating potential ecological time lags in adder declines". A slide from the same presentation, which describes how an ecological time lag from historic persecution could be one of the reasons why adders are still declining despite conservation interventions.
December 12, 2024 at 4:21 PM
agentlaughingperch.bsky.social
Very good (and somewhat concerning!) talk from Rebecca Senior on global shortfalls in documented actions to conserve biodiversity in the ecological time lags session this afternoon. She highlighted some interesting statistics of conservation interventions not preventing declines. #conservation 🌍
A presentation at the BES Annual Meeting in an auditorium. The slide on the projection screen is showing how when intervention is present or lacking in uplifted or down listed species. Another slide from the same presentation which states the importance of measuring what work we are doing in conservation and that time lags can obscure the outcomes.
December 12, 2024 at 3:54 PM