Updates on research and publications
I have been convinced from the start of the pandemic that Trumpism is a risk factor for spreading the virus. Today the Washington Post picked up this position and ran with it. Continue reading Covid-19 Update, June 18, 2020
It has been obvious for quite a while that death rates from covid-19 vary from rural to urban states, in somewhat the same manner as the transmission rates (overall) have varied — low in rural states, high in urban states. As the case rates for all states continue to converge (rural states on the upswing, … Continue reading Covid-19 Update, June 17, 2020
Arizona. The new daily cases per million from Arizona today make everywhere else look like things are better (they aren’t). The focus of new cases stretches across the south, with the addition of Oregon, which has been creeping up in recent days. The new daily cases by population density show both the differential response to … Continue reading Covid-19 Update, June 16, 2020
I’ve been writing daily updates for social media on the Covid-19 pandemic for the past 100 days or so. Since I have made them public, I figured I would share them here as well. We are 100 days into this thing and people are apparently bored. The states with the highest population densities have had … Continue reading Covid-19 update
Things have to be a bit dire to take hope from a roadkilled squirrel, but today, that’s where I found it, north of Sunset, between the 405 and the 101. Continue reading The Californians: Western Gray Squirrel edition
We cover the natural history of Toxoplasma gondii (it is a parasite that only reproduces in the gut of members of the cat family), then lay out the impacts on humans, domestic animals, and wild animals. The take-home message here is that the effects of toxoplasmosis are worse than you imagine and certainly worse than you would think if you listened to people who have a vested interest in downplaying its impacts. Continue reading New paper: taking toxoplasmosis seriously
Colleagues Scott Loss, Tom Will, Pete Marra and I published an article a month or so in Biological Invasions, titled “Responding to misinformation and criticisms regarding United States cat predation estimates.” The purpose of the article was to address the spurious criticisms that have been leveled against estimates of predation by free-roaming cats published by … Continue reading Not your usual correction
Longcore, T., L. Almaleh, B. Chetty, K. Francis, R. Freidin, C.-S. Huang, B Pickett, D. Schreck, B. Scruggs, E. Shulman, A. Swauger, A. Tashnek, M. Wright, and E. E. Boydston. 2018. Wildlife corridor use and environmental impact assessment: a southern California case study. Cities and the Environment11(1):art4. Abstract Environmental planners often rely on transportation structures … Continue reading New paper: underpass use by wildlife
Back during the Ecological Consequences of Artificial Night Lighting conference in 2002, the prescient Steven Pauley made a strong argument that blue light should be avoided in outdoor lighting for human health reasons and posed the question whether it would reduce impacts on wildlife too. My position at the time was, based on the research … Continue reading New paper: picking spectrum to reduce adverse effects of lights on wildlife
We participated in force in the 20th University of Southern California Undergraduate Symposium for Scholarly and Creative Work. Our contributions included: Classification System for National Park Sites Based on Nightscape Lighting Profiles (Harrison Knapp and Benjamin Banet) Spatiotemporal Analysis of Lighted Boats at Night (Eliza Gutierrez-Dewar) A Photographic Light Pollution Assessment Across Western Public Lands … Continue reading (Award-winning) light pollution research at USC undergraduate symposium
