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Dr Kylie Cairns

@drcairns.bsky.social
1.6K followers 491 following 26 posts

Molecular biologist. Genetics and canid nerd. Passion for dingoes, canids, eDNA metabarcoding, citizen science & conservation. Research Fellow at UNSW. threads and insta @dr_cairns

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Reposted by Dr Kylie Cairns
Australian Mammal Society @ausmammals.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
Dingoes are on their own evolutionary path, and are not domestic dogs - 🐾🐾 Read more theconversation.com/dingoes-are-... Research www.publish.csiro.au/AM/AM24052 published today in our journal #australianmammalogy led by @drcairns.bsky.social
theconversation.com
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Reposted by Dr Kylie Cairns
Wildlife Wire @wildlifewire.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
Interesting new paper on the complexities of assigning Canis species by @drcairns.bsky.social @euanritchie.bsky.social and others. Very reminiscent of the ongoing debacle in North America with the Eastern/red wolf complex.
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Reposted by Dr Kylie Cairns
Professor Euan Ritchie FAMS @euanritchie.bsky.social · 12/11/2024
Ok, here’s my starter pack! go.bsky.app/4ASwaLv Non-exhaustive list!
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Reposted by Dr Kylie Cairns
Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 29/11/2024
Please welcome @agatastaniewicz.bsky.social, the scientist who broke Twitter (when it was still Twitter) with the hashtag #FieldworkFail by telling the story of how she glued herself to a crocodile. 🐊 🌍 🧪 #academicsky fieldworkfail.com/en/
Cartoon of Agata glued to a crocodile.
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Reposted by Dr Kylie Cairns
Amante2 AmeliaBee7 @amante2ameliabee7.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Never gets old
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Reposted by Dr Kylie Cairns
ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
🚨 #DiscoveryProjects #DP25 announcement: ❗️Outcomes announced publicly for Discovery Projects 2025❗️ See ARC's RMS for list ➡️ rms.arc.gov.au/RMS/Report/D... /bot
rms.arc.gov.au
Research Management System - Scheme Round Statistics for Approved Applications - Discovery Projects 2025 round 1
RMS is the ARC's Research Management System, a web-based system used by eligible researchers to prepare and submit research proposals and assessments under the ARC National Competitive Grants Program ...
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Dr Kylie Cairns @drcairns.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Interesting - particularly in the context of the cultural value and importance of #dingoes to Indigenous Australians and the massive scale of government dingo culling programs in National Parks. @euanritchie.bsky.social @howlingdingo.bsky.social
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Reposted by Dr Kylie Cairns
Terry Hughes @profterryhughes.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Mass bleaching of corals on the Great Barrier Reef in early 2024 was the most severe and most widespread yet recorded - surpassing 1998, 2002, 2016, 2017, 2020 & 2022. The overall mortality rate this year will exceed the 30% loss in 2016. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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N. Fossen-Andreska @dontgochasinfossen.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
Let’s start a thread of orgs you support, are important, but are not yet on Bluesky! Reply with the org & their contact info. I’ll gladly contact them & ask them to make the switch! Want to reach out to my fav? Voyagers Wolf Project! www.voyageurswolfproject.org/contact
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Dr Kylie Cairns @drcairns.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
www.startribune.com/a-clever-wol... Researchers and farmers working together to find a solution to livestock predation that doesn’t involve killing wolves (as much). Turns out barrier fences can and do work to deter wolves, and livestock guardians compliment this strategy.
startribune.com
A clever wolf repeatedly snuck into a Minnesota ranch. Biologists figured out its MO.
The successful fencing of a northern Minnesota ranch could help reduce conflicts between ranchers and wolves.
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Dr Kylie Cairns @drcairns.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
Sunday chicken coop refresh - the ladies are happy! #chickenclub #chickens #heritagebreeds
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Dr Kylie Cairns @drcairns.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
Using #eDNA to learn about the diet of predators and thus predation risk using metabarcoding. Our #eDNA source was 💩 and our team includes Traditional Owners, local community members and Gov ecologists/officers. We managed to collect scat from #dingoes, #foxes, #feralcats, #goannas, #owls and more!
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Reposted by Dr Kylie Cairns
FLOWer Lab 🌸🍒 🐝 🪰🔬🧬 @flowerlab.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
The video provided in Supplementary Information from the very interesting paper by Lai and co-authors in Ecology, showing potential pollination by Ethiopian wolves of Kniphofia foliosa! 🐺 Read it here: esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... @pollinet.bsky.social
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Reposted by Dr Kylie Cairns
Dr Manu Saunders FRES @manusaunders.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
DNA metabarcoding reveals unexpected diet breadth of the specialist large-headed resin bee (Heriades truncorum) in urbanised areas across Germany @royentsoc.bsky.social resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
DNA metabarcoding reveals unexpected diet breadth of the specialist large‐headed resin bee (Heriades truncorum) in urbanised areas across Germany
Increasing urbanisation resulted in fewer brood cells and higher plant genus diversity in pollen provisions but was not related to the amount of non-native plant pollen or nutritional composition. I...
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Reposted by Dr Kylie Cairns
Reto Knutti @retoknutti.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Bluesky is emerging as the new platform for science. Indeed almost all people who used to be active on climate change on Twitter/X are now here. To get more content: @katharinehayhoe.com has the complete overview and best starter packs, as usual 😀 mikeyoungacademy.dk/bluesky-is-e...
mikeyoungacademy.dk
Bluesky is emerging as the new platform for science - Mike Young Academy
Scientific Twitter is about to find its true successor. And it is not X. This, our latest release, shows that the Bluesky network of scientists is growing — and growing.
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Reposted by Dr Kylie Cairns
Robin Sinclair @robinssci.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
We had our first decent dump of rain in a while at Mt Gibson last night, which means the frogs are back out and about in abundance. At this time of year, the chorus seems to be dominated by the Shoemaker's Frog (Neobatrachus sutor; left) and the Wheatbelt Frog (N. kunapalari; right). #WildOz
A small, round frog sits on wet ground with a puddle behind it. It's underside and limbs are pale, while its back is greenish-yellow with brown splotches. It has large, round eyes with enormous pupils, giving the sense there are very few thoughts inside its head.A green and yellow splotched frog lies flattened in a patch of brown running water. It has very large, round eyes with enormous pupils.
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Dr Kylie Cairns @drcairns.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Unfortunately demonstrated in the way Australian Governments are failing to shift policy about #dingo conservation follow updated knowledge about their identity and limited evidence of contemporary dingo-dog hybridisation.
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Reposted by Dr Kylie Cairns
Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦 @marcofesta.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Multiple gov'ts and agencies call dingos wild dogs, apparently to increase the social acceptability of dingo control.
Sign by gate on dingo fence crossing from South Australia to NSW."Dingo tree" - dingo killed by control operation are hung here because reasons.
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Reposted by Dr Kylie Cairns
Ben Wagner @gliderhabitat.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
A bit late to the game, but I participated in this collaboration of over 100 Australian ecologists, led by the amazing @dadriscoll.bsky.social on Biodiversity impacts of the 2019–2020 Australian megafires that was recently published in @natureportfolio.bsky.social: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Biodiversity impacts of the 2019–2020 Australian megafires - Nature
Data collected from more than 2,000 taxa provide an unparalleled opportunity to quantify how extreme wildfires affect biodiversity, revealing that the largest effects on plants and animals were in are...
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Reposted by Dr Kylie Cairns
Simon Haberle @thatpollenguy.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Our new study out in @ScienceAdvances shows human presence in Tasmania at least 41,600 years ago, nearly 2000 years earlier than previously thought, and Aboriginal people burned and used wet forests. Link: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Landscape burning facilitated Aboriginal migration into Lutruwita/Tasmania 41,600 years ago
Paleoecological records show that Aboriginal people burned wet forest to first settle in Tasmania 41,600 years ago.
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Professor Euan Ritchie FAMS @euanritchie.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
So, hypothetically, if a threatened species’ population had declined by up to 70% in 15 years, with loss of genetic diversity too, but there was uncertainty about the data, would you halve decline estimate, landing on ‘vulnerable’ or would you assume estimate is reasonable and land on ‘endangered’?
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Dr Kylie Cairns @drcairns.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
I’m so chuffed to be a part of this project - doing the eDNA lab work and bioinformatics - connecting western science and TEK to understand the risk of predators to native wildlife on Country. youtu.be/Zp6fkFJaJ5Y?...
youtu.be
Predators on Country: What scat and eDNA tells us about predator risk to wildlife
YouTube video by NSW Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water
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Dr Kylie Cairns @drcairns.bsky.social · 24/11/2023
michaelwest.com.au/has-australi...
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Dr Kylie Cairns @drcairns.bsky.social · 19/11/2023
The science is in - the animals killed as “wild dogs” are native dingoes. These bosses of Country need to be protected in National Parks not baited and killed. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
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Dr Kylie Cairns @drcairns.bsky.social · 10/11/2023
Lab view #fridays!
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Dr Kylie Cairns @drcairns.bsky.social · 20/10/2023
Had a brilliant field week - plenty of carnivore sightings including 3 quolls and +6 dingoes! Looking forward to getting into the lab with more samples 👩🏻‍🔬👩‍💻
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Reposted by Dr Kylie Cairns
Professor Euan Ritchie FAMS @euanritchie.bsky.social · 14/10/2023
Do not stay silent, good people. Do not leave the fight up to too few. This 👇 from 'To the future: An ecology of love, hope, and action' - Prof. John Woinarski onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
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Dr Kylie Cairns @drcairns.bsky.social · 07/10/2023
Short note describing instances of dingoes killing foxes by @HWConflict et al. doi.org/10.7882/AZ.2... A discovery during radio tracking of GPS collared dingoes on the NSW coast.
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Dr Kylie Cairns @drcairns.bsky.social · 06/10/2023
Dingoes are are under lethal control across large parts of Australia, including in National Parks. In our The Conversation article we highlight how we could live in harmony with our apex land predator drawing on experience from Western and Indigenous knowledge t.co/t6XkInoOe7
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Dr Kylie Cairns @drcairns.bsky.social · 04/10/2023
Looking forward to some more field work in the next few weeks - scat collecting for diet studies! I’m all about the shit science at the moment 🤭
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Dr Kylie Cairns @drcairns.bsky.social · 03/10/2023
I’m new to #BlueSky - aiming to continue my scicom about dingoes, dogs and hybridisation. A few months ago I published the results of a 6+ year study updating DNA methods for dingo ancestry testing. Surprisingly we found hybridization was uncommon in Australia! theconversation.com/new-dna-test...
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Professor Euan Ritchie FAMS @euanritchie.bsky.social · 02/10/2023
Proud to have written this, with good friends and colleagues, Sonya Grant, Whitney Rassip, Bradley Smith, Kylie Cairns, and Angus Emmott. theconversation.com/the-boss-of-...
theconversation.com
'The boss of Country', not wild dogs to kill: living with dingoes can unite communities
It’s time to reconsider our relationship with the dingo. By collaborating and drawing from both Indigenous and Western knowledge, we can find ways to live in harmony with our apex land predator.
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