Virtual reality puts bird biology into the brain

February 4, 2026 by Kaylyn Zipp

Imagine sitting at home on your couch in an apartment building surrounded by concrete on a noisy city block immersed in a different reality. Your ears hear faint bird calls, and you watch while a golden-winged warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera) darts by, flying directly into a mist net stretched between two tree trunks. Just as you are about to wrap the identifying band around its leg the microwave oven beeps. You pull off your headset and head to the kitchen to pick up your popcorn.

A new VR experience like this called VRmivora now allows a user to go through the experiences of a biologist tagging birds and processing their genetics. The technology, developed by David Toews, an associate professor at Pennsylvania State University, is available free online at SideQuest.  

For our latest Q&A, The Wildlife Society chatted with Toews about this new tool. 

Talk me through the development of VRmivora

A pre-med freshman undergraduate student interested in genomics, Lisa Wang, joined my lab. She had a passion for birds and scientific illustration and was interested in 3D models. She mentioned that there’s a campus group, the Center for Immersive Experiences, that develops virtual experiences. She thought it would be cool to work on developing models and gain experience.

I’m a gamer on the side, so I know what’s possible. In modern games like Red Dead Redemption 2, you could spend the whole game observing birds and nature, and it’s so realistic and detailed. I worked it into a proposal for a grant application to the National Science Foundation.

Once we got the funding, we worked with folks in the center, storyboarded what it would look like, wrote a script and then they worked on it. It took a year and a half to make.

VRmivora is both an outdoor experience and a lab genetics component. We took a GoPro 360 out into the field with us and recorded a morning bird-banding session. One of the most special parts to me is something that isn’t a replica of reality. You can grab the bird in VRmivora and view it from so many angles. In reality, we have very specific ways we hold birds. You can’t look at them from all different angles, whereas in the virtual environment, you can.

What do you want people to take from VRmivora?

This is a cool experience—the technology is interesting and exciting. At the end of the day, the motivation is to make it a bridge, to inspire people to go outside. Part of the reason we developed this is for undergraduate students. We work on migratory birds here only in the spring and summer when students aren’t here.

There are other barriers to participation. It usually requires early-morning weekends with lots of bugs, so convincing people to come out when they don’t necessarily know what they’re getting into is hard. The tool teaches them this is a cool experience—the end goal is to use it to inspire people to go out.

What are the next steps?

This program will run in schools as part of DNA Day, when graduate students go into classrooms to talk about DNA science. VRmivora will teach high school students about science and show them that the people who do science are real people. They’re not just like cartoon lab coats.

What would you do differently if you could do it all again?

The 360 video is cool, but it’s hard when you’re working in 360 degrees to direct anyone’s attention to something like a bird going into the net. A director can point to you towards the action as an audience member by changing the camera angle. You can’t do that when you’re filming in 360 degrees, so version 2.0 would have more directorial flair, allowing you to direct participants’ attention to different action points.

What are the next steps?

One of the things I originally pitched in the proposal was measuring, manipulating and working with the bird in hand. We did it in video format, rather than in a 3D modeling format, because I didn’t think it would be possible to do that in VR. Now the folks at the Center for Immersive Experiences said, “This is something that we could do.”

As an evolutionary biologist who studies birds, this was my own system. But many other interesting wildlife systems could be good for an experience like this. Taking an immersive camera to the Galapagos to study Geospiza finches or stickleback fish in British Columbia, for example.

Can bobcats survive the bird flu?

February 4, 2026 by The Wildlife Society

The bird flu has greatly affected predatory mammals that eat the carcasses of infected animals. The deadliness of the recent outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in mammals like elephant seals (Mirounga leonine) has caught the profession’s and public’s attention. A new study in New York examined the survival and mortality of HPAI in bobcats (Lynx rufus), a species recovering from population declines in the state. Researchers tested the blood of bobcats for an immune response to the virus and followed the cats after they were released with GPS collars to determine exposure and survival of HPAI. The study found that one in four cats showed signs of past exposure to the virus because antibodies were present in the blood. One of the animals that did not have the pathogen during the health assessment and did not test positive for antibodies in their blood died five weeks after release due to HPAI infection. Currently, it is unclear why some individuals survive and others do not. However, understanding the prevalence of infection, death and survival is important to prevent declines in vulnerable carnivore populations.

Read the study in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases.

TWS turns 90!

February 3, 2026 by The Wildlife Society

The voice of wildlife professionals continues to play a critical role in shaping the future of wildlife conservation 90 years after its formation. In a changing society, our members work to ensure our mission: “A world where wildlife and people thrive in resilient ecosystems.”

The Wildlife Society was founded in 1936 as the Society of Wildlife Specialists at a conference to aid wildlife conservation by promoting collaboration and scientific rigor. A year later, the name was formally changed to The Wildlife Society. Since then, TWS has grown to include more than 10,000 members in wildlife science, conservation and leadership internationally. We must thank every one of you for your hard work and dedication to the profession, wildlife conservation and for making TWS your community.

TWS reflects the diverse interests and communities that participate in wildlife management. In total, TWS today includes 56 chapters, 155 student chapters, 32 working groups and two communities, representing cross-border management with Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America. In 2011, Women of Wildlife became TWS’ first community, followed by TWS’ Out in the Field community, representing and celebrating the diversity of individuals in the field.

TWS has a long history of rigorous scientific coverage. The Wildlife Society launched the Journal of Wildlife Management, one of the Society’s first programs and its longest-running publication, in 1937. The demand and success led to the formation of Wildlife Monographs soon after, followed by the Wildlife Society Bulletin in 1973. In 2007, TWS began publishing its member magazine, The Wildlife Professional.

TWS has continued to meet professionals where they are. It has adapted to the digital age with diverse web coverage, even extending its reach and growth into more modern forms of engagement like social media. This past year, TWS launched its podcast “Our Wild Lives” so that wildlife professionals can hear about the stories and issues of wildlife while they drive or work.

Professional development has been at the core of TWS. The Wildlife Biologist Certification Program launched in 1977. TWS members approved the creation of a policy director role on staff in 1990, formally recognizing the need for wildlife management to directly connect with regional and national government. TWS’ policy program is relatively young compared to the Society as a whole. But in the years since its formalization, TWS has carved out a unique niche in conservation policy, promoting sound scientific management and the critical work of our members.

This year, as we celebrate our 90-year legacy, we also see many updates and strengthening of TWS so it may thrive in this modern environment. A new website, refreshed branding, strengthening the Wildlife Biologist Certification Program and expansion of policy engagement will ensure that the future needs of wildlife professionals and conservation are well served. We look to the future with excitement at what the next 90 years will bring.

Discovering the impacts of brain drain and disinvestment

February 3, 2026 by The Wildlife Society

Throughout 2025, proposed cuts to federal science funding and workforce reductions through voluntary reduction in force programs by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) across scientific agencies have caused concern about the impact on wildlife conservation. New studies published by Nature have begun to quantify the loss of PhD-holding individuals from federal agencies and the impact on scientific research.

The most common reasons for PhD departures were retirements and quitting, followed by termination. Nature examined Office of Personnel Management data and found that the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration lost the highest percentage of PhD-holding staff of any of the federal agencies. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lost 57 PhD-holding workers. Across all 14 governmental agencies, 10,109 doctoral-trained experts left their jobs in 2025. On average, the agencies collectively lost three times more experts in 2025 than in 2024. Nature also presented a series of graphs that highlighted the impact of administration on science, including declines in the number of foreign students due to visa concerns and decreases in National Science Foundation funding, with 1,996 NSF grants canceled or suspended.

Read more about the loss of PhD personnel and the impact of the administration in Nature.

WV: Samantha Hamilton

February 2, 2026 by Samantha Hamilton

Photo of playful otters swimming and floating in water, emphasizing marine wildlife and conservation efforts.

One might imagine silence reigning over Cape Kiritappu, a remote cliff in northern Japan. Quiet isn’t what you’ll find, though. The Cape is loud: crashing waves, whirring winds, fishing boats and constant chatter among seabirds. If you listen closely to this cacophony, sometimes you can make out a subtle but distinct series of clinks. Those noises belong to the Cape’s sea otters (Enhydra lutris), which—when handling hard-shelled prey—use tools to crack open their food.

The tap-tap of bivalves being hammered on belly rocks is music to my ears. That’s because in an area with so few otters, the cracking can be a useful acoustic cue that an otter may be close by.

My research involves collecting sea otter foraging data to help determine the extent of marine resource competition with fisheries around Cape Kiritappu in an effort to carve a path forward for human-sea otter coexistence in the area.

I took advantage of these unique noises and followed their sound to locate sea otters during my fieldwork. Most times, the strategy paid off, and I was rewarded with nearshore foragers easy to spot. From them, I could observe and record data for over 100 dives—enough to give us a preliminary understanding of the species’ foraging ecology at the Cape.

The information collected thus far offers some of the first insights into Japan’s sea otters. We’re beginning to get a sense of their prey preferences and what proportion of their diet is made up of commercially important shellfish.

We can also infer the current makeup of benthic communities from data on foraging success, dive times and tool use. Despite the progress made, more work remains. Continued observations will allow us to better grasp the nature of the resource competition between sea otters and fisheries.

Samantha Hamilton collects sea otter foraging data using a spotting scope from shore. Credit: Samantha Hamilton

Only then would it be possible to develop scientifically informed solutions that pave the way for coexistence between otters and local fisheries at Cape Kiritappu and other shared seascapes.

Next field season, I’ll again be listening for those recognizable clinks to guide my data collection. I never could have imagined that my ears would play a vital role in how I study and connect with sea otters, but listening, it turns out, is as fundamental to field science as observation.

And by learning to listen more closely, we can better tune ourselves to the rhythms of the coast and the wildlife returning to it.

Wildlife Vocalizations is a collection of short personal perspectives from people in the field of wildlife sciences. Learn more aboutWildlife Vocalizations, and read other contributions.

Submit your story for Wildlife Vocalizations or nominate your peers and colleagues to encourage them to share their story.

For questions, please contact tws@wildlife.org.

Laos communities bring rare crocodiles back from brink

February 2, 2026 by The Wildlife Society

Community conservation is helping to bring back one of the world’s rarest crocodiles from the edge of extinction in central Laos. The Siamese crocodile (Crocodylus siamensis) has been precipitously declining over the past century due to habitat loss and people poaching the animals and their eggs. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) considers them critically endangered, with fewer than 1,000 adults believed to be alive in the wild. But the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and communities in the Xe Champhone wetlands of central Laos have been working since 2011 to protect nests, incubate eggs and raise recently hatched crocodiles in captivity before their release. These efforts have helped sustain what is likely the last stronghold for these crocodiles in Xe Champhone. “The teams build on long-held cultural beliefs that crocodiles are spiritual guardians, creating powerful incentives for protection,” said Santi Saypanya, WCS Laos’ director, in a press release. The full report of Siamese crocodiles’ recovery in this region was published recently in the IUCN’s Crocodile Specialist Newsletter.

Read more at the Wildlife Conservation Society.

LISTEN: Understanding NEPA

January 30, 2026 by Katie Perkins

After nearly 60 years of the National Environmental Policy Act, proposed changes could threaten the strength of this cornerstone conservation legislation.

In this episode of “Our Wild Lives,” TWS members Natalie Jacewicz, assistant professor of law at the University of San Diego and Cameron Kovach, Juris Doctor and TWS Chief Program Officer, break down the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and discuss what proposed changes could mean for the future of environmental review.

Tune in to learn more about what NEPA is and is not, the difference between procedural and substantive laws and what it all means for wildlife professionals.

“Our Wild Lives” is The Wildlife Society’s weekly podcast, sharing compelling stories from wildlife professionals doing critical work around the world. Your hosts, Katie Perkins and Ed Arnett, of The Wildlife Society, bring you thought-provoking conversations with leading experts and emerging voices.

New episodes are released weekly wherever you get your podcasts. Please email comms@wildlife.org with feedback or future episode suggestions.

Loss of long-term ecological research is ‘alarming’

January 30, 2026 by The Wildlife Society

Last year marked the loss of many long-term environmental datasets around the world, which some scientists say sets a dangerous precedent and weakens our responses to environmental change. In a new paper published in BioScience, researchers argue that long-term ecological datasets help scientists predict how systems change, detect early warning signs and help guide environmentally sustainable economies. The loss of access to these datasets or support for programs at the institutional level means current and future loss of knowledge with tangible economic stakes: healthy ecosystems provide services “estimated at some $125 trillion per year,” the authors said. The consequences are also social: “As manipulated facts and societal distrust in science are increasingly guiding mis- and disinformed politics, governmental programs are urgently needed to support data collection, establish data-grounded facts, inform political spheres and refuel trust with society at large,” the authors wrote.

Read more at BioScience.

Wild Cam: Underwater NewtCam identifies species using AI

January 29, 2026 by Joshua Rapp Learn

A new underwater camera is helping researchers automate species detection by taking candid shots of amphibians as they swim through an artificial tunnel.

The new technology can help researchers track the range of amphibian species and learn more about their habitat preferences in wetlands.

“Because it’s automated, you can survey more sites,” said Xavier Mestdagh, a biological engineer at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST).

Researchers are now using this technology around the world to track and identify various aquatic creatures.

The great crested newt (Triturus cristatus) is protected in the European Union. To survey them, researchers at LIST were using a standard, older method of leaving live traps out overnight and counting captured amphibians in the morning. But this process took time and also likely stressed the animals, Mestdagh said.

In 2016, Mestdagh and his colleagues started to develop a new prototype system. The researchers set up the devices so that amphibians would enter a tube and motion detectors would prompt the camera into action.

After a few designs and years of testing, the team settled on a system with four funnel entrances leading to a single pipe in the middle. Newts would enter through one of a pair of funnels on one side and escape through a pair on the other side after their candid photo session. The bottom of the pipe was transparent in order to capture the photos—great crested newts have unique spot patterns on their bellies that allow individual identification. Follow-up image processing with artificial intelligence software in the lab then differentiated between the different species of newts found in the areas where it was tested in Luxembourg and at a site in southern France.

As detailed in a study published recently in Methods in Ecology and Evolution, the team demonstrated the ability of underwater cameras to produce observations of great crested newts at the larval stage when they already display well-contrasted belly patterns. Also, a controlled but still unpublished test revealed that larvae’s belly patterns are unique and stable a few weeks before metamorphosis. After metamorphosis, a newt’s patterns begin to become pronounced enough for individualization. At that point, each individual’s spots are more or less set for life. In the future, the team hopes to use the distinct spot patterns and device to estimate offspring production at the breeding sites.

In a blocked-off pond that the team used to test the device and standard live traps with a known number of newts, Mestdagh said both methods are producing observations of a similar number of individuals. “It’s a good indication that the NewtCam could be used for population estimates for the great crested newt,” he said. They also capture more photos of individuals at night than during the day, perhaps because amphibians were attracted by the light in the device. The newts may have also been attracted by the invertebrate prey attracted to the light, like the Eurasian water stick insect (Ranatra linearis) seen alongside the marbled newt (T. marmoratus) above.

Onshore solar panels power the device, so researchers can leave it out for a season with minimal maintenance visits. The buoyancy can also be shifted so that the entrance tubes either sit near the surface or rest on the bottom of the pond. Mestdagh said that the device can also be shifted onto its side so the camera takes shots from the side of animals swimming through rather than from the bottom. Depending on the species, this might improve identification of individuals.

Nicolas Titeux, a biologist and head of the biodiversity monitoring and assessment group at LIST and a coauthor of the recent study, said that the team is now using the NewtCam to determine how great crested newts are coping with extreme temperature at Pinail National Nature Reserve, which is the edge of their range near La Rochelle, an area close to Bordeaux in western France. He’s also interested in seeing how marbled newts, which are expanding northward, are interacting with crested newts where their distributions meet. The photo above features a crested newt female with a marbled newt male—the two species can produce hybrid offspring.

Mestdagh is also interested in using the technology for invertebrates, fish, reptiles and other aquatic wildlife. Early users have already validated the NewtCam in places as varied as the U.S., Brazil, Hong Kong and elsewhere in Europe. The gravid female spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) above was photographed in Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario alongside a larval dragonfly and other invertebrates.

These cameras have captured everything from still images of various aquatic species to video footage of species interactions. Researchers are seeing fights between crested newts as well as courtship displays or predation between species. These innovations point to the potential for more detailed studies on species interactions and behavior. Titeux also said that researchers could use the devices in some areas to track the species’ response to factors like drought.

In collaboration with the Natural History Book Service, the researchers are further developing the device and the related software to place on the market for use by other researchers, Titeux said. They are also looking for further international collaboration around the world.

Backyard birders can help protect neighborhood flocks

January 29, 2026 by The Wildlife Society

Just like sharing food at a busy restaurant, crowded bird feeders can be a hot spot for spreading disease. While songbirds across North America usually forage in the forest, pine cone shortages push them into cities. But these large flocks can quickly spread germs like the Salmonella bacterium, getting not only birds sick but also potentially spreading the disease to humans, pets and poultry. By the time researchers detect the outbreaks, it’s often too late to stop them. But a team at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), is developing a new tool to predict these outbreaks so backyard birders can take down their feeders—potentially ground zero for the outbreaks—when disease is more likely. The model takes into consideration climate patterns and pine cone production as well as conditions for birds, including irregular movement patterns and disease outbreaks. “We don’t want people to stop feeding birds, so we’re trying to develop a tool that will predict when there will be millions of extra birds flooding urban bird feeders so people can temporarily take them down,” said Morgan Tingley, the lead author of the paper and a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UCLA.

Read more at UCLA Newsroom.