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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

They also add a “shit-load” of unwanted nutrients into local ecosystems.. not sure of the economic impact, but it’s potentially high: esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Also in Ajai Wildlife Reserve close to Murchison Falls NP, a last stronghold for the northern white rhino

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

11. Ultimately, the world is a richer, more resilient, more adaptable place when animals get to play their natural ecosystem roles. It's us that messed it up!

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

10. Wildlife managers face major challenges in this changing world. Inevitably, trade-offs result in suboptimal outcomes for at least one of carbon, biodiversity, disease, tourism or other ecosystem management goals. Holistic appraisals can help see past singular focus.

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

9. By effectively considering Double-Edged Dispersal, animals can be successfully harnessed to help mitigate the greatest environmental challenges of our time: the climate, biodiversity and emerging disease crises.

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

8. Researchers must grapple with the complexities of multiple dispersal forms and their interactions at the same time. There are many methods, conferences, and databases that can be shared, but are often unknown across silos.

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

7. In the Anthropocene, almost all animals disperse both desirable and undesirable things at the same time. Yet, we tend to focus on forms individually. While animals may help in one way (e.g., adaptation to climate change), they may present challenges in others (e.g., accumulation of toxins).

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

6. How humans value animals and their ecological functions directly influences ecosystem management and conservation goals. It's important to recognise that when animals create undesirable outcomes, humans are often the root cause.

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

5. Humans have known about the importance of animal-mediated dispersal for centuries. The earliest records come from Pliny the Elder who emphasised the importance of animal seed dispersal, or zoochory.

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

4. This leads to occasions of undesirable outcomes, such as the spread of non-native organisms, pollutants and zoonotic pathogens.

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

3. Humans have reshaped natural dispersal functions through altered (i) resource availability, (ii) wildlife assemblages and (iii) animal movement patterns. This ecosystem reorganisation may create, modify or lose important ecological links.

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

2. Animal-mediated dispersal functions are a fundamental component of ecological functioning helping ecosystems remain connected, adaptable and resilient in a changing world. Migrating whales, for example, transport nutrients thousands of miles, supporting tropical reef ecosystems.

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

1. Animals can move, enabling them to disperse many materials and propagules, including chemical compounds, seeds, pollen, parasites, organisms, toxins, pollutants and many more.

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

11. Ultimately, the world is a richer, more resilient, more adaptable place when animals get to play their natural ecosystem roles. It's us that messed it up!

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

4. This leads to occasions of undesirable outcomes, such as the spread of non-native organisms, pollutants and zoonotic pathogens.

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

1. Animals can move, enabling them to disperse many materials and propagules, including chemical compounds, seeds, pollen, parasites, organisms, toxins, pollutants and many more.

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Doubled-edged Dispersal! In the Anthropocene, animals disperse a lot of things. From seeds and nutrients, to pathogens and invasives. Our new paper discusses the need to balance trade-offs when both desirable and undesirable functions occur simultaneously www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

A general framework for what makes a novel ecosystem.. wonderfully led by @mattkerr.bsky.social

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Reposted by Andrew Abraham

Nature Ecology & Evolution @natecoevo.nature.com · 09/01/2026

Our January issue is now live: www.nature.com/natecolevol/... Featuring research on 🧪 🐝 pesticide impacts on wild bees 🪺 population genomics of avian brood parasitism 🌱 the origins of terrestrial herbivory Cover image from Abraham et al. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Cover image for the January 2026 issue of Nature Ecology & Evolution. The photo shows a giraffe emerging from behind some vegetation. The cover headline reads "Megaherbivores and salt"

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

So, next time you sit down to dinner and immediately reach for the salt shaker, spare a thought for Africa’s salt-starved megaherbivores.

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

From crop raiding by elephants to moose collisions with cars due to road salting, wild animal movements, ecological impacts and conflict with humans are often driven by a desire to satisfy their salt cravings.

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Where animals can't get enough salt in their diet, they may come into conflict with humans. Many protected areas are located in low-sodium environments; yet humans have artificially increased salt availability through activities like borehole water pumping and crop fertilisation.

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

While rhinos, kudu, springbok and zebra often gather at natural and artificial salt pans from the Kalahari Desert to the Maasai Mara.

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Gorillas on the other hand are known to fight for the saltiest foods, in particular decaying wood stumps that accumulate high levels of sodium (photo credit: Jessica Rothman)

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Salt limitation also explains several interesting behaviours exhibited by wild animals. In Kenya, elephants enter caves to consume the sodium-rich rocks, while in the Congo rainforest, they dig for salt in riverbeds

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Together, these results provide a new explanation for the so-called 'missing megaherbivores' in West and Central Africa. There is enough productivity to sustain higher densities of elephants, rhinos and giraffes, but a curious absence of these largest-bodied herbivores.

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Adding plant sodium availability improved statistical models predicting large herbivore density across Africa. We found that the largest species (megaherbivores) were the group most constrained in low-sodium environments, mirroring our previous work on the allometry of sodium requirements

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Interestingly, we found that in any given place, grasses had approximately 1-2x more sodium than woody plants; a pattern that was reflected by grazers generally having higher dung sodium concentrations that browsers.

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Over 1,300 dung measurements from across 20 different wild herbivore species confirmed our assumption that plant sodium availability is a major determinant of herbivore sodium intake.

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

We collected a large database of plant sodium concentrations from across Africa and generated high-resolution maps, which revealed multi-scale gradients arising from sea-salt deposition, hydrology, soil chemistry and plant traits.

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Humans live in a world abundant in salt. In fact, medical professionals warn most of us against the dangers of consuming too much. Yet, it is far from clear how wild herbivores get enough and if this may limit their abundance.

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Earth's largest land animals are limited by salt. Sodium availability constrains the density and distribution of elephants, giraffes and rhinos across Africa, and offers a new explanation for the so-called 'missing megaherbivores'. www.nature.com/articles/s41... Free access: rdcu.be/eTPY2

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Reposted by Andrew Abraham

Journal of Applied Ecology @jappliedecology.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

🦁Predators have a strong sex-bias when it comes to their favourite prey 🌏 In their new paper @andrewabraham.bsky.social quantify large carnivore sex-biases in Africa and examine how wildlife managers can replicate such effects when natural predators are missing 👇 buff.ly/Q8cB4Qq

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

Super important work by Tim Kuiper and co!

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

Great opportunity to lead discussions in biodiversity conservation for ECRs

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Reposted by Andrew Abraham

Kate Parr @funkyant.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Closing tomorrow! Last chance to apply for postdoc to explore the role of animals in savanna ecosystem productivity & nutrient cycling! Link to job: tinyurl.com/53dy4584 #savanna #termites #largemammals

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Andrew Abraham @andrewabraham.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Pretty simple instructions to follow

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