Excerpt from this story from Audubon:

“I can’t tell you how many people come that are like, ‘I grew up seeing fireflies, and I don’t see as many now,’ ” says Matt Johnson, the center’s director.

Candace Fallon, a conservation biologist at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, had long heard similar concerns. But when she checked the literature in 2018, she found little to no information on firefly trends. In fact, there was no comprehensive population data for any of the 179 known firefly species in the United States.

Fallon and a team at the International Union for Conservation of Nature set out to determine how American fireflies are faring. In 2021 they published their findings, the first list of conservation statuses for U.S. fireflies. Of the 132 species they reviewed, more than half lacked enough data to conclude anything for certain. But among the species whose status was clear, the scientists found 20 to be threatened or near threatened.

Fireflies, which are actually bioluminescent beetles, face many of the same threats as birds. Habitat loss—especially of wetlands, given the insects' preference for moist areas—is a major issue. (Indeed, the most threatened fireflies are the species that depend on only one type of landscape, such as the critically endangered Bethany Beach firefly, which primarily occupies freshwater wetlands between sand dunes along a 20-mile stretch of the Delaware coast.) Rising seas and extreme weather events drown coastal birds' nests as well as firefly habitat, while pesticides kill insect prey that both fireflies and birds rely on—and likely fireflies themselves. Light pollution, which can disorient nocturnal migratory birds and contribute to fatal building collisions, also disrupts lightning bugs’ ability to communicate: Flashing in a brightly lit environment is like trying to yell across a crowd.

To help fill critical knowledge gaps, researchers are turning to community science. The Fireflyers International Network collects data on iNaturalist from all over the world, and in 2022 Fallon and the Xerces Society launched the Firefly Atlas, where U.S. participants can share incidental observations and even conduct field surveys. These crowdsourced records can illuminate how species are trending in the face of threats.

United Front: Breasts Without the Airbrush

The shocking thing about Laura Dodsworth’s pictures of 100 women’s breasts isn’t the flesh on show, or the many shapes and sizes, but the realisation that images of unairbrushed, non-uniform breasts seem to be so rare. “We see images of breasts everywhere,” says the 41-year-old photographer, “but they’re unreal. They create an unflattering comparison but also an unobtainable ideal. I wanted to rehumanise women through honest photography.”

Happy World Snake Day! 🐍

World Snake Day is celebrated annually on July 16th to raise global awareness about the crucial ecological role of snakes and to dispel harmful myths and stereotypes.

Why Snakes Matter:

Snakes play a fundamental role in keeping our ecosystems healthy. As both predators and prey, they help control pest and rodent populations, naturally protecting gardens, agriculture, and public health. Despite their benefits, over 3,500 species worldwide are heavily threatened by habitat loss, climate change, and human conflict.

(Sources: Worldanimalprotection.org & nationaltoday.com)

Ever since we all moved down here to South Florida I've seen two beautiful species of Snakes:

•Ring-necked Snake (Diadophis punctatus)

•North American Racer (Coluber constrictor)

[ID: a digital drawing of many different animals and plants in a simple style in grey, including opossum, owl, snake, seal, panther, chicken, monkey, bat, turtle, squid, scorpion, frog, penguin, jellyfish, and more. they surround the words "every other being is as real as i am" in light blue capital letters. end.]

Why am I me and not someone else? Does everything have its own "me"? Living beings see from only their own perspective, but we can observe our fellow beings and imagine - what is it like to exist as a cat or an oak tree? They're all out there having their own experience of existence that I could never come close to understanding with human senses. But does that mean those experiences are less important than mine? Maybe from my own perspective, presumably not from theirs.

(Also, having matching ribbons with your cat is the loveliest idea ever 🎀)

For the folks curious about templates, these are the shapes I cut from cardboard. I added a couple little pieces of cereal box cardboard as structural support in various points, like the bridge of the nose and behind the beak. Also, I ended up cutting the forehead piece a little smaller, which I marked on the paper, but I kept the template size in case you want to see how it originally looked.

It's a completely different piece of wearable art. It has a different soul. It has a different feel.

Bear's mask templates! I just want to stress that our masks are extremely low tech and budget friendly. They're made out of cardboard, hot glue, and fleece, with an elastic band in the back. I used a little sheer black fabric I had leftover from my terror bird costume for the eyes.

Fleece and felt are very forgiving fabrics and you can basically just cut a single large piece and stretch it to fit, gluing it to the cardboard one small section at a time. The fabric was the only purchase we made for these, and it was in the form of thrift store blankets.

this was all stuff i had lying around, most of it was obtained for other craft projects that i haven't yet gotten around to