Jonathan Backs 🐻🚨🚞

New paper today! The long-awaited test of our warning system. Large animals fled from trains 6.5 s (62%!) earlier when warned than otherwise. This extra time could reduce wildlife deaths from train collisions. Published open access here: doi.org/d7zd

Met with @CBCTheNational today to talk about the effects of #wildfire on #wildlife, with footage from our #SIMDeer project! youtube.com/watch?v=TtYF4O…

**Please share/Apply** We're hiring a postdoc to work on conservation social science and the ethics of caribou recovery, with partners at @Splatsinfn Cold Lake FN, Cdn Forest Service, UofAb, UofGuelph, and @BiodivPathways. More funding available - pls ask for details!

NEW PAPER: We followed the fate of 40 caribou herds —the southern mountain caribou population—to assess their trajectory and response to recovery actions. What we found was surprising and bitter sweet: dramatic declines but recent recovery due to controversial measures. 🧵 (1/n)

A fresh piece on bears and trains in National Geographic, featuring interviews with @ClaytonTLamb and myself among others! nationalgeographic.com/animals/articl…

@sarameghanbeery Trying to spread word about a stipended summer opportunity for undergrads at the San Diego Zoo Conservation Technology Lab. Just made this account so have little reach. Maybe your followers include folks who’d be interested? And/or you know some ugrads who’d be?

My employer, @WilsonASInc, also won an award in recognition of their achievement in regional innovation. It was quite a special night!

I was honoured this past Friday to receive a 2022 ASTech Award for Outstanding Achievement in Environmental Sustainability with my teammates Dr. John Nychka and Dr. Colleen St. Clair. This was for our work on wildlife and railways. #astech2022

Now it's time to bring in #MachineLearning. Our software engineers @bluevalhalla and Mary Nguyen then begin to work with the data. First, by breaking the vids down to frames and running them through our bear face detector (see Clapham et al. 2020). 7/n onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ec…

Maybe you’ve wondered what a caribou “maternity pen” is? Well, this is yet another one of my zero narrow, niche expertise. So, let me share it with you! 🧵

Train collisions with wildlife often happen in areas where animals can't hear the train approach as well. @JonathanBacks helping us understand the mechanisms of road/train kills.

@ClaytonTLamb Thanks so much Clayton! It's neat to hear you've experienced that as well.

Another awesome piece of #transportationecology from @JonathanBacks. Thanks JB! This is honestly one of the strangest and no one believes me, but trains can truly sneak up on you if the situation is right. It's crazy and has happened to me on multiple occasions at work.

@protagorist Thank you very much, Ian!

Super cool research being done by @JonathanBacks!

This may be relevant to your interests @JessPopp @ClaytonTLamb @adamTford @Ecology_Trans @ConservBehavior @TransEcoInfo @WILDLABSNET #RailwayEcology #AcousticEcology Signal boosts appreciated!

This paper is the first to quantify a relationship between vehicle audibility and wildlife collisions in a terrestrial transportation system. I hope others will be inspired to study vehicle audibility as a factor in wildlife collisions. [done]

New Paper! Low audibility of trains may contribute to increased collisions with wildlife. Published open-access here: doi.org/hhvc This is the third and final paper from my dissertation. At 14k words, 8 figures, and 6 tables, this work is a journey. [cont.]