Tiff DeGroot 🧬🦍🐒🐘🐗🧬

PhD Candidate | Forest Science @michigantech. Studying central African mammal biodiversity using camera trapping & DNA metabarcoding (eDNA). she/her

[Tiff DeGroot 🧬🦍🐒🐘🐗🧬 @tiff_degroot]

Excited to share some insights from our recent article on Rio Campo Nature Reserve with @berggorillas!

Despite challenges including habitat degradation & hunting, Rio Campo is home to several Endangered species—including gorillas, chimps, & elephants. 🦍
https://t.co/pxBADEoXEe

[Tiff DeGroot 🧬🦍🐒🐘🐗🧬 @tiff_degroot]

I'm using this dataset (of more than 350,000 images!) to investigate distributions of locally-important & threatened species in the region, including chimpanzees, gorillas, forest elephants, & pangolins!

[Tiff DeGroot 🧬🦍🐒🐘🐗🧬 @tiff_degroot]

Love African mammals? Get ready for lots of cool photos from our camera trap project in Equatorial Guinea over the coming weeks!

[Berggorilla.org @berggorillas]

Äquatorial-Guinea schützt bedrohte Großsäuger in intakten Wäldern, 20% Hochland geschützt. Neue Nationalparks geplant, Kamerafallen entlarven Wilderei. Rio-Campo-Naturreservat: Elefanten, Gorillas, Schimpansen. Gefahren durch Brücke und Hauptstadtverlegung.

[Tiff DeGroot 🧬🦍🐒🐘🐗🧬 @tiff_degroot]

Get ready to answer that age-old question, which is better for mammal surveys: camera traps or carrion flies!? (ok, maybe decade-old question...)

Hear for yourself at 2:30 pm during Molecular Ecology I on Monday at #TWS2023!

[TWS Molecular Ecology Working Group 🧬🐾🐦🐍🐟🌲 @TWS_MEWG]

Please congratulate our 2023 travel award recipients!!! 👏 🎉

Read more about them below, and be sure to check out their presentations at the upcoming @wildlifesociety annual conference!

[Tiff DeGroot 🧬🦍🐒🐘🐗🧬 @tiff_degroot]

*chef's kiss*

#CameraTrapTuesday

[Tiff DeGroot 🧬🦍🐒🐘🐗🧬 @tiff_degroot]

Happy #CameraTrapTuesday! Check out this giant ground pangolin taking a late-night stroll in the forest.

[Tiff DeGroot 🧬🦍🐒🐘🐗🧬 @tiff_degroot]

Anyone on here an OBITools whiz who would be willing to help a girl out with some pipeline questions? #Bioinformatics #eDNA #metabarcoding

[Tiff DeGroot 🧬🦍🐒🐘🐗🧬 @tiff_degroot]

My notes tracking my PhD work are always like:

July 12, 2023:

- Tried downloading a database of [X] using R package [Y].
- It didn't work.
- Realized I already downloaded this database from [website] months ago, and it has everything (and more than) I'd ever need.

[❄ Willie Jack's Favorite Unk 🍙 @DanDanTransient]

There is an important distinction in how colonialism vs Indigenous practices deal with taboo and taboo animals that is important to why Indigenous ways are more sustainable

CW owls and butterflies

[Tiff DeGroot 🧬🦍🐒🐘🐗🧬 @tiff_degroot]

@HayleyTumas This is a great idea - Thank you! I'll reach out to some local practitioners to see if they'd be willing to discuss this as a guest lecturer.

[Tiff DeGroot 🧬🦍🐒🐘🐗🧬 @tiff_degroot]

Folks who have ecology/wildlife/conservation degrees—What do you wish had been covered more in your classes?

This could be:
- a specific wildlife technique
- a statistical method
- even just a theme you wish had been woven in

#AcademicTwitter #Ecology

[Tiff DeGroot 🧬🦍🐒🐘🐗🧬 @tiff_degroot]

Happy Friday! Here's a chimp who looks like it just dropped the hottest album of 2023. #CameraTrapping

[Dr Kristy Deiner @alpineedna]

#eDNA samples were collected from air, water and surfaces nearly continuous for the 24 hours!! Metabarcoding on site had species detections before the 24 hours was even up! We just demonstrated it is possible to rapidly survey a rainforest in less than 24 hours with 🧬🤯!

[Tiff DeGroot 🧬🦍🐒🐘🐗🧬 @tiff_degroot]

I love finding little moments like in my camera trap photos... a nosy little duiker! #CameraTrapTuesday

[Tiff DeGroot 🧬🦍🐒🐘🐗🧬 @tiff_degroot]

Feeling very grateful to have a summer of lab work and analysis thanks to the DeVlieg Graduate Summer 2023 Research Fellowship!

I'm using the summer to focus on a combined #eDNA and #CameraTrapping survey of mammals in central Africa. 🪰📸https://t.co/AjDPVbVjRm

[Tiff DeGroot 🧬🦍🐒🐘🐗🧬 @tiff_degroot]

@Steam Silly workaround to the server errors - ask a friend to buy it for you as a gift!

[Tiff DeGroot 🧬🦍🐒🐘🐗🧬 @tiff_degroot]

Read the full text at: https://t.co/To8S196kmz

[Tiff DeGroot 🧬🦍🐒🐘🐗🧬 @tiff_degroot]

It's finally here!🎉
Check out the first paper of my PhD project, "Human impacts on mammal communities in Rio Campo Nature Reserve, Equatorial Guinea"
🔽

[Tiff DeGroot 🧬🦍🐒🐘🐗🧬 @tiff_degroot]

We used camera trapping to investigate environmental & human related factors in relation to mammal presence & abundance.

We'll use findings to inform both on-the-ground management in Rio Campo, & future modeling of mammal communities in Equatorial Guinea's forests!