Hannah Vander Zanden

I am posing next to the water with three green turtles visible in the water.

Three green turtles feed on algae in shallow water very close to the shore.

An endangered monk seal rests on the sand.

View from Honokohau Beach.

I made a quick trip to Honokohau Beach this afternoon to see green turtles grazing on algae in shallow water and the endangered Hawaiian monk seal.

Participants mingle at tables on a lawn with a dark sky, palm trees, and hotel in background.

Hawaiian dancers dressed in red on a covered stage with a band behind them.

A man with fire sticks spinning and drummers behind him. ISTS participants look on.

Dr. Alexander Gaos gives opening remarks.

A lovely welcome social and opening ceremonies at #ISTS2026.

Entrance of Kona International Airport

View of pool, resort building, and the ocean in the background.

View of Keauhou Bay from the Outrigger Resort.

View of the chapel behind greenery.

Excited to have arrived to Kailua-Kona to attend #ISTS2026 in a gorgeous setting!

A thread on the new article from recent grad @zoologistkate.bsky.social in @stacksjournal.bsky.social.

Migratory bird stopover patterns linked to urbanization and social landscapes - Nature Cities Urban ecology traditionally focuses on single cities, yet cities play key roles in ecological processes such as migration. Radar analysis across the continental USA reveals that nearly half of stopove...

A study I led came out in Nature Cities yesterday!

We used radar to study the role that urban landscapes play in migratory bird stopover. Spoiler: birds use cities a lot, and the patterns of their use reflect social processes and the inequities embedded in them.

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

First option.

Gator Nation Stand Up & Holler Giving Day All for the Gators 2.19.26

Today is UF Giving Day, and donations to the ACCSTR fund will directly support sea turtle research, education, and conservation. Now's your moment to give to what you love! #AllForTheGators

givingday.ufl.edu/campaigns/ar...

If you are ever tempted to use AI to format references, don’t.

Invest in a real citation manager.

Spoke with a PI whose postdoc is trapped abroad because of social media vetting. It appears the postdoc missed disclosing one account and it's unclear if they can come back… ever.

This is the country we live in now.

It was just a matter of time…

Long exposure photo of students sitting on the beach, facing the water and watching an olive ridley nest just after midnight.

Long exposure photo of an olive ridley returning to the water after nesting.

Students take turns digging up the nest to relocate the olive ridley eggs. We worked with red light, but the sky looks lighter due to a long exposure shot.

The group gathers for a photo in front of a strangler fig in Copalita National Park, Mexico.

We finally saw an olive ridley nesting last night! I used the long exposure setting to take photos under the full moon.

Today, we went to Copalita National Park before heading to the beach.

Two students rebury Pacific green turtle nests in a hatchery.

A student poses next to a leatherback track. It was a false crawl: she didn’t lay.

Students out plant cactus.

Neat triangulation.

The learning continues. Night time nest relocation, a leatherback track after we saw the female false crawl, revegetation, and triangulation.

Students sit in a half circle as a cooperative member tells his story and our local coordinator translates.

A student has found a nest of turtles emerging and gets ready to place them in her bucket.

Two student students tip their buckets with hatchlings toward the camera.

A student has emptied her bucket near the water’s edge.

Yesterday afternoon, we learned about the history of sea turtle conservation from local cooperative members as well as government employees. This morning, we rescued hatchlings on the beach.

Students watch a nest of olive ridley hatchlings emerge under red light.

Students line up to move turtles during the tank cleaning.

A student walks among stones in the tank with a turtle in her hands. Other students scrub the tank with scrubby sponges under their feet.

Two student students prepare a turtle for a vitamin injection.

We saw our first olive ridley hatchlings last night. This morning, we cleaned a large tank and helped handle green turtles for vitamin injections at Centro Mexicano de la Tortuga.

View of the site from highest point looking southwest.

Carved jaguar was a symbol of the nobility.

View of from south platform looking north. Yours truly is posing.

Silk tree and “guaje” trees next to stone platform.

Before heading to the coast this afternoon, we toured Monte Albán to learn about some Mesoamerican archaeological history.

The back of a large mannequin with traditional braids.

Mini tourist market with colorful flags waving above.

Two blue painted cats sit on either side of a shop entrance flanked by green walls.

Squash soup for dinner.

I have the privilege of taking students to Mexico for just over a week for my Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation Course this semester. Despite the travel complications yesterday, all but one arrived to Oaxaca. Some scenes from the city.

NSF building on Eisenhower Av. HUD now owns.

Destroying the NSF mural in the foyer. Of the Eisenhower building.

The National Science Foundation sign on our Eisenhower Av building is now gone.

The NSF mural in the foyer is removed and torn off in sheets.

We were supposed to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the agency in May 2025. That never happened.

I would be inclined to go for a) with an appreciative but honest tone.

The university mandated everyone to come back to the office but now say they can longer afford to keep paying for office phones.

On the list:

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change;

Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

International Tropical Timber Institute

Internacional Union for the Conservancy of Nature

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research

Maybe this is my sign to tone down my perfectionism this year.

I can tell you are tired because the alt text mentions craps on tote bags.

Trump administration cannot slash NIH research funding, court rules District Judge Angel Kelley last year blocked the cuts, and on Monday the appeals court agreed.

The district court injunction that prevented NIH from capping indirects at 15% was upheld today on appeal!

www.reuters.com/world/trump-...

7/ Here's the bottom line: This is an unprecedented shift that risks weakening protection against preventable diseases at a time when outbreaks are rising and children are already being hospitalized. Vaccines don’t work without strong supporting systems...and the U.S. doesn’t have Denmark’s.

I felt that way, too.

What about Connor, Conrad, Conley, Colin, or Cedric?

I am on a C kick.

As parents are helping their kids consider colleges, this is my perennial reminder that state schools often have lower price tags, yes, but private schools, including many small liberal arts schools, often have better aid packages, and are thus often cheaper in the end (but may be more competitive).

Trump Administration Plans to Break Up Premier Weather and Climate Research Center

Every article about the dismantling of NCAR says the same thing, but read every one because it's so insane.

Ha, I love this thread. I have learned the students refer to the courses as Bio 1 and Bio 2, but the faculty call them 2010 and 2011.

A model human skeleton is posed in a window with one arm resting on the sill and its chin resting on its other hand. It looks like it is enjoying people-watching everyone passing by.

I really appreciate whoever keeps posing the skeleton model in the anatomy lab room like this; I grin every time I walk past it.