Jay Lombardi, Ph.D.

Had a new ocelot paper get accepted last week and a road ecology paper accepted today.

Observations of a puma predation on endangered California condors: Implications for species recovery Reintroduction of endangered species is wrought with many challenges, but one often overlooked challenge is the threat of predation of naïve individuals. Individuals lacking the insight to avoid pred...

🚨 new publication 🚨

We documented three instances of a puma predating on wild California Condors at their roost site.

esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Mountain Lion Program Scientific Aid Looking to make a difference? Join our strong and mighty workforce. We offer benefits and growth opportunities and impact the lives of millions of Californians.

The CDFW Mountain Lion Conservation Program is looking to hire a new scientific aid. Early Career Scientists are encouraged to apply!

calcareers.ca.gov/CalHrPublic/...

Deadline is Monday May 26!

An eppendorf centrifuge in that specific nicotine-yellow color from the 80s. It's the exact color as the old fridge in your garage that you keep sodas in that your parents replaced in 1997, and which has outlived a half-dozen of its replacements.

"Why don't you buy a new centrifuge"

Because everyone knows that any appliances in that shade of yellow will outlive you and your entire family, look at it

PC: Colin Delincy

Looking forward to seeing folks at the 14th Annual WAFWA Mountain Lion Workshop this week

Repost from X:

CDFW wrapped up wolf capture & collar operations recently in northern CA resulting in a record 12 wolves now outfitted w/ satellite collars. Collar data provides info to understand diet, dispersal, pack formations & help mitigate conflicts w/ ranchers

wildlife.ca.gov/News/Archive...

And while we’re at it let’s generate the content that made science Twitter for what it was… that was the research that we did, the papers that we produced, the collaborations that we formed, the scientific discocourse that happened. We all know what’s happening— but let’s shine some positive light

I’m not saying to leave this app all I’m saying is to create the same discourse on X.

How is this going to affect local economies in towns adjacent to national parks, national monuments, national Forest; how does this affect people’s ability to visit places to see wildlife, how does it affect ability to manage natural landscapes and wildlife populations? And why is that important?

And you may not get everyone to listen to you, but I’ll tell you what if you frame it properly it can pay off. I think the key is here is to create this outpouring and show the public who don’t do what we do what the impacts of this is going to be. How is it going to affect them

You cannot control how someone reacts, all you can do is control what you tell them and how you say it. It’s a mantra that I use when talking to members of the public regarding carnivore conflict. They may not agree initially and that’s okay. Sometimes you have to wait. Sometimes it takes time.

We as scientists all know the importance of it, so we don’t have to make the convincing but it’s those members of the public who do, who didn’t understand the importance of what we do, but followed your accounts for the science you did. It creates discourse, good or bad it creates conversation

But there in lies the problem. And others have spoken to it, if people are speaking out about the election or the federal firings here they are essentially screaming into a void / echo chamber because the ideal logical makeup leans left. The same conversations are missing on X.

The one thing I do miss on X and now seemingly here is the absence of amazing, novel and interesting papers that everyone is publishing. I realize things are hard right now but beacons of positivity and hard work help lift us up, as these are the efforts we pour our lives into.

I agree. The majority of the public (include outside the US) and international scientists still post on. The issues at hand don’t resonate as much as it can. We need the discourse on Twitter/X, as much as it’s here.

I just got a report that a terminated employee from another agency got their job back after replying to the termination email with their good perf appraisal.

If you are still connected, might as well try. It makes for good documentation if nothing else.

Let me know. So far only this one anecdote.

Turbulence moving through rock over hundreds of year withering down and creating a path once over now through the rocks, the sun peering through the pines, the roar of water cascading down behind me from Bassi Falls. A gorgeous Saturday in the woods and perfect way to end November.

Earlier this year, Dr. Tom Yamashita led a paper “A multivariate approach to assessing landscape structure effects on wildlife crossing structure use” and we tested how landscape structure at WCS sites compared to the surrounding landscape and how structure affected bobcat detections @ WCS sites.

Reposting this but as an addition to the ocelot PVA published last week, earlier this year we published “Assessing ecological and socio-political factors in site selection for ocelot reintroduction in Texas”

conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

If you are interested in #rstats, hierarchical modeling in ecology, and in particular occupancy models, then check out my blog!

The one post that gets the most traffic is this one here on how to combine presence-only and detection/non-detection data. 🧪

masonfidino.com/bayesian_int...

Human–Carnivore Interactions: Lessons Learned from Communities in the American West Types, causes, and intensity of human–carnivore interactions are related to historical context, management policy, and human perception. We used four rural communities in the American West with var...

Thanks, new followers! 😍 I mainly study human-carnivore conflicts. Starting a 'bluedive' 🧵 on my research. Starting with an oldie because many things we learned are still very true today (especially about misinformation & having a voice). www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Can I be added?

I love waking up to seeing a manuscript accepted for publication

🚨🚨 new ocelot manuscript 🚨🚨
“Our study est the 1st pop viability model for an ocelot reintroduction plan anywhere across the species' wide geographic range, & it reinforces several key considerations for wildlife reintroduction efforts worldwide”

esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

My concern with majority scientists removing themselves from X and only being here is the science and studies may not reach the the a large chunk of the general public as they have in the past.

Thoughts?

Social perception of mesocarnivores within hunting areas differs from actual species abundance.

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

🦊🐾🌎
#mammals
#conservation

Science is neither red nor blue Long before the 5 November US presidential election, I had become ever more concerned that science has fallen victim to the same political divisiveness tearing at the seams of American society. This i...

I’ll leave this here…

From the president of the National Academy of Sciences

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Hey Current/New Followers - I’m Jason Lombardi, Ph.D.; I’m a carnivore ecologist. CA DFW Mt Lion Cons. Program Lead Scientist & Gray Wolf Program Research Ecologist 🐺 IUCN Cat SG Red List Assessor; 🐆Texas Ocelot Reintroduction Project Partner

I hope this isn’t an echo chamber, that’s what I like about X, the discourse of opposing viewpoints (even if I may not agree).

I am here because I miss the scientist engagement