Rachel Larson, PhD

I’m moving to the other site just like everybody else. Find me with the same handle bsky.app/profile/rlarso…

This postdoc would work closely with me on the Urban Nature Alliance. Let’s be postdoc friends!

Fun Fact: Thorny devil lizards drink water with their feet. They step in water on the ground and the grooves on their skin channel water to their mouths through capillary action. This allows them to drink passively without lowering their guard.🦎🥤🐾

PLEASE JOIN ME IN WELCOMING THE NEWEST MEMBER OF THE #squirrel TREE OF LIFE: Urocitellus idahoensis Snake River Plains ground squirrel

Fun fact: Baby birds often ‘gape,’ opening their mouths wide to signal hunger. Parents feed them by regurgitating food until they’re weaned and learn to eat on their own. 🐥🦜 BLACK FRIDAY MERCH HERE Naturalhabitatshorts.store

Some of my favorite photos from our 1st season of #cameratrap sampling in #SanDiego

Throwback fact: Porcupines are covered in around thirty-thousand quills. Each quill has barbs at the tips that make them difficult to remove. 🌵🐖💺 #naturalhabitat #naturalhabitatshorts #naturalhabitok

Fun fact: Flamingos can drink near-boiling water. They can even drink super salty and alkaline water.🦩☕️🔥 GET MERCH AT Naturalhabitatshorts.store #naturalhabitatshorts #naturalhabitat #naturalhabitok

@masonfidino I literally have your post about integrated presence/absence + presence-only models open right now. Your blogs provide a great intro & help me understand posts on other sites. If I’ve never thanked you before, thank you for the work you put into your blog; it’s so helpful!

Why did I decide to do these again? At the Wildlife Society Conference a couple weeks ago people thanked me for writing them EVERY SINGLE DAY. I had no clue people found them useful!

Spooky fact: Chipmunks’ stripes allow them to blend in to their wooded environment and hide in plain sight. 🐿️🌳📞 check out our merch at Naturalhabitatshorts.store #naturalhabitatshorts #naturalhabitat #naturalhabitok

Summary metrics, like species richness, are useful but only part of the story. It's important to understand how individual species respond to urbanization, especially species of management concern like deer mice (they carry Lyme disease)

However, there were some pretty interested species-specific responses to both vegetation cover and habitat fragmentation - for example, deer mice do not like urban environments, but short-tailed shrews seem to benefit

More of my dissertation work is published in the Journal of Mammalogy! - "Variation in species-specific responses to habitat fragmentation and land cover structure urban small mammal communities" doi.org/10.1093/jmamma…

@LPZ_UWI Could it be the butt-end of a cottontail? The large hind legs and fur patterning seem correct

Okay #cameratrap people. What do we think this coyote is carrying around? This is one of our more rural sites outside of Chicago.

My favorite part of #TWS2024 (besides meeting other passionate wildlife biologists, obviously) was walking away with more squirrel & coyote swag from @BlueAsterStudio - I love seeing artists with booths at conferences!

If you’re looking for more small mammal research after today’s talks, check out my talk tomorrow afternoon (3:30pm in Peale) on the relationships between predator occurrence and urban deer mouse abundance #TWS2024

I feel like I should sit down and play w/ @R_nimble after attending Perry de Valine’s talk at #TWS2024 Seems like a really useful tool for complex ecological models!

If you’re also at #TWS2024 this week and want to meet up, you can find me wearing my woodland cardigan (that I knit myself, btw!)

Spooky fact: When threatened, Horned lizards shoot blood from their eyes as a defense mechanism. Their blood is also toxic from a diet of venomous ants. 🦎🩸💀 #naturalhabitatshorts #naturahabitat #naturalhabitok