Jack Ashby

OK here I go. Expect posts about the wonderful world of Australian mammals, the quirks of natural history museums, and chasing beasts around the place.

Well shucks, my #PlatypusMatters is listed here in Princeton Alumni's list of recommended books on Australian wildlife.☺️ It celebrates the wonders of Aussie #mammals, while exploring the biases in how the West came to know them. Thanks @justinehausheer.bsky.social! paw.princeton.edu/article/just...

Happy day to all who celebrate, which is everybody

If there were any justice in the world, every day would be #WorldWombatDay, but today is the official day to celebrate these glorious creatures that crush their enemies with their buttocks, dig burrows tens of metres long, constantly regrow their teeth, have babies called wombatlets, and poop cubes.

If wombatlets (baby #wombats) did ASMR content. #WombatWednesday #fieldwork #Tasmania #MammalWatching #WildOz #wombat

It's always an odd feeling when you have to zoom all the way out to fit a lion in shot as she walks passed. #MammalWatching #SouthAfrica #lions

I did not know about the extreme shapeshifting that goes on between baby and adult sunfish. 🤯 [And are anyone else's nerves tingling because these models don't all face the same way?]

I've not read a #poetry book since school, but Brandon Kilbourne's Natural History Poems shows what I've been missing. A natural history curator himself, Kilbourne's #poems explore #colonialism in #museums, the awe of nature, and the wonder of #fieldwork. It's beautiful and thoughtful.

Hippos in the hedges and rhinos in the rocks. 🦛🦏 #MammalWatching #SouthAfrica #hippos #rhinos

It is a scientific fact that everyone likes #echidnas, and so it stands to reason that everyone should read The Enigmatic #Echidna. @dclode.bsky.social writes beautifully about the fascinating lives, histories and personalities of these amazing animals. [And it's always nice to get a hat-tip ☺️]

Lots of animals get called "weird" (platypuses being the prime example- read #PlatypusMatters for the story behind that), but #deer seem to avoid this term. For me, few things are weirder than growing - & then dropping - several kilos of bone out of your head every year.🦌 #MammalWatching #UKwildlife

Here's a word-cloud for all the research enquiries I answered last academic year (there were 135 of them), which just goes to show that the interests of individuals that work in #museums influences the questions those institutions get asked by researchers.

A genuinely incredible sight, and an enormous #conservation success story: white #storks had been #extinct in Britain for 600 years. Now you can see entire flocks of them flying wild over @kneppwilding.bsky.social. #UKwildlife #rewilding #birds

After spotting their not-so-subtle workings, and their lodge, I saw WILD #BEAVERS in the wild this weekend at @kneppwilding.bsky.social. It's so flipping brilliant to have these habitat-restorers back in the UK. 🦫 #MammalWatching #rewilding #UKwildlife

The moment on the quad bike when you decide it's probably time to drive on. 🦏🦏🦏🦏 #MammalWatching #SouthAfrica #rhinos

Rock hyraxes have miniature tusk-like incisors (they are related to elephants), which come in handy for scratching those itches. #MammalWatching #SouthAfrica

South Africa has dramatic light for its dramatic animals. 🌅🐘🦁🦭🦛🌈 #MammalWatching ##SouthAfrica #elephant #lion #FurSeal #seals #hippo

When a male ostrich gets pink legs and pink "lipstick", you know it's about time for ostrich lovin'. 💋 #SouthAfrica #birds ##birding

Mammals big and small, far and near: a terrible video of two iconic South African beasts - a southern right #whale and a rock hyrax. #MammalWatching #SouthAfrica #whales

Some Excellent South African Birds: 🦉 Spotted eagle owl. 🍬 Cape sugarbird. 🪡 Cape weaver (and its nest). 🌌 Speckled pigeon. #SouthAfrica #birds #birding

White #rhinos are famously grazers (grass-eaters), and have wide square lips to help them crop short grass, while black rhinos have pointed lips for browsing on shrubs, BUT... here we have some rule-breaking white rhinos clearly browsing shrubs. 🦏🌿 #MammalWatching #SouthAfrica

Delighted to share that we won the Cambridge Research Impact Awards (Climate & Nature) for our experiment with Nature Perspectives to test if enabling @zoologymuseum.bsky.social visitors to have AI-powered chats with specimens deepened their engagement with nature. www.cam.ac.uk/stories/clim...

The African horn collection: - Buffalo: classic🤵 - Eland: no nonsense 🤺 - Black wildebeest: bike handles🚲 - Klipspringer: bebe👶 #MammalWatching #SouthAfrica

The hippo at the end of the rainbow 🌈🦛 #MammalWatching #SouthAfrica #hippos

Looking majestic with a full blow-dry effect. 💨🦁 #MammalWatching #SouthAfrica #lions

A weaverbird weaving in the wind. Here's the very start of the process of a Cape weaver building its nest of knotted reeds between two stems. The final result will be an intricate protective sphere around the size of a large grapefruit. #birding #SouthAfrica #birds

Meet the tiny tilcayo - the first new species of cat to be described in over a century. This Bolivian micro-cat was identified from an individual that had once been a family pet. 🐈 #cats share.google/Zk1XogLTl7xR...

The klipspringer should be everyone's favourite #antelope: they're the size of a small dog, have the face of a teddy with tiny spike-horns, and they walk on the tips of cylindrical hooves that grip the rocks they live among (their name means "rock-jumper" in Afrikaans). #MammalWatching #SouthAfrica

That face you pull when a kid jumps on you unexpectedly. #CapeFurSeals #MammalWatching #SouthAfrica #seals

It's amazing that perhaps the world's best place to see an awesome wild cat - the caracal - is right on the edge of a big city. Climbed #TableMountain today from #CapeTown with a tiny hope of seeing one, & was delighted to find some poo. Half the joy of #MammalWatching is just knowing they're there

Meet the bontebok, an #antelope that is only found in the fynbos habitat of the Western Cape of #SouthAfrica. All surviving bonteboks are descended from a population of just 22 individuals, which were saved in 1931 by being fenced into the newly created Bontebok National Park. #MammalWatching

Big brawny baboon boss. 🐒💪 #MammalWatching #SouthAfrica #primates

No offence to #birds in general, but #penguins are such good animals that they're basically honorary #mammals. 🐧🌍 #SouthAfrica #AfricanPenguins #birding

Got a lot of love for South Africa's rock hyraxes - they are giving serious #wombat vibes. #MammalWatching #SouthAfrica

More #birds should wear wigs. New favourite bird: the crested guineafowl. 🦰🦃

I'm at Iziko South African Museum to talk about the entwined human and environmental costs of #colonialism, so it's rather fitting that the museum's gardens are teeming with highly invasive American grey #squirrels, which were introduced to #SouthAfrica by none other than #CecilRhodes. #SPNHC2026

Natural history #museums in the Northern Hemisphere all highlight giant deer, and in #SouthAfrica, they had a giant buffalo, with horns that were 3 metres across. They died out only 4000 years ago. 🐮📏↔️

It's Day One of the big international conference for natural history collections professionals. I was asked to contribute to the opening session, which focussed heavily on issues of social justice in natural science #museums. It just goes to show how mainstream this work is becoming. #SPNHC2026

The hyrax life: lounging around on rocks, bathing in the sun in spots that predators aren't likely to get you. Despite looking like a cross between a chubby #rodent and a seal, hyraxes are actually more closely related to #elephants - part of the Afrotheria mammal group. #MammalWatching #SouthAfrica

First 8 hours in #CapeTown: what's not to love about a city where you can land at 10am, explore the National Gallery before a boozy lunch, climb Lion's Head for sunset, then find some fur #seals frolicking around the Waterfront restaurants for dinner. #SPNHC2026

We have a really exciting #MuseumJobs opportunity as Project Manager for a major digitisation programme across some amazing natural history #museums. You have this weekend to apply!

Behold the glorious roundness of #wombats. #WombatWednesday #fieldwork #Tasmania #MammalWatching #WildOz #wombat

Matching mother and baby #wombat bums. #WombatWednesday #fieldwork #Tasmania #MammalWatching #WildOz #wombats

🚨IT'S BIG #MUSEUMJOBS TIME🚨 We are looking for a talented and engaged Project Manager to oversee the delivery programme across the Central England Digitisation Hub, as part of #DiSSCoUK – a nationwide programme to digitise the UK’s natural history collections. www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/project...

A beautiful new addition to the #Mammals bookshelves, covering the fascinating #marsupials, #bats & #rodents (and a sadly large number of invasive species) of the Southwest Pacific islands. The species descriptions are coupled with great photos and illustrations. 🤩🦘🦇🐀 @csiropublishing.bsky.social

The deadline for these important natural history digitisation #MuseumJobs is this Monday 3rd August - so do get applying! #DiSSCoUK

I'm late to the party, but @andreawulf.bsky.social's masterpiece is utterly brilliant. I knew almost nothing about Humboldt, but his impact on how we see nature in the West - both ecologically and emotionally - was nothing short of immense. But more than that, the story is brilliantly told. Read it!