@solomonrdavid
“The Gar Guy” Fish Scientist & Prof | 🌎Freshwater Conservation | SciComm • GarLab | Views mine | he/him | #GarWeek 📍Saint Paul, Minnesota Wherever you go, there you gar https://linktr.ee/solomonrdavid • @garlab.bsky.social
Was fun to visit after several years! They changed quite a bit of the aquarium; still plenty of gars, too many penguins (anything over zero is too many IMO 😅), and new insectarium is really cool!
Hahaha yes please!
Storefront sign for a cigar bar, but a tree blocks part of the sign so it reads “gar bar”.
Excited at first but realized it was a mirage…I mean garage— wait that doesn’t work 😅
A fish scientist kneels next to a sign that reads “Down on the Bayou” and the lettering features different animals, including a gar (fish)!
Took the @garlab.bsky.social team to @audubonnature.bsky.social while in New Orleans for the southern division @amfisheriessoc.bsky.social conference!
Our Gar & Bowfin conservation & management symposium is tomorrow!
A composite image of me from the red carpet at the Hoppers premiere with the Hoppers logo and several hoppers characters.
After about 5 years (!) of keeping secrets, I am so excited that Disney Pixar's Hoppers is finally coming out on March 6th!
Back in 2021, Pixar emailed me asking if I could give a talk about my research to their employees. Then another talk. And another.
📸 Disney/Jesse Grant/Getty Images
Pterocoma pennata, a comatulid ("feather star") from the Jurassic of Germany
Ginkgoites huttoni, a ginkgo from the Jurassic of England.
Cymatophlebia longialata, a dragonfly from the Jurassic of Germany
Pterodactylus antiquus, a pterosaur from the Jurassic of Germany.
Look at all these beautiful flattened Jurassic friends! ⛏️🤓 All from the Paläontologisches Museum München public exhibit -names in alt-text #fossil #paleontology #paleobotany
Been wanting to write this one for awhile!
Conservation obsesses over rare species. But what about the common ones?
Bluegill are the fish almost everyone knows & caught as a child. But, how much do we REALLY know?
New long-form essay 👇 🎣 #InDefeseOfPanfish tnature.substack.com/p/behold-the...
I feel a bit guilty for enjoying a dish of boulettes made with garfish during my last trip to Bayou Jack.
gardenandgun.com/feature/in-p...
Join us for webinar from PhD student Amanda Schuermann, BSU alumna and current student at UMN MAISRC. Zoom meeting ID is 918 4773 4149 and passcode is SWz8en. Meeting is March 5, 2026 starting at 12:00pm. Title is "A series of happy accidents: Lessons from my trajectory in biology"
[As the guy in that photo] It’s ok! I’ve eaten gar plenty of times and it’s indeed delicious; thanks for promoting their use for both conservation and food!
Keeping you in our thoughts man ❤️
Brb selling city folks the premium, holistic experience of touching grass, smelling flowers, and admiring bugs (a.k.a. my gardening chores)
If you ever want to read a paper for free and can't find it otherwise, email the lead author and politely ask for a copy. You will not be bothering the person. You will in fact make their whole entire day. I have had scientists get so excited I asked they sent me everything they ever published.
I love caves, inflatables and science communication. This month is #colorectal cancer awareness month - the disease that has been ruining me the last 20 months. Get a colonoscopy folks. It’s not as fun as what I’m doing here but it ain’t that bad either.
"We're gonna catch, tag, measure, and release a buncha different sharks"—what?! But it says *GAR* right there before "VIN" (which I assume means there will be wine later) @solomonrdavid.bsky.social can you please explain this mix-up
It’s morning of day 1 of my shark field research skills class! Wish us luck, and let me know if you want to sign up for the fall! 🦑🧪🌎🦈
Hahaha!
As @fishevodevogeno.bsky.social shows, you can certainly handle the eggs and not get poisoned. Wash your hands of course!
Although some people are indeed specifically allergic to gar slime 😮
Yeah right. That's exactly what a poisonous egg would post
Boophis reticulatus, a brown tree frog with weird ridges on its back, perched on a serrated bright green Pandanus leaf.
Platypelis pollicaris, a little brown narrow-mouth frog with flecks of gold over its body, sitting atop a bright green leaf
A female Calumma oshaughnessyi, a large green and grey chameleon with diagonal stripes up its body, walking along a branch toward camera left.
A portrait of Liopholidophis dolicocercus (sorry if you’re using a system that reads these Latin names aloud!), a black, brown, and bright yellow snake. In my years working with snakes in Madagascar, I think I have never had a more cooperative subject. It was totally calm and posable!
Yesterday we hiked out of the forest after five days totally off-grid. Hard to believe what’s happened in the world in the last five days! I’m quite glad we were out of signal range and able to focus on just excellent frogs and reptiles. 🧪🐸🦎🐍🇲🇬
It's the funding of taxonomic research & training that's dying out. Without an ability to identify life forms, we can't recognize/quantify invasions & extinctions and their impacts on ecosystems. Imagine trying to repair a complex steel structure if you can't distinguish different types of bearings.
Narrator: Dr. Shiffman confused “gourmet” with “garmet,” hence his final meal.
*the garnish was also toxic.
fin.
*perhaps* with *enough* hot sauce…might I recommend Tabasco GARlic😅
*DO NOT TRY THIS.
Thanks very much for your interest and questions!
People who tell me not to eat gar eggs: experts
People who cannot be trusted because they’re liars: experts
Conclusion:
Say no to cavigar, I mean garviar, I mean— just don’t eat gar eggs!
It can be high (which is relative), so best to consume in moderation, as with most top predator fish species.
Forbidden cavigar
Boy do I wish you had posted this before lunchtime
It’s *possible* that might reduce toxicity, but we don’t know much about the toxins. I’d highly recommend simply not eating the eggs (the meat is tasty though!)
