#CASfieldnotes

[tiffanybozic]

Common Greenback frog (Hylarana erythraea), Malaysia #PGHILL #Bioblitz2017 #CASfieldnotes #commongreenbackfrog #greenbackfrog #tiffanybozic (at Penang Hill)

[fishing-exposed]

@CoralReefFish: Here is another dose of Red Sea fish biodiversity, can you tell what those are? ID challenge on! #ichthyology #CASfieldnotes #taxonomy https://t.co/Z2Ac3ZeDa0

[academyadventures]

Off to the Philippines for VIP 2015!

Me, testing out my snorkeling gear. Am I wearing this right?

Hi Folks! Rik Panganiban here, senior manager of Digital Learning at the Academy.

I’m super excited to announce that, beginning on April 5, I will be participating in the 2015 Philippines Verde Island Passage (VIP) expedition, along with 40 or so other scientists and other experts from the Cal Academy and other science institutions in the United States and the Philippines. It’s a tremendous honor to get to be in the Philippines, particularly as a Filipino-American and a science educator.

About the Expedition

For six weeks, from the end of March to May 5, a team of American and Filipino researchers will be conducting a field expedition to the Verde Island Passage (VIP) region of the Philippines, an area that has been called the “center of the center of marine biodiversity.” The expedition builds upon our work in the Philippines that spans several decades and has resulted in hundreds of new species being discovered in the region. 

Our main focus will be on exploring, cataloging and collecting marine life that we encounter, to better understand the local ecosystem and human’s impact on it. At the same time, we will be conducting outreach and education for the general public and for educators in the region, to help them to better appreciate and understand the amazing biodiversity in their own backyard and how they can preserve and protect it for future generations. And we will be telling the story of what we are discovering in the Philippines back home via news stories, blogs like this one, and video and photo documentation that we bring back to the Academy.

Live Reporting from the Field

While I can not take you all with me, I will do my best to give you a flavor of our adventures over there by posting to this blog as regularly as I can. I will try and  match the great reporting done by Katie Levedahl at last year’s expedition, that you can read about here. 

My goal is to cover topics and areas that are of interest to our youth community. If there’s anything in particular you would like me to report on, please tell me in the comments, from local perspectives on the expedition to what we are eating and drinking. 

I’ll be on the expedition officially from April 5-17, and will share as much as I can during that time.

Until then, read Katie’s posts from last year’s expedition and watch the neat video about our epic 2011 Hearst Expedition to the Philippines for more background.

[tiffanybozic]

My daughter holding a (relatively harmless) Malaysian Forest Scorpion. #PGHILL #Bioblitz2017 #CASfieldnotes #malaysianforestscorpion #tiffanybozic (at The Habitat Penang Hill)

[tiffanybozic]

Happy Halloween! In celebration of creepy cool: I recently captured a quick glimpse of this solitary mud dauber wasp stuffing a 🐛 into her nest. She’ll lay a single egg in this nest she built and provision it with several juicy live paralyzed victims for her offspring to feed on. Can you imagine if wasps were human size?! 😱 #muddauber #wasp #paralyse #sphecid #tiffanybozic #PGHILL #Bioblitz2017 #CASfieldnotes (at The Habitat Penang Hill)

[tiffanybozic]

A post Halloween video from my recent trip to Malaysia: The predatory Hammerhead worm (bipalium) follows earthworm trails and hunts them down for a meal. They then push their pharynx out of their mouths, covering the earthworm in neurotoxin secretion called tetrodotoxin which liquifies the worm. The hammerhead worm then literally sucks up the dissolved earthworm. Pretty cool eh?! It’s important to remember that these fascinating land planarians play an crucial role in the ecosystem. Maybe next year I’ll dress up as a sexy hammerhead worm for Halloween 🎃 😆 #hammerheadworm #earthworm #predators #PGHILL #Bioblitz2017 #CASfieldnotes #tiffanybozic #inspiration (at The Habitat Penang Hill)

[tiffanybozic]

New species of Scorpion! So it doesn’t even have a name! It’s actually quite small, only around 1”, but safe to assume that it still has a pretty nasty sting! #PGHILL #Bioblitz2017 #CASfieldnotes #tiffanybozic #newspecies #scorpion #chaerilidae (at Penang Hill)

[tiffanybozic]

Good morning Penang! On another expedition with scientists exploring wonderful flora & fauna. I’ll be sharing my pics with you for the next cple weeks. If you’ve ever been to Penang, please recommendations #PGHILL #Bioblitz2017 #CASfieldnotes (at Penang, Malaysia)