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Joanna Bagniewska

@joannabagniewska.com
12K followers 2.4K following 1.3K posts

Lecturer in Environmental Science at Oxford Uni @ox.ac.uk @lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk Fellow at @kelloggoxford.bsky.social Zoologist, science communicator, 🇵🇱 in 🇬🇧. #AcademicSky 🧪 I write books, buy them! linktr.ee/jbagniewska

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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 16h
Most birds that grow breeding plumage might look a bit fancy, but are at least recognisable as the same species as before. Enter the Malagasy pond heron, Ardeola idae. Nothing's too fabulous for that one. (Left: non-breeding/juvenile, right: breeding individual) 🧪🪶🦚
Drab greyish heron.
Image: https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/79771861 by Zak PohlenFlamboyant white mop with a blue beak.
Image: https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/149644051 by Jacek Betleja
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 16h
Maybe write some next Sunday? But watch out, there will be plenty of junior parkrunners stomping all over your hard work...
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 04/10/2026
Wonderful to see poems by @brianbilston.bsky.social in Florence Park today. I hope they become a regular fixture! #oxford
Pavement with chalk writing:

In the park,
the tall trees are waving
in the afternoon breeze.

I wave back
only to realize they are waving
at the person behind me.
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Reposted by Joanna Bagniewska
Jason GRIZZLED Bittel @bittelmethis.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Spotted Lanternflies… should you squish ‘em? 🧪
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Reposted by Joanna Bagniewska
Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
A few weeks ago I realized that it has been almost 29 years since I started the #fiddlercrab information webpages. This mind-blowing realization gave rise to some introspection about how/why the site was created, which I have now explained on a new About page: www.fiddlercrab.info/about.html 🦀🧪🦑
fiddlercrab.info
About fiddlercrab.info
Fiddler Crabs
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 01/10/2026
I think most academics relate and celebrate. 🧪 #academicsky
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 01/10/2026
I put together a new starter pack: all colleges and permanent private halls at Oxford University @ox.ac.uk in one place. Eleven are still missing, so if you know of one that's not part of the list, but is on Bluesky nonetheless, please get in touch. Enjoy! go.bsky.app/8221Lma 🎓
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 30/09/2026
Insect declines threaten wildlife far beyond insect world. Apart from being food, insects provide other species with homes, protection, chemical defence and sanitation - to name a few things. Great review article by @r-cooke.bsky.social with BEAUTIFUL visuals. 🧪🪳 www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Visuals demonstrating the following:

Many freshwater fish eat insects
Parrots nest in termite mounds
Chimpanzees use insects on wounds
Poisonous frogs get toxins from ants and beetles.

73% of studied vertebrate species eat invertebrates
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Reposted by Joanna Bagniewska
Point Blue Conservation Science @pointblue.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
🦉🧪🌎 The Palomarin spring banding summary is here! The season brought spring migrants, the return of summer residents, and a few exciting captures! Some highlights: Black-headed Grosbeaks, Sharp-shinned Hawks, Red-breasted Nuthatches, and juvenile Black Phoebes. Learn more: shorturl.at/X7ymm
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 29/09/2026
A nice surprise from Google for #FatBearWeek! 🐻 Vote for your favourite chonky bear here: explore.org/fat-bear-week 🧪
Google game with a bear when you search for "fat bear week"
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 29/09/2026
What have ants ever done for us? "Green roofs, living walls, biophilic cities: we talk about these as though pairing architecture with living tissue were a modern idea. It isn't. Ants had it first." Ants, architecture and ambition - read more here: livingarchitecturemonitor.com/articles/bef... 🧪🐜🌍
livingarchitecturemonitor.com
Before Green Roofs, There Were Ant Hills
In this biomimetic piece, learn what yellow meadow ants can teach designers about green roofs.
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 24/09/2026
The nerdiest, most beautiful scarves for your labbed ones. Loved ones.
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 23/09/2026
You've heard of Wordle and Squardle - but do you know Birdle? Six guesses to identify the bird of the day. Nine games per day based on the species' geography. 🧪 🪶 🐦 www.play-birdle.com/af/
Screenshot of the game birdle
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Reposted by Joanna Bagniewska
🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Leonotis has bright, nectar-rich, tubular flowers that are sunbird favs. Pollen is placed on the top of the head. When cultivated in the Americas, hummingbirds visit & pollinate the flowers in the same way (but hovering). 📷: Nectarinia famosa by Ruperl CCBYNC4 #ornithophily #Botany 🌾🧪🌱
Photo of a metallic blue-green bird perching on the bare, erect stems between the dense verticillasters of orange, tubular flowers. The bird is inserting its beak into a flower.
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 23/09/2026
What time of the year is it? It's FAT BEAR WEEK! It's been so popular that their website is having issues - but check periodically to see if you can vote for the chonkiest chonk on @fatbearweek.bsky.social 🐻 🧪 explore.org/fat-bear-wee...
A bear with a perfectly round butt.
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 16/09/2026
🐺 Wolves eat blueberries (this is not news). But it turns out that going through a wolf gut helps the berry seeds germinate - and disperse. A tasty win-win. 🧪 Article: royalsocietypublishing.org/rsbl/article... 🫐 Also, footage of wolves chomping on berries: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Qz...
youtube.com
First-ever footage of wolves eating blueberries in Northern Minnesota
YouTube video by Voyageurs Wolf Project
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 14/09/2026
The GCSE in Natural History has been long brewing - and here are our thoughts on it. This qualification is especially pressing now, in the light of the climate catastrophe and a crisis of mental well-being among young people. Doing fieldwork and being closer to nature can only benefit society. 🧪🌏🍃
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 11/09/2026
Today, I put on my science communication hat and talk about being a good citizen of the social media community. #scicomm #AcademicSky
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 09/09/2026
Our cohort of @lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk Ecological Survey Techniques students are saying hello to a Natterer's bat at Wytham Woods as part of their field methods training. PSA: don't handle bats without a license (or without gloves). 🧪🦇
A bat sitting on a gloved hand, with people in the background.
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 07/09/2026
A huge loss to the botanical community. @drmgoeswild.bsky.social was an incredibly talented science communicator and a wonderful colleague. My 3yo corresponded with him, and said that "her friend Finn wants to be a BOTTOMIST, like Dr M". 🧪🥬
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 04/09/2026
Kissing definition: “non-agonistic interactions involving directed, intraspecific, oral-oral contact with some movement of the lips/mouthparts and no food transfer” in ants, birds, polar bears and humans. (Provided by researchers from @biology.ox.ac.uk 💚) 💋🧪
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 04/09/2026
The IgNobel for Biomechanics goes to @matildabrindle.bsky.social, @stuwest.bsky.social and C. Talbot for a precise definition of kissing (provided in the comment below). That's well and good, but I think Dr Brindle's work on non-reproductive sex behaviours should be getting an IgNobel too. 🧪💋
Black-tailed prairie dogs "kissing." Photo by Brocken Inaglory, Wikimedia CommonsA female Toque macaque (Macaca sinica) with baby at Katagamuwa sanctuary. Photo: Senthi Aathavan Senthilverl, Wikimedia Commons
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 04/09/2026
Registration link: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
us02web.zoom.us
Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Bugs in the (Eco)system. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.
Join us online for a free lecture from Owen Lewis, Professor of Ecology in the Department of Biology, University of Oxford This event is a free, one-hour lecture, hosted by Oxford Lifelong Learning,...
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 04/09/2026
🧪 Free lecture hosted by @lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk: 📅 Sep 7, 6pm 🪲 Bugs in the (Eco)system Prof. Owen Lewis from @biology.ox.ac.uk explores the consequences of altered insect communities for the diversity and functioning of ecosystems in an era of rapid climate and land-use change. Link below.
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 02/09/2026
Darwin having a good ol' moan in his letters. So rel. #AcademicSky 🧪
I loathe, I abhor the sea, & all ships which sail on it.
I hate a Barnacle as no man ever did before.
I am very tired, very stomachy& hate nearly the whole world.
I am very poorly today & very stupid & hate everybody & everything.
I hate myself, I hate clover, and I hate bees.

- Charles Darwin in various letters between 1836 and 1862.
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 15/08/2026
Sure. Perhaps internally was not the best word to choose here - I used it to mean out of the public eye.
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 15/08/2026
Internally as in within the academic sector, rather than in a public forum, based on hearsay. Yes, there should be transparency, and an external review would be useful, but all of this should be managed within the sector, not in the news.
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 15/08/2026
We saw Jason Arday in the news every day for the past two weeks, linked to a misconduct case that should have been handled internally. I don't remember any academic getting such sustained media attention, not even Nobel Prize winners. This is hounding at its absolute lowest. RIP. #academicsky
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 14/08/2026
I'm using it already!
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 14/08/2026
Monkeys make friends with other species, and that can tell us a lot about how keeping pets came about. Great article by @cyrilgrueter.bsky.social et al., reporting friendly primate interactions with a whopping 55 non-primate species! 🧪🐒🐕 link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Examples of affiliative interspecific interactions involving non-human primates. a Adult female white-faced capuchin (Cebus imitator) monkey grooming an adult female black-handed spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi) in Santa Rosa, Costa Rica; photo by Nicholas Chapoy. b Capped langur (Trachypithecus pileatus) grooming a Phayre's leaf monkey (Trachypithecus phayrei) in Satchari National Park Bangladesh; photo by Sabit Hasan. c A tufted gray langur (Semnopithecus priam) stroking a grizzled giant squirrel (Ratufa macroura) in Yala National Park, Sri Lanka; photo by Senthi Aathavan Senthilverl, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. d Stump-tailed macaques (Macaca arctoides) grooming a domestic dog at Khao Tao Mo temple, Thailand; photo by Neil Challis. e Female northern white-cheeked gibbon (Nomascus leucogenys) holding a mouse at the Shanghai Zoo, China; photo by Cyril Grueter. f Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata) mounting and riding on the back of a sika deer (Cervus nippon) at Yakushima, Japan; photo by Alexandre Bonnefoy and Cédric Sueur. g Young juvenile black-and-white snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus bieti) playing on a domestic pig at Xiangguqing, Yunnan Golden Monkey National Park, China; photo by Yanpeng Li. h) Ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) grooming a southern bamboo lemur (Hapalemur meridionalis) in Mandena, Madagascar; photo by Timothy Eppley A tufted gray langur (Semnopithecus priam) stroking a grizzled giant squirrel.
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 13/08/2026
I've done modelling before (computer and photo), but the latter is a tougher job.
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 13/08/2026
If that lecturing gig I do falls through, there's still modeling (not the computer kind) to fall back on... #AcademicSky
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 03/08/2026
Echo chambers Inaccuracy tolerance LLMs replacing search engines & encyclopedias ... and other possible effects of creeping normality of AI. #AcademicSky
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 22/07/2026
🧪 🐵🫂
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 22/07/2026
🧪 Investigate biodiversity in urban green spaces 🎓 Support graduate access 🦊 Take videos of cute species Just a regular day in the office at @ox.ac.uk ♥️ @biodivoxford.bsky.social #academicsky
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 16/07/2026
Hi Judy, sorry to contact you here, but I can't send a DM to you unless we're connected - I've emailed Friends of Milham Ford about running biodiv surveys there, and I wonder if you are the person manning the account? Could you contact me via my Oxford uni email, please?
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 14/07/2026
Happy to sign it if you're ever in Oxford!
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 14/07/2026
Read my book, remain scarred for life. I present the tongue-eating louse. 🧪 😝 👀
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 14/07/2026
Are there many gruesome linguist deaths in films?
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 14/07/2026
Geologists have a higher death rate in movies than Sean Bean 💀 Of the 202 geologists in 141 movies released between 1919 and 2023, 69 die or are found dead, resulting in mortality rate of about a third. Movie geologists were mainly male, white and in khaki. 🧪 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Geologists on the silver screen—the sequel
As geologists, our interest is piqued when geological processes—with varying degrees of accuracy—are portrayed in movies and especially when a geologist unexpectedly appears on screen, even in a mino...
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 06/07/2026
Orangutans are solitary species, so, theoretically, opportunities for early socialisation are scarce. What do orangutan mums do? They go out of their way to arrange playdates for their kids. Research by @oddjacobson.bsky.social @bjjbarrett.bsky.social et al: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧪🌏🐵
Female orangutan with her young baby in Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre, Sabah, Malaysia; photo by Bernard Dupont, Wikimedia Commons
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 29/06/2026
Could be a good early stage #scicomm opportunity. #AcademicSky 🧪
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 23/06/2026
It's been ten years since the #Brexit referendum. I'm still waiting to find a single positive thing that came out of it. Anyone? #academicsky
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 19/06/2026
I know, it's really amazing! I couldn't possibly pick just one image - can you?
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 19/06/2026
It's easier to blame your dog than to blame your herring, that's for sure!
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 19/06/2026
I've got a Polish version there... But I'll be giving a similar butt-talk in February; with a bit of luck that one might be streamed.
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 19/06/2026
Oooh, I won't be featuring manatees in the talk, but this is an interesting one. Do you know the "Does it fart?" book by @danirabaiotti.bsky.social? Fart-wise, here's a gem of a paper on how herrings communicate by farting; erm, Fast Repetitive Tick (FRT) sounds. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Pacific and Atlantic herring produce burst pulse sounds
The commercial importance of Pacific and Atlantic herring (Clupea pallasii and Clupea harengus) has ensured that much of their biology has received attention. However, their sound production remains p...
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 19/06/2026
Do you know about the Biodiversity Heritage Library @biodivlibrary.bsky.social? A great resource for nature-related collaborative work, with biodiversity literature and images made publicly available. www.biodiversitylibrary.org Drawing of a dusky titi monkey, from Description des mammifères. 🧪🌍🪶🦊
Drawing of a dusky titi monkey, from Description des mammifères, Paris: Le Muséum,1843
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 17/06/2026
Hippos will have a brief appearance, yes. Invite me to your podcast, and I shall provide backside facts backed by science.
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 13/06/2026
I don't think so, unfortunately...
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