Things have been ramping up in the squirrel lab! This summer we've been super busy building super cool aviaries for flying squirrels, and going out looking for... flyers! A while back we spotted one at our field site at Ard Brac Acres in Pittsville. Once we have all our permits in place we will be doing a bunch of squirrel science, measuring and running behavioral tests to understand their behavior better... stay tuned!

On Friday Beverly Lo successfully presented her thesis to her committee and the lab. Her work investigating the role of estradiol on pouched rat vaginal patency didn't turn out as predicted, but Beverly stuck with it to the end! Yay!

SICB 2020 was a great success in Austin, TX. I (Angela) gave a talk on the pouched rat olfactory receptor repertoire, but my student Aumena (pictured here) presented her summer project from the Army Educational Outreach Program. She studied the effect of vaginal patency in pouched rats on scent marking behavior. Everyone had lots of great questions, and most people could not believe that Aumena is still in high school! Her work has been so impactful for our lab and for others, and I'm certain she will go on to do great things.