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Reposted by Dr Tom Montgomery

Pádraic Fogarty @whittledaway.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

Sharks on brink of extinction caught in tangle nets in protected Irish waters "That the Irish Government still allows this form of destructive fishing throughout Irish coastal waters is an absolute disgrace" www.irishtimes.com/environment/...

irishtimes.com

Sharks on brink of extinction caught in tangle nets in protected Irish waters

Seals also among the animals killed as by-catch of growing crayfishing industry

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

#Ocean Does anyone think our commercial fishing practices are sustainable? Fundamental change is inevitable, and like the cop says, we can do it the easy or hard way. It can start now, phased in sensibly, or a bit later, by catastrophic collapse. Our stark choice.

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

#Ocean What have we done? A whale-watching company in Ireland has closed down permanently because huge trawlers have left nothing but "an empty, lifeless sea." All the dolphins and humpback, minke & fin whales have disappeared, leaving nothing left to watch. Source in 🧵

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

There is only one organization in the world dedicated to the Binturong. They do important work, inc teaching locals why it's against their interests to kill them for their skins, to eat, for TCM, or to trap as pets. They are desperate for urgent support if you can help: abconservation.org/en/ 4/4

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

We are utter fools to wipe out species which disperse seeds which restore the forests we destroy. They have never been more important for the planet and mankind. Source: Binturong ecology and conservation in pristine, fragmented and degraded tropical forests cambridge.org/core/journal... 🧵3/4

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

Few animals suffer in more ways at the hands of humans than the binturong (Arctictis binturong). Facing national extinctions, not only from massive deforestation in SE Asia, but throughout their range they're eaten, skinned for fur, killed for TCM, trapped for zoos & trafficked as pets. 🧵2/4

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

#Asia This is a tragic image from Facebook advertising this binturong for sale as a 'pet' They are long-lived wild animals, completely unsuitable as pets, as our homes are not a forest, nor are we nocturnal, & imprisonment, deprivation of mate & family is cruel & decimating numbers in wild. 🧵1/4

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Source: Chinese pangolins facilitate ecological restoration in burned forest sites. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

#Pangolins Chinese pangolins facilitate ecological restoration in burned forest sites. They are ecosystem engineers: a year after forest fire, birds, animals & plants had all benefited significantly from pangolin activity. We're wiping out those who can help save us. Research paper in 🧵

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 26/04/2025

#Antarctica Gentoo penguin chicks getting by with help from their friends. Whilst the parents go out to sea to catch food, they survive by huddling together for warmth and protection from predators.

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

#Vietnam Delacour's langur: gentle leaf and flower eaters, who regenerate forests by spreading seeds. Critically endangered, only~200 left in the wild. Hunted to brink of extinction for traditional medicine and their habitat destroyed by deforestation and limestone quarrying for cement.

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

What American tourists don't see on safari - the unimaginable squalor of bushmeat & risk of zoonotic disease. So much talk of national security, but global disease threatens us all - and this U.S. administration is putting everyone in danger. This excellent thread explains why:🧵

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Thank you, Sherry. Friendship, integrity and trust are fundamentally important to me.

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

#Climate An albatross chick lies dying in wet mud on Bird Island. The tall nest was specially constructed to protect them, but we’ve warmed the world. Winds are now stronger, so the chicks are blown out of their nests. A bird who lives on the wind is now dying by the wind.

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

#Birds I'm seeing terrible advice all over sm about giving dryer lint to wild birds as nesting material. DON'T do this. It spreads microplastics into the environment, and is harmful to birds. Here's advice from Audubon: Please tell your friends. www.audubon.org/news/what-ne...

audubon.org

What Nesting Materials Are Safe for Birds?

Follow these dos and don'ts if you want to help your feathered neighbors build their homes this spring.

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

No. Quite a few ppl do it, a good friend on X complained to a big account, someone one would never have believed would stoop so low, that he'd lifted his work & passed it off as his own, asked him to delete it, but no reply. That account (highly-respected wildlife activist) then did the same to me.

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

#StormÉowyn We can take refuge from extreme weather in our homes, but most wildlife suffers the full force. Seabirds are particularly vulnerable; puffins die in their thousands in powerful storms. A warming world is littered with their battered bodies.

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Unfortunately not. I wish it could have been, I thought we were friends.

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

Source: Con McCarthy, of Rathcoole, Co Dublin, had his conviction for offences under the Wildlife Act dropped on appeal. A subsequent donation offered instead was rejected because the Wildlife Trust viewed it as "buying himself out of a conviction". www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2024...

irishtimes.com

Irish Wildlife Trust rejects donation from developer who ‘entombed’ badgers

Con McCarthy (61), of Greenogue Business Park, Rathcoole, Co Dublin, was spared a criminal conviction on appeal

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

the project. When Brian Keeley (who conducted the wildlife survey) returned to the site and saw what had been done he said "I’ve been enforcing the law for twenty years and this is the most willfully cruel act I’ve seen”.

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

In court, an ecologist, Brian Keeley, testified that he had conducted a badger survey prior to the works. He found two badgers bringing bedding into their sett & presumed they were breeding. He made the developer aware of the badger sett but was told to step down from 🧵

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

#Wildlilfe A property developer near Dublin, Ireland buried alive a family of badgers in their sett. Many tons of clay and large tree trunks were piled on top of their home, leaving them no chance of escape. He appealed his conviction and walked free. 🧵1/

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

#Brazil A Giant armadillo showing her superb excavating tools. >150 burrows dug each year provide homes & refuge for an astonishing 80 recorded species. Hunted for meat & claws, with shrinking habitat, they are increasingly rare. Their loss to the ecosystem and biodiversity would be incalculable.

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Reposted by Dr Tom Montgomery

Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

#Wildlife A maned wolf drowned in a new soybean irrigation canal in Brazil. Three generations of the family were later found also drowned. Extensive scratch marks were seen where they’d frantically tried to escape, but the slippery plastic canal liner made it impossible.

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

"A wonderful and enlightening video" says one of the comments about this. (17 mins). The more we understand, the better we can protect. youtu.be/KHSLUt8lFIU?...

youtu.be

The Amazon Soya Moratorium - Forest Solutions

YouTube video by Greenpeace International

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

#Amazon An excellent article by Jonathan Watts @jonathan-watts.bsky.social on the threat to the Soy Moratorium which helps protect the Amazon from new deforestation for soy plantations. In my🧵there's a short documentary explaining more about the moratorium. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.com

Protection deal for Amazon rainforest in peril as big business turns up heat

Exclusive: With Brazil’s politicians, agribusiness organisations and global traders piling on the pressure, the highly successful 2006 Soy Moratorium is under threat

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

#Biodiversity #Extinction On the left: the problem. On the right: the solution. When a species is wiped out, they won't care; we are the losers, and we need to start cherishing and protecting our fellow inhabitants of this planet as a priority, not an afterthought. Money won't bring them back.

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

What soybeans are used for: 77% of global soy is fed to livestock for meat & dairy production. Most of the rest is used for biofuels, industry or vegetable oils. Just 7% of soy is used directly for human food products, such as tofu, tempeh & soy milk.

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

500 characters per post would be good.

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

#Brazil #Ocean Millions of seahorses are not the only casualties of shrimp trawlers; here is another tragic victim: The Groovebelly Stingray (Dasyatis hypostigma). A fascinating species, numbers have plummeted ~ 80% in the past 30 yrs. Industrial bottom trawling is ravaging marine ecosystems.

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

#Dolphins Weeping tears of blood: Franciscana (Pontoporia blainvillei) suffer severely as they live close to human activity along the coasts of Brazil, Uruguay & Argentina. Trawlers destroy their prey & toxic chemicals pollute their world. This dolphin died in a fishing net. 2/2

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

#Rio My team & I are back in Brazil, where the highly-threatened Franciscana dolphins struggle to survive. Every year thousands die in gillnets, and orphaned newborns need round-the-clock care. 🧵1/

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

#Rhino Poachers gunned down 20 dehorned rhinos for their residual stump last month. Two men were shot dead. Dehorning has reduced rhino deaths, but this evil trade, driven by wealthy buyers in Vietnam & China, will not end until the last rhino dies. dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024...

dailymaverick.co.za

Poachers butcher 20 dehorned rhinos in KZN game park

The dehorning project in the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi rhino sanctuary in KwaZulu-Natal has suffered a setback, with at least 20 dehorned animals gunned down for their remnant horn stumps over the past month.

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

#Birds There used to be millions—now African penguins are on the brink of extinction—and it's all our fault. They could be gone in less than 4,000 days. In this link there's a petition to sign to protect their food sources effectively (takes 5 seconds): birdlife.org/news/2024/11...

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

You'll be glad to hear this bear was rescued, treated for injuries, and set free, but habitat destruction, hunting for TCM, killing mother bears for cubs for the pet trade & human/bear conflict as we encroach into their native territory means their numbers are decreasing.

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

#HabitatDestruction A young sloth bear torn by barbed wire, a snare gripping his left forelimb. We are making life impossible for wildlife. We act as if we only need livestock for our survival. Species are not passively being lost; we are actively exterminating them.

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Quote not by James Baldwin, but by Robert Jones Jr: "Thanks to my former Twitter alias, “Son of Baldwin,” something I said back in 2015 will likely always be misattributed to him and I don’t mind. After all, he’s given me more than I could ever hope to repay." www.nytimes.com/article/jame...

nytimes.com

The Essential James Baldwin

He wrote with the kind of clarity that was as comforting as it was chastising. Here’s where to start.

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Facts and hope are important to me too; it’s good to see you here, Jim.

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

How terribly sad. An easy measure all governments could do now in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss would be to implement strong protection of remaining mature trees and woodlands. Destroying them is madness.

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

#nature A red squirrel's drey. The Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) often builds their nest in the fork of a tree like this. They don't hibernate, although they may sleep through the very worst weather and juveniles are lucky to survive their first winter.

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

#Penguins Each African penguin has a unique pattern of black dots within their ventral feathers which remains unchanged throughout their life. A study shows the dots help them identify their mates, and they help us to monitor individuals using AI. sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

African penguins recognize their mates by the unique pattern of black dots on their chest.

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

Excellent advice, thank you, Brigit.

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Dr Tom Montgomery @drtomontgomery.bsky.social · 09/11/2024

2/2 Substantial ice balls on legs & feet impairs the bear's ability to travel & hunt plus lameness from pain could threaten survival. Changes in ice formation & rain on snow events are thought to contribute to these never seen before phenomena. We are torturing polar bears with our folly.

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