Last Saturday, we embarked for the first seal mission of the season. We traveled to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, Coney Island, and Orchard Beach. Although it was a beautiful day, we saw neither seals bobbing in the water nor hauled out on land. Some might consider this a fail. However, we identified several potential and accessible locations in the NYC area that may be perfect habitat for seals. We intend to stretch our search to Staten Island (Eastern Shore, and not Swinburne Island yet) and the Jamaica Bay/Gateway National Park.

Good friend, colleague, and all-around champion character, Dr. Greg Holwell from the University of Auckland, talks about his passion for research and the natural world.

Yesterday, on Monday, October 24, my Ecology & the Environment students, select independent study students, and ESC mentor Susan Tratner and Assistant to the Dean Tara Maldonado went for a tour at the Brooklyn Grange Farm in Long Island City, Queens (37-18 Northern Blvd.). Thanks to co-founder Gwen Schantz, and 8-month old Otto, we were treated to an excellent tour of the farm, its operations, and their bees. My students also had the opportunity to ask many questions about the farm, and I hope they found it rewarding. I intend to do this trip every Fall, and perhaps tour other facilities in the tri-state area.

On Wednesday, October 19th, my Animal Behavior students braved the wet weather to conduct observations at the Prospect Park Zoo in Brooklyn for their ethograms. Despite the dismal weather, we got extremely lucky, as my students got to speak directly to the keepers, and I had the chance to meet Collections Manager, Terry Webb. We hope to continue this excercise, and build a bridge to support both ESC and WCS missions and initiatives.

Hi Folks,

It’s ready! The 2nd ESC Science Colloquium schedule (here) is complete! Closer to the time of each presentation, I will have titles and abstracts available. And, as always, everyone is invited to attend the public sessions from 5-6PM.

A shout out to my mate Sulo (guitarist) and the Herd boys from Elefant Traks.

Hey All,

Thanks to Patrice Torcivia from CDL International Programs, an ESC Sustainability blog is up and running for students in Panama, the Dominican Republic, and New York City (my Ecology & the Environment study) to post comments and interact with each other. Click here for the link, or simply copy and paste this url: http://escsustainability.blogspot.com/

The goal of the blog is for students to consider sustainability issues that impact them on an individual and local level. We hope that the students will provide each other with a different perspective on sustainability issues and initiatives. Although we are a global community, we’re grateful for the opportunity to stay connected.

With that being said, the new term started on Monday. No rest for the wicked.

At last, the computer animation review is published!

Woo, K. L., & Rieucau, G. (2011). From dummies to animations: A review of computer-animated stimuli used in animal behavior studies. Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology, 65, 1671-1685.

This is the reason why I love New York City in the summer time. Here’s a view from my ‘office’ at Picnic Point on Governor’s Island. Much to the relief of my colleagues Guillaume Rieucau and Kristy Biolsi, they’d be glad to know that I was actually working on a revisions to a manuscript, and a grant proposal.

Empire State College is now engaged in a new Citizen Science Project with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Along with several ESC colleagues, we visited the lab on July 11th for an informative tutorial with the education staff: Dr. Rhiannon Crain, Dr. Colleen McLinn, and Robyn Bailey. Project Yardmap is designed to engage people into science, and to help us think about how we can participate in data collection. The premise is for people to utilize a social internet platform to help map yard space, and to identify (to the best of their ability) as many components of their space as they can. This essentially builds a catalog of data, such as biodiversity, percentage of space usage, and identification (birds and plants). I encourage everyone to use Yardmap, especially in NYC, as it may allow us to think about green spaces in an urban environment.