In yet another blow in a years-long pattern of harassment, the latest development in Dr. Carin Bondar’s case reveals just how much she has been made to withstand in her fight to stand up against misogyny, sexism and gender-based harassment.

On Monday November 24, Barry Neufeld was taken into custody under a court-ordered committal after repeatedly refusing to comply with the defamation judgment he lost in 2024—and again on appeal in 2025.

For Bondar, a scientist and storyteller with an international career on a global stage, the moment is not victory. It is another reminder of how Neufeld has continued to attack her character, mislead the courts, and evade responsibility, dragging this harassment out far longer than anyone should ever have to endure.

“Mr. Neufeld created a controversy over a woman teaching science. Now it’s time for accountability. If you use your platform to harass women, queer people, trans people, or anyone, you will be challenged. Eventually, you will face the consequences of the harm you caused.”  — Dr. Carin Bondar

Bondar emphasizes that, for her, this was never a political dispute or a simple disagreement. Neufeld’s misogynistic attacks in the public sphere are a deliberate attempt to discredit a woman for speaking openly about science. 

“My PhD is rooted in the evolutionary biology of reproduction. These are academic fields. They are not shameful. Being a woman, a science communicator and a politician should not make me a target. But Neufeld decided that attacking my gender, my body, and my integrity was easier than engaging with evidence.”

Bondar notes that her experience is part of a wider trend. International research shows that more than 80% of women elected officials worldwide endure psychological violence, with sexualized misinformation becoming one of the most common tools used to silence them. A Guardian analysis of global data this year reported that women politicians face an “explosion” of online and in-person abuse designed to intimidate women out of public leadership. 

“Women in politics around the world are being targeted. I had an opportunity to hold him accountable and I took it. I did this for every woman and gender diverse person who has ever had to absorb the damage in silence”

Bondar adds that, despite winning her case and winning the appeal, the cost was steep — emotionally, professionally and financially. Bondar remains responsible for the entire cost because Neufeld has evaded responsibility. To date, holding Neufeld accountable has cost her over $50 thousand.  

“I am a scientist, a mother, a leader, and an educator. I should be spending my time teaching, researching, parenting and serving my community, not having to defend myself against fabricated attacks designed to humiliate me. This is why accountability matters. Because the cost is real.”

Instead of allowing this defamation to define her legacy, Dr. Bondar is transforming her ordeal into something powerful: A one-woman show titled “Adventures in Wild Sex” — combining scientific storytelling, comedy and musical parody to weave the tale of her unexpected trajectory.

“Women are punished for talking about sex, while men in politics have felt entitled to weaponize it. This show is my answer to that. It’s me taking back every inch of space that someone tried to shame me out of.”

Through spoken word, multi-media mashups and biting wit, Dr. Bondar refashions her experience as a celebration of biology, feminism and unapologetic excellence.

Carin’s story, Adventures in Wild Sex, unfolds: April 1 and 2, 2026 at the Chilliwack Cultural Centre. 

Bondar hopes the show will inspire people, especially young women, queer kids and future scientists who have ever been shamed out of showing up fully as themselves.

“Nobody gets to define you with lies. Nobody gets to weaponize your work against you. And nobody gets to take your voice and walk away clean. Not anymore.”

Carin Bondar holds a PhD in Biology from the University of British Columbia and is an internationally recognized science communicator whose work has appeared on Discovery, PBS, Netflix, National Geographic, Science Channel and Nature. She is the author of Wild Sex and Wild Moms, an instructor of science communication at UFV and the University of Manitoba and an elected School Trustee for SD33. Bondar recently joined the board of the National Center for Science Education (USA) and is chair of the board at the Great Blue Heron Nature reserve.  She is a mom to four teenagers, two dogs and two cats.

Media Contact:
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Click here to download Dr. Carin Bondar’s Adventures in Wild Sex media assets.

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This is exactly how a newly discovered water beetle, described in the open access journal ZooKeys, was given the name of Hollywood actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio. The tribute marks the 20th anniversary of the celebrity’s Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation (LDF) and its efforts towards biodiversity preservation.

The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation has become one of the world’s foremost wildlife charities, having contributed to over 200 grassroots projects around the globe devoted to climate change mitigation, wildlife conservation, and habitat preservation.

“We can all have an impact,” says DiCaprio in a special LDF video, “but we have to work together to protect our only home.”

Going by the scientific name of Grouvellinus leonardodicaprioi, the new water beetle was discovered at a waterfall in the remote Maliau Basin, Malaysian Borneo, during the first field trip initiated by Taxon Expeditions – an organisation which

arranges scientific surveys for untrained laypeople with the aim to discover previously unknown species and bridge the gap in biodiversity knowledge.

Having identified a total of three water beetle species new to science, the expedition participants and the local staff of the Maliau Basin Studies Centre voted to name one of them after DiCaprio in honour of his efforts to protect untouched, unexplored wildernesses just like Maliau Basin itself.

“Tiny and black, this new beetle may not win any Oscars for charisma, but in biodiversity conservation, every creature counts,” said Taxon Expeditions’ founder and entomologist Dr. Iva Njunjic.

Original source:

Freitag H, Pangantihon CV, Njunjic I (2018) Three new species of Grouvellinus Champion, 1923 from Maliau Basin, Sabah, Borneo, discovered by citizen scientists during the first Taxon Expedition (Insecta, Coleoptera, Elmidae). ZooKeys 754: 1-21. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.754.24276

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Whether you’re a clumsy human or a lucky animal who has narrowly escaped the clutches of a predator, surface abraisions and wounds are common.

When surface maladies occur, it is vitally important for all animals to treat them in order to avoid infection.

For humans in the western world, this is fairly easy to do. The use of sterile equipment, antibiotics, antiparasitic, and antifungal medications, and the ability to care for injuries without the treat of predation gives us ample opportunity to heal.

Such luxuries aren’t available to the other 98 per cent or so of organisms with whom we share this planet. Animals must rely on natural remedies and their own physiological power in order to heal themselves from wounds and to avoid invasion by the opportunists who are actively seeking a place to fester.

The Strategy of Tropical Reef-Dwelling Fish

Tropical fish living in coral reef environments have an effective strategy when it comes to caring for wounds and dealing with ectoparasitic infections: the cleaning station.

Some types of fish and invertebrates perform a cleaning procedure on other kinds of fish, not entirely unlike the treatment we receive at a medical clinic to clean and care for a wound. Client fish (the ones to be cleaned) assume a specific posture at a cleaning station (an area of a coral reef known to be frequented by cleaning fish) in order to solicit a service.

Clients have been documented to do this up to 144 times a day, making it clear that such interactions are common in the coral reef environment.

This setup is viewed as mutualistic, with the clients benefitting from the cleaning and the cleaners benefitting from a free meal.

Blue Tangs (Acanthurus coeruleus) in the Caribbean experience a high frequency of minor surface abraisions from brushes with sea urchins, hard corals, and larger predators.

However, such injuries have a low probability of becoming infected and resulting in further detriment to the health of the fish.

How do they heal so effectively without becoming infected?

Cleaner fish bite at the periphery of the wounds and at dangling muscle fibres, effectively cleaning off any necrotic or infected tissue (one fish’s rotting tissue is another one’s meal).

Healing of injuries is rapid and complete, with a high rate of recovery for all wounded fish, including those with severe abrasions. Individuals with significant surface damage have been documented to spend much more time at cleaner stations when their wounds were fresh (25.4 minutes per hour) than when they had healed over (1.6 minutes per hour).

Treating Ectoparasites

Cleaning stations also provide a medical reprieve for fish that are heavily infected with ectoparasites, a common occurrence in the aquatic world. The attending cleaners selectively prey on the ectoparasites plaguing their clients, as opposed to simply grazing on their surfaces at random. 

When large surgeonfish (Ctenochaetus striatus) in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef were experimentally traumatized with an ectoparasitic isopod on one side of their bodies so that they sustained high rates of infection on that side and no infection on the other, cleaners spent more time working on the infected sides of the fish.

The active removal of parasites and the time spent on heavily infected areas indicate that this kind of medical treatment has an intended purpose for both the client and the cleaner.

In another experimental manipulation, the cleaning process was disrupted by holding client wrasse (Hemigymnus melapterus) in large cages without access to their attendants. Individual wrasse in the cages carried a four-fold higher parasite load than those that had access to cleaning servicesk indicating a strong disadvantage to the clients without access to medical intervention.

These examples demonstrate that the active removal of parasites is an extremely important component of cleaning sybioses, moving far beyond the simplicity of animals picking food off of one another.

Reef-dwelling fish have developed effective ways in which to treat surface wounds and infections. The solution: keep it clean!

This post is an adapted excerpt from my book “The Nature of Human Nature“

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Although at first glance one might think that masturbation in males is wasteful because genetic blueprints are being released without a potential egg-target, there may be some biological use for this behaviour after all.

Sperm expulsion by males is a common occurrence in several vertebrate and invertebrate species, and in some cases it’s a strategic maneuver that results in greater reproductive success.

House Crickets

It has been observed in house crickets (Acheta domesticus) that males routinely expel spermatophores at times other than during sex. Spermatophores are packages of sperm that are transferred to the female sperm storage organ, the spermatheca, during copulation in many invertebrate species.

However, not all ejaculates are equal.

Female house crickets are more likely to store young sperm in their spermathecas. A polyandrous sexual system in this species means that multiple males can mate with a female in order to fill up her sperm storage organ.)

Young sperm can be superior to older sperm for a number of reasons, including a greater fertilization ability and a higher survival rate in resultant embryos.

Due to the fact that younger sperm is dominant in the spermathecas of female crickets, a male’s chances at reproductive success are greatly improved if he provides a relatively new package.

How does he preferentially deposit young sperm?

By discarding the old sperm, of course. Autonomous sperm ejection (cricket masturbation) is the mechanism by which a male cricket gives himself a younger sperm content and increases his chances of successfully fertilizing his partner’s eggs.

Marine Iguanas

Not all masturbatory emissions are so carelessly discarded. Male marine iguanas (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) in the Galapagos archipelago have developed a strategy for improving their reproductive success via storage of their own ejaculates.

There are large size differences between sexually mature marine iguana males. The largest males are the most aggressive, and they hold territories in which the female iguanas nest and feed. Smaller males must somehow sneak into the territories and copulate with females when the larger males are otherwise occupied.

Since female iguanas only copulate once per season, smaller males have developed elaborate strategies to get the most bang for their buck (yes, pun intended) during these rare opportunities.

It takes approximately 2.8 to 3.1 minutes of intercourse before a male iguana initiates ejaculation. For the large dominant males, this time interval is easily achieved, and such males have a high rate of successful copulations (95 per cent). 

The story is not as positive for the smaller males, who generally realize a much lower copulatory success rate and are forcefully separated from their female partners by territory-holding males before ejaculation 29 per cent of the time.

However, the crafty underdogs are able to increase their fertilization success by masturbating before having sex and storing the prepared viable ejaculate in small pouches near the penis.

Storing this extra sperm that can be transferred to the female almost immediately upon mounting her increases the overall fertilization success of the small male iguanas by a respectable 41 per cent. A stored ejaculate strategy may be common in species having a size-dominance hierarchy and sexual interference. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Why Do Humans Masturbate? 

The aged sperm scenario seems like a good reason in some cases; controlling for sperm age is a standard procedure in human in vitro fertilizations.

However, this doesn’t explain the high frequency of masturbation in males, nor its existence at all in females, also observed in other primate species including bonobos and macaques.

Although the clitoris is found in all female mammals, scientists have yet to come up with a suitable biological explanation for it, or for the existence of the female orgasm. The long and short of it may be that it’s simply recreational.

This post is an adapted excerpt from my book “The Nature of Human Nature“

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This isn’t the case in Homo sapiens, whose offspring remain dependent too long for mothers to wait for independence before having more offspring – our physiology doesn’t allow for 18 years between children.

Instead, sacrifices are made and less parental care is given to all siblings.

So why not just have one offspring and avoid the need to sacrifice any parental commitment? This could be risky. If all reproductive effort goes to a single offspring, and for whatever reason the offspring fails to reproduce, your biological fitness is doomed. The bet-hedging strategy accounts for uncertain conditions in the future: there are clear advantages to having more offspring and allocating less parental care to each one.

Fur Seals & Sea Lions

Nonhuman mammals face a similar conundrum with repeat child-rearing. Fur seal and sea lion females rear a single offspring at a time and nurse it exclusively for a period of two to three years, but many females give birth to another offspring during the nursing phase.

A long-term study of Galapagos fur seals (Arctocephalus galapagoensis) and sea lions (Zalophus wollebaeks) addressed the potential conflict between siblings competing for their mother’s resources and also the conflict between mothers and offspring. Which offspring should she nurse? When should she choose the juvenile over the newborn and vice versa?

Between-sibling conflict was found to be especially strong when resource levels were low and the older sibling was unable to forage effectively on its own, away from the supplementation of the mother’s milk. During El Nino years, when thee was low ocean productivity, between-sibling conflict often resulted in the continued nursing of the older juvenile and the death by starvation of the newborn.

During periods of high resource availability, mothers aggressively defended the newborns against the juveniles’ attempts to nurse.

You might find yourself wondering why should a female continue to reproduce when her newborn might starve or when her juvenile offspring isn’t ready to stop nursing?

The fluctuating conditions of the Galapagos make it impossible for the females to predict what will happen, making a bet-hedging strategy important.

If food resources are plentiful when a new pup is born, it makes sense for the mother to defend the younger offspring from aggressive attacks by the older one: “Get off my boob and go forage for yourself; there’s plenty of food out there!”

However, if food resources are scarce, the mother is expected to permit the intimidation – and starvation – of the younger sibling, since the older one has already received more of her resources and is more likely to survive to adulthood.

Although the death of a pup is a high price to pay for a miscalculation in available resources, the mother still gets one healthy offspring when times are bad and has the potential for more when times are good.

The Galapagos study shows that bet-hedging is an effective reproductive strategy when environmental conditions and resource availability are unpredictable. Over the course of her reproductive lifetime, a female seal or sea lion can maximize her overall fitness by hedging her bets rather than by waiting for favourable conditions.

Humans, on the other hand, have taken a lot of the unpredictability out of our ability to obtain resources, so our need for bet-hedging is reduced. 

This post is an adapted excerpt from my book “The Nature of Human Nature“

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Soaps, sprays, and candles containing aromatic compounds from various plant species promise to alter our mood and improve our health.

The big question is this: Do aromatherapy products actually do what they are supposed to do?

One can argue the merits of aromatherapy for humans both pro and con, but there is no question that its use in nature is widespread and effective. The natural aromatic compounds utilized in the animal kingdom don’t come in bottles or with promises to relax and invigorate, but their positive effects on survival are demonstrably clear.

Nesting Birds

Nesting birds are a prime example of organisms that capitalize on the benefits of aromatherapy. A bird’s nest is a welcome environment for pests and parasites, and helpless nestlings left alone while parents are out foraging are an easy target.

This combination of factors represents a dire scenario for the newly hatched birds, but several species have come up with solutions to protect their nests and nestlings from invaders.

The nest protection hypothesis describes the behaviour of adult birds who adorn their nests with aromatic greenery. The secondary compounds in some plant species may serve to repel parasites or to mask the chemical cues that parasites use to find their hosts.

For example, many nesting birds add sprigs of yarrow (Achillea millefolium) to their nests. The plant is rich in volatile compounds and is thought to aid in the reduction of parasite loads on young chicks. Indeed, when nests of the tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) were experimentally supplemented with yarrow, the flea load in nests was reduced by nearly 50 per cent.

The addition of yarrow to the nest represents an increased biological fitness to the parents through the protection of their offspring. Without such supplementation, the efforts to pass on their genes to the next generation could be considerably compromised.

In another example, adult Corsican blue tits (Parus caerulens) have been observed to bring a combination of aromatic herbs to their nests at night, suggesting a possible protection against a nocturnal pest.

The ornithophilic mosquito Culex pipiens is common in Corsica and can be a vector of avian malaria, making it a substantial threat to the survival of blue tits in the area. Biologists tested the effectiveness of the five aromatic herb species utilized by the blue tits in a laboratory experiment and found that the combination of herbs was a much more effective deterrent than any of the herbs alone. The aromatic potpourri utilized by the blue tits at night was shown to be an effective deterrent against the virus-carrying mosquitoes.

Wood Ants

Birds aren’t the only organisms to utilize the powers of aromatherapy in order to keep pests away. Wood ants (Formica paralugubris) have been observed to incorporate pieces of solidified conifer resin into their nests. The active aromatic compound in the resin (turpentine) is found by the ants through its scent and is utilized preferentially over other kinds of structural materials in the ants’ nest, such as sand grains and wood.

In addition to aromatic properties that serve to protect the nest from parasitic microorganisms, the resin contains several antimicrobial compounds that deter invading bacteria and fungi.

The case for aromatherapy in nature is strong and convincing. Why don’t humans follow in the footsteps of the invertebrates and birds that capitalize on the benefits of natural aromatics?

It may be that we are too far removed from the need for such compounds to contribute directly to our survival. Besides, would the average human even know which plants to use or where to find them? Would we use them in the correct amounts, or would we make ourselves sick with the scent of too many overpowering fragrances?

It may be best to leave the birds and ants to do what comes naturally to them while we use our own watered-down version of aromatherapy, which may or may not contribute to our biological fitness.

My mango-coconut air freshener may attract the very pests that natural aromatherapy aspires to dispel, but luckily I can obtain creature-repelling poisonous bug spray to fend off any pests that dare to come too close. Ahh, the complexities of human nature!

This post is an adapted excerpt from my book “The Nature of Human Nature“

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After copulation is complete, males tend to go their separate way while females lay their eggs on any number of benthic substrates (i.e. rocks or shells on the ocean floor).

However, the snail Solenosteira macrospira is a major exception to this rule. In this species, males provide a substantial effort in terms of parental care.

Females deposit their fertilized eggs directly on to the shells of males, transforming them into brooding grounds for developing offspring. Their shells become completely covered with embryos, which carries a significant energetic cost to the dutiful dads.

But here’s the kicker: the male is genetically responsible for something in the region of 25 per cent of the embryos he is carrying.

Females of this species exhibit one of the highest levels of polyandry seen in an internally fertilizing organism, utilizing the sperm of several male donors to fertilize their eggs.

On average, the load of babies being carried around by a single male will have been sired by between six and fifteen males. So in this instance females are making use of the genetic benefits of multiple matings to the direct detriment of the males carrying the embryonic load.

This post is an adapted excerpt from my book “Wild Sex: The Science Behind Mating in the Animal Kingdom“

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These canines have large populations in urban areas and rely almost entirely on the discarded food waste of humans for their diet.

Food competition is intense in these free-ranging dogs, and females have the added burden of bearing a litter of pups every year.

In the early weeks after birth, mom exclusively lactates for her pups and she remains very protective of them. However, after the six-week point she will begin to supplement her pups with solids.

Around the ten- or eleven-week mark, mom abruptly weans her pups; from this point on, her own pups are competitors for food.

It’s an interesting conundrum, and the abrupt changeover from nurturer/mentor/food source to competitor must come with a suite of psychological changes for any of the canine moms involved.

Wild dog mothers lose a lot of weight when they suckle pups, so it’s imperative for them to regain their weight and energy stores soon after weaning. Moms are generally in a very poor state of health toward the end of suckling a litter of pups, but they can regain their body condition by focusing on themselves again once the pups are weaned.

In the cuttroat world of street dog life, there isn’t time to remain nurturing when one must focus on staying alive. 

This post is an adapted excerpt from my book “Wild Moms: Motherhood in the Animal Kingdom“

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The Mother Hypothesis

It doesn’t make any biological sense for a female to give birth to a baby only to keel over the next day and have the baby meet its own death due to a lack of adequate care. Most primate and mammalian offspring require extended periods of care from their mothers as they develop through infancy and toddlerhood means that mothers must be in adequate health to see the entire process through.

In other words, if your baby is going to need five to ten years of extended care, it’s generally necessary for that baby’s mother to have at least ten years of life left to be able to rear that offspring successfully.

This critical interval of time is described by the mother hypothesis, which posits that there should be a postreproduc tive interval of survival for mothers so that they can provide adequate care to their last offspring prior to dying of old age.

This is especially important in mothers of very long-lived species whose infants may require several years of care to reach a point in their lives where survival without mom is possible.

Asian Elephant Moms

Asian elephant females provide support for the mother hypothesis. Elephants have extensive lifespans of up to eighty years, and there is a lengthy period of calf dependence on their mothers for the first several years of their lives.

In addition to learning how to survive, forage, and avoid predation, calves require extensive social support from their mothers. 

Although fecundity is decreased in older elephant matriarchs, a level of reproductive health is generally maintained to see their last calf through to maturity – and this five-year interval is substantially longer than most mammalian females have as a postreproductive lifespan. 

In this way, it’s difficult to conclude whether elephant females undergo a complete reproductive cessation or whether they are waiting out the normal interval that occurs between calves.

In addition to reproducing to nearly the end of their lives, matriarch elephant females provide social support to their grown children as well.

Male children remain with the elephant group until they reach sexual maturity, at which point they leave and begin a solitary life or join with a group of males. Female elephant children remain with their mother’s group for the duration of their lives. 

This post is an adapted excerpt from my book “Wild Moms: Motherhood in the Animal Kingdom“

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As with many nuptial gifts, it’s something for females to eat during the process of sperm transfer; once the female has finished feeding on the spermatophylax, she detaches the sperm-transferring organ and consumes that too – putting an abrupt end to sperm transfer.

The spermatophylax is a gift that is physiologically synthesized by the male and doesn’t seem to benefit the females in any way.

The existence of the spermatophylax is somewhat puzzling to biologists. It’s composed largely of water and free amino acids, but studies have shown that females are unlikely to experience any nutritional or physiological rewards for consuming it.

Males alone benefit, because they significantly increase their chances of successful fertilization by providing it to females.

The amino acid composition of the spermatophylax is a critical factor in determining how much of it will be consumed by the female.

In decorated crickets, females discard the spermatophylax and prematurely halt sperm transfer in approximately 25 per cent of cases.

When researchers examined the components of both desirable and undesirable gifts, it was found that components that induced a positive “gustatory” response in females were preferred. In other words, when males made their speratophylaxes really delicious, females spent more time eating them – regardless of the fact that they were not conferring any nutritional benefit.

Affectionately termed the “candy-maker” hypothesis, this type of behaviour is widespread in all cricket and katydid species that produce spermatophylaxes. It appears the spermatophylax is not so much a gift as a sensory trap designed to maximize sperm transfer.

This post is an adapted excerpt from my book “Wild Sex: The Science Behind Mating in the Animal Kingdom“

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