California Academy of Sciences

Last Valentine’s Day, we teamed up with the @AquariumPacific, @calacademy, @sandiegozoo and the @SunStarLab to achieve an extraordinary conservation milestone: the successful spawning of #SunflowerSeaStars! ⭐ Check out our work featured in @NatGeo ⬇️ nationalgeographic.com/animals/articl…

As the temperatures drop, we know it’s harder to get out of your warm bed (or chrysalis). However, visiting our white morphos in the 85°F climate-controlled Osher rainforest might be worth venturing out into the cold.

This seagull definitely heard we’re looking for sea stars this month… All iNaturalist observations of CA sea stars count towards the 2024 Solstice Sea Star Search, but maybe avoid replicating this bird’s invasive approach. More at bit.ly/seastar24 © Ellyne Geurts

Low tides are coming, and it’s the best time of the year to go tide pooling! Use our app, bit.ly/TideFinder, to see when your nearby coastlines will be most navigable, and upload any photos you take to iNaturalist, to help with our #SolsticeSeaStarSearch 🌊🪸🐚⭐🧪

Your $25 gift will become a $50 gift—and as an extra perk, we’re sending all donors a free copy of 'Claude: The True Story of a White Alligator' by Emma Bland Smith.🎁🐊

Double the Claude, double the love: Consider donating to Cal Academy this #GivingTuesday! All gifts made by 11:59 p.m. PT on Dec. 3 will be MATCHED, dollar for dollar. Support cutting-edge science, environmental storytelling, and a beloved Bay Area museum: bit.ly/4idpaaF

Bonus points if you spot a rare sunflower sea star or a giant pink one—no prizes, just eternal bragging rights. More information at bit.ly/seastar24.

This community-collected data will help scientists better understand and restore sea star populations critical to our coastal ecosystems.

Calling all echinoderm enthusiasts: The Solstice Sea Star Search is ON! 🌊⭐

What would really happen if you filled the Roman Colosseum with great white sharks? We called Steinhart Aquarium director @SteinhartBart, on his vacation, to break down *that* scene from “Gladiator II.” (It did not go as expected.) 🦈🔱💯 @calacademy sfchronicle.com/totalsf/articl…

Join us TONIGHT, 11/21, for a special NightLife centered on making and taking space as we celebrate fat liberation and community. Listen in on a thought-provoking discussion, shop a plus-size marketplace, join a fat-positive dance workshop, and more. Tix: bit.ly/40Pcoch

To hop upon a log all day, to wander through a bog To catch the crickets on your tongue — oh, to be a frog!

One frog, two frogs, yellow frog, blue frog: Our rainforest amphibians have it all. Some are old and some are new, most are small and none are tall.

As the days get shorter and the jackets warmer, stop by Cal Academy to slow down, touch grass, and say hello to (all 60,000 of) your closest friends.

Pinyon jay populations are declining drastically throughout the SW — despite living in an ecosystem that spans 100+ million acres. Learn more about the relationship between a little bird & its favorite pinecone in @bioGraphic here: bit.ly/3AjWxYe 📷: Christina Selby

Last week, our @calacademy_ssi interns presented their research posters at the @SACNAS #2024NDiSTEM conference in Phoenix. 2 of our students, Keily and Dylan, took home awards for their posters! 🏆 Congrats to all of our interns! (Including the ones that used more than 3 words.)

Academy biologist Adriana takes us behind the scenes of raising Gouldian finch chicks. (Note: These birds may be getting more protein than you are.)

You can see these beauties up close at the Academy, home to seven different jellyfish species from California and beyond.

Jellyfish: The envy of lava lamps everywhere and some of our most popular Aquarium residents. This #WorldJellyfishDay, we’re celebrating these spineless cnidarians and the important role they’ve played in marine ecosystems for millions of years (literally).