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Brian Gratwicke

@briangratwicke.bsky.social
1.4K followers 1.8K following 119 posts

Conservation biologist @Smithsonian herpetology, amphibian, disease, environment, native plants, wildlife, photography, science, nature, earth optimism.

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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
amphibianrescue.org/climate-refu... after 20 years of studying amphibian declines in Panama we have modeled seasonal disease patterns to identify places that may act as climatic refuges from disease. #herpetology 🧪
amphibianrescue.org
Climate Refuges May Be Key To Restoring Imperiled Amphibians - Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project
New Research Identifies Disease-Free Havens Where Captive-BredFrogs May Have the Best Chance of Survival As a deadly fungal disease ravages wild frog populations around the globe, scientists have iden...
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
www.acs.org/pressroom/ti... bookmark this tiny matters podcast interview with my amazing colleagues and I about working to save species..
acs.org
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I spent some time with Nina host of a German kids show Wilde Tierwelt showing them some dart frogs in Panama m.youtube.com/watch?v=FmFT...
m.youtube.com
Pfeilgiftfrösche · Giftzwerge aus dem Regenwald | Reportage für Kinder | Nina und die wilden Tiere
YouTube video by Wilde Tierwelt
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Seems like the fox is in charge of the henhouse when it comes to climate accounting www.nytimes.com/2026/09/17/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | The Latest Corporate Climate Ruse (Gift Article)
Making deforestation look climate-friendly will encourage a lot more deforestation.
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Kudos to Randall Jimenez and @carlybacter.bsky.social on this explainer of our latest research amphibios.app/articles/bey...
amphibios.app
AmphiBios - Amphibian Survival Alliance
The Amphibian Survival Alliance's digital magazine - connecting the global community working to protect amphibians.
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Andrew Ellis Evans @andrewellisevans.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
In which I gush on & on about my 🇨🇦 Canadian #music obsession #MELTT. www.macrokozm.com/zine/meltt
macrokozm.com
The Enchantment of MELTT — MacroKozm
A tribute to the Vancouver-based musicians known as MELTT.
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Super males - an innovative fisheries production method used to control invasive species www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
To doom invasive fish, scientists are breeding ‘supermales’
Technique shown to eradicate exotic trout—by producing all male populations
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
My professional writer husband’s @andrewellisevans.bsky.social lament for the slow demise of the fourth estate www.macrokozm.com/zine/notasub...
macrokozm.com
ceci n’est pas un substack — MacroKozm
In Which I Sound My Barbaric Yawp.
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
www.science.org/content/arti... worlds first rna-based commercial fungicide
science.org
In a global first, Mexico approves use of RNA-based fungicide
Oifirax, created by GreenLight Biosciences, uses RNA molecules to kill the fungus responsible for powdery mildew on grapes
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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Yayoi Kusama (1929-2026) RIP
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Happy golden frog day everyone!!! #ranadorada
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Printing some Andy Warhol inspired turtles #scienceart
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Hi there buddy - snapping turtle from my pond was not thrilled that we stopped by to say hi.
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
New paper from team #salamander looking a #microbialecology of salamander skin led by Randall Jimenez @owengosborne.bsky.social Piper Thatcher & @carlybacter.bsky.social esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirec... published in Ecosphere @esajournals.bsky.social
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
fields. Instead, he apparently laced into the company. According to the Financial Times, Eggers told the staff:

“The effect of ChatGPT on educators’ lives is catastrophic. Whether you intended to do it or not, you’ve made every teacher’s life infinitely more difficult than it was two years ago. So, just let that settle in… If students are using it to compose, which is the biggest tragedy of all, they’ll never learn to write. And their voice is stolen from them. They’ll never have the ability to say their truth and tell their own story. And that’s silencing an entire generation or two.”
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Ausarchosaur @ausarchosaur.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Early maturation of host antimicrobial peptide defences is associated with host–pathogen coexistence www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Early maturation of host antimicrobial peptide defences is associated with host–pathogen coexistence - Nature Chemical Biology
Host antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are a frontline defense against infection. Now, it has been shown that maturation of AMP repertoires early in life can predict stable host coexistence with a highly ...
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Wonderful story about freshwater mussel conservation- the wealthiest country on earth can do better than this.
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Saw a medium-size croc on the Panama Canal this weekend 😎
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Owen Osborne @owengosborne.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
🚨Job alert!!🚨 I'm recruiting a 3-year postdoc on amphibian host–microbiome interactions at @bangoruniversity.bsky.social - funded by BBSRC. Deadline: 8 July 2026 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRW850/p...
Panamanian Golden Frog (Atelopus zeteki). Photo credit: Brian Gratwicke
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
Bravo to organizers of @gardconference.bsky.social for a wonderful meeting- sharing some sally pics from our field trip 👏👏👏👏
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Zamira Rahim @zamirarahim.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
It is, finally, the right season for this Larkin poem.
The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.

Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too.
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.

Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
I'm honored to serve as a judge on the ASA's new amphibian photography contest. We hope to raise some funds to support ASA and feature great work from around the world. Please enter your shots.. www.amphibians.org/photography-... Entry fee for up to 10 images = $25 Grand prize = $1000.
amphibians.org
Amphibian Survival Alliance
Dedicated to the worldwide conservation of amphibians and their habitats.
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Scorpions have stingers fortified with zinc and manganese at the tip of the needle.... www.ttownmedia.com/news/nationa...
ttownmedia.com
Scientists discover scorpions’ sting fortified with metal
The distribution and scale of metal enrichment among the deadly arthropods' weapons have been discovered for the first time.
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Scientific American @sciam.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Scientist and medtech entrepreneur J. Craig Venter published the first bacterial genome ever decoded in 1995. The result heralded a new age of discovery for genetics
scientificamerican.com
'Swashbuckling' geneticist and human genome decoder J. Craig Venter dies at 79
Scientist and medtech entrepreneur J. Craig Venter published the first bacterial genome ever decoded in 1995. The result heralded a new age of discovery for genetics
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Reposted by Brian Gratwicke
🍁 Alex Smith 🍁 @alexsmithants.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Bad news Monday 🧪 RIP Peter Raven. news.mongabay.com/2026/04/pete... news.mongabay.com/2007/03/biod... is a good interview from several years back. 🧪
news.mongabay.com
Peter Raven, botanist and advocate for biodiversity, has died, aged 89
Life on Earth is often described as a web, but for much of modern science it was catalogued as a ledger: names, specimens, distributions, relationships drawn in careful lines. Over the course of the 2...
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
very interesting overview of the current state of trade in amphibians for pets in the USA from Viadanna et al. 👏https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352513426002358
sciencedirect.com
Market trends and conservation challenges in the U.S. amphibian pet trade
The amphibian pet trade is growing in the U.S. While there are anecdotal reports of an increasing emphasis on selling captive-bred animals, millions o…
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Season of Scaryanne Denton 🧡🎃 @mariannedenton.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
“If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. … notice it in the instant when love begins. … Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.” ~Mary Oliver, Don't Hesitate (2010) Halictina bee on Hookers Balsamroot
 Small native bee with a black body and white bristles over its entire body. This is a side view as it is perched on a yellow petal of a Hookers balsamroot
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The Wildlife Society @thewildlifesociety.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
A new unknown disease has appeared in salamanders causing abnormal skin shedding and death. Scientists are rushing to understand how the disease is spread.
wildlife.org
Researchers rush to understand deadly new disease
An unidentified disease in salamanders rings alarm bells
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Cool paper from Jeckel et. Al explaining how some dart frogs are spicier than others… 😝 royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
royalsocietypublishing.org
Experimental evidence supports gradual evolution of alkaloid sequestration in poison frogs
Abstract. The evolution of alkaloid sequestration and modification in poison frogs provides an opportunity to explore the emergence of complex traits, part
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Bloodroot and hepatica fleeting harbingers of spring… my favorite native flowers
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Virginia vineyards ‘scrape for the grape’ in battle against invasive lantern flies wapo.st/4bPlp9a (gift link)
wapo.st
At a Virginia vineyard, volunteers band together to fight lanternflies
More than 400 people showed up to Scrape for the Grape events in Virginia to prevent damage caused by the spotted lanternfly, which harms grapevines.
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
Spent a hot minute in Panama with a German kids tv show - hosted by Nina from Wilde Tierwelt - the poison dart frog episode!
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
Géminis’ poison dart frogs are tiny but make good parents. Here dad carries his tadpole to a little pool where the larva can grow…
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Panamá Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project @amphibianrescue.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
It was a great privilege to finally see golden frogs walking in their rightful place 20 years since their disappearance amphibianrescue.org/golden-frogs... #amphibianresilience #ranadorada
Beautiful neon yellow frog on a stream bank with waterfall in the background Director of the Panama amphibian rescue and conservation project Roberto Ibanez releasing golden frogs into a mesh cage
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Reposted by Brian Gratwicke
dnmnb.bsky.social @dnmnb.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/nation... So exciting to get a text from @briangratwicke.bsky.social with a link to this hope-filled article! Kudos to him and his team for their steadfast and miraculous work!
smithsonianmag.com
Hope Returns to Panama’s Forests With the Rediscovery of Four Missing Frog Species
Smithsonian researcher Brian Gratwicke and colleagues describe how acoustic technology aided the remarkable rediscovery of four amphibian populations thought to have vanished from Panama’s mountain fo...
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Panamá Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project @amphibianrescue.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Hope returns to Panama's rainforests - read about how we rediscovered endangered frog species in Panama using acoustic recording www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/nation... #amphibianresilience by @briangratwicke.bsky.social
smithsonianmag.com
Hope Returns to Panama’s Forests With the Rediscovery of Four Missing Frog Species
Smithsonian researcher Brian Gratwicke and colleagues describe how acoustic technology aided the remarkable rediscovery of four amphibian populations thought to have vanished from Panama’s mountain fo...
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
A very enlightening article by dana millbank on saving the bees - interviews a lot of good experts wapo.st/3ZhkdWf
wapo.st
Column | Good news: We saved the bees. Bad news: We saved the wrong ones.
Honeybees have never been in danger of extinction. But scientists are finding that they can accelerate the demise of native bee populations.
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Great to see the Thomas Lovejoy school on the banks of the Amazon - what a great legacy for one of the fathers of our modern understanding of Biodiversity.
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
Finally got to see a pink river dolphin up close on the Rio negro - these are wild habituated animals at flutuante dos botos novo airão
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
Teeny frog < 2cm but is the sound track of the rainforest 🐸 #amphibianresilience
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
If you want to learn about some of our work on Virgina amphibians - here is a talk i gave to the Rappahannock league for environmental protection youtu.be/jda-Vt4EGfE
youtu.be
Amphibian Conservation with Brian Gratwicke
YouTube video by Rappahannock League for Environmental Protection
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
First frogs died then people got sick wapo.st/47Slsij the story of amphibian declines in Panama by @dinograndoni.bsky.social covering some of our release trials.
wapo.st
First, the frogs died. Then people got sick.
An emerging area of research is uncovering hidden links between nature and human health.
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Spotted lanterflies threaten the 250 vineyards in Virginia. Many vineyards are in my home country Rappahannock wapo.st/4hjo79k
wapo.st
Spotted lanternflies are threatening your wine
Spotted lanternflies have developed an appetite for grapevines, endangering Virginia’s over $8 billion wine industry. The pests could reach California by 2033.
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
Neat profile of my collaborator Tim Cernak - conservation chemist ! Bringing the world of humsn medecine to wildlife. cen.acs.org/synthesis/me...
cen.acs.org
This chemist aims to change the game for species conservation
Tim Cernak is using modern drug development tools to make medicines for endangered plants and animals
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
Caecilians are the legless amphibians, they are rarely seen due to their fossorial habits, so moments like these are very special. This yellow headed caecilian was found in Gamboa Panama behind @amphibianrescue #amphibianresilience
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
Got to see my first Sylvia’s tree frog last night #cruziohyla what a spectacular frog! ❤️❤️❤️🐸🇵🇦
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 25/08/2025
Biologist Jorge Guerrel found one of our baby Agalychnis lemur from our frog release trials! #amphibianresilience #anfibioresilente
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 16/08/2025
August 14 is golden frog day in Panama - we celebrate with special activities the whole week! Enjoy this amazing golden frog song by our collaborators Jacana Jacana youtu.be/LwxzgzKa40A?...
youtu.be
RANA DORADA - JACANA JACANA FEAT ASI (Iniciativa de Supervivencia Atelopus)
YouTube video by Jacana Jacana
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
Our awesome #teamturtle is featured on Sidedoor podcast - tune in! www.si.edu/sidedoor/she...
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Brian Gratwicke @briangratwicke.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
neat video about the work being done to save Ghana's slippery frogs www.dw.com/en/conservat...
dw.com
Conservationists are racing to save Ghana's slippery frog – DW – 06/25/2025
DW went into the forest with the people working to bring the Atewa Slippery Frog back from the brink of extinction — only 200 of this unique species remain. Can this unique species survive?
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