Tag: Fieldnotes

May 5, 2020

Automated recorders detect secretive marsh birds

Standing over a foot tall and covered in brown mottled feathers, the king rail is hard to track down amid the marshy reeds where it spends most of its time....

April 14, 2020

Underwater videos improve hellbender conservation

Underwater videos can help researchers find hellbenders without damaging or permanently scaring them away the rocks where they nest.   Eastern hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) are elusive and hard to detect, though...

February 26, 2020

Fieldnote: Tracking mammal presence through soil DNA

Researchers are using trace residues that mammals leave in soil to better detect which species are present in a given area. “It was really cool yet challenging to use the...

February 10, 2020

JWM: Choppers firing painkiller bait control tree snakes

Toxic bait cartridges automatically fired from helicopters may be the first successful way to efficiently reduce numbers of invasive brown tree snakes at the landscape scale on the island of...

July 19, 2019

WSB: Researchers capture pocket gophers by the bucket

Southeastern pocket gophers (Geomys pinetis) typically live in sandy soils with early successional plants they feed on in longleaf pine ecosystems in the Southeastern coastal plains. The make their homes...

July 1, 2019

Remote-controlled device helps trap box-nesting birds

Wildlife managers can now capture birds by trapping them inside their nests using a remote-controlled device similar to a garage door opener. Dave Shutler, TWS member and a biology professor...

June 25, 2019

Tire “dummies” can help conservationist track dead sea otters

What does a sea otter and half a car tire have in common? They both float to the same places. Researchers looking for a way to better track possible sea...

January 15, 2016

Fieldnotes: Acoustic Recorders Track Bird Activity

Recording devices present new opportunities for researchers to monitor bird populations, according to recently published studies. In California, researchers are using passive acoustics devices to listen in on elusive marbled...

November 4, 2015

Eavesdropping on Tiger Roars Can Improve Conservation

Researchers have long been able to recognize a tiger by its stripes, but new techniques in sound recording may mean the stripes are no longer necessary — it could be...