Cold temperatures in the Atlantic have led to the deaths of dozens of sea turtles off the North Carolina Coast. When ocean temperatures drop, the body temperature of the cold-blooded reptiles drops with them, making them sluggish and in some cases unable to lift their heads above water to breathe. Of 109 cold-stunned seat turtles taken from Cape Lookout to the North Carolina State University Center for marine Sciences and Technology, only 36 survived. More than 100 others were also found at Cape Hatteras National Seashore and taken for rehabilitation. Read more from the Associated Press.
It was a clear, sunny spring day in April, 2023 at Chugach State Park just east of Anchorage, Alaska, but the weather was still below freezing as Kiana Young searched for blood.
Young, a wildlife biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) furbearer program, and her colleagues received an alert 11 days earlier that a wolverine fitted with a GPS collar had stopped moving in the mountainous forest terrain, suggesting it had died. But weather conditions were too cloudy and a helicopter wasn’t available to fly researchers in to check on why the adult female died, until now.
After spotting the wolverine’s den from a helicopter, the scientists hiked the steep, mixed forest to a creek, where they found the GPS collar and a moose (Alces alces) carcass. Traveling about 200-300 meters up from the den, they detected some blood. Then, they found the carcass of the female wolverine (Gulo gulo).
As Young and her colleagues detailed in a study published recently in Ecology and Evolution, the carcass was still mostly intact—there were really only signs of a few bites. “It had been picked over by birds and small animals,” Young said.
Researchers collared individuals that were part of a wolf pack that’s range included Chugach State Park. Credit: David Saalfeld
But without much to go on forensically, the team still had a good idea of what had happened to the wolverine. The ADFG and biologists from U.S. Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson had also been tracking the movement of a wolf (Canis lupus) pack in the area for more than two years. Some of the individuals in the pack wore tracking collars, and their location data revealed a cluster of activity around the same area at about the time the wolverine’s movement stopped.
All of this may be chalked up to coincidence—wolves are known to scavenge carcasses, after all.
But this would have been the third case of wolf-on-wolverine violence in this area involving this pack, and the wolves didn’t appear to have eaten the carcass. These interactions are teaching wildlife managers more about the ways that top predators interact.
Killing pattern
The first incident occurred in March of 2022. Wildlife managers with ADFG were capturing wolves as part of their monitoring work when they happened upon a pack standing over the freshly killed carcass of an adult female wolverine.
The second case came in January, 2023. The researchers had been monitoring a juvenile male wolverine, when they received the signal that the animal had stopped moving. Weather conditions were bad, so a field crew couldn’t get there right away. An initial attempt to check out what happened was interrupted by another battle between predators—the wolf pack was chasing off a family group of four brown bears (Ursus arctos) near the wolverine carcass, and the crew called off the effort due to safety concerns.
“When we finally got the carcass, we saw it had puncture wounds that could be attributed to it being killed by wolves,” Young said.
The carcass of the third wolverine that wolves killed. Credit: Kiana Young
Like the wolverine Young detected in April, 2023, the other two had also died around the time that tracking collar information placed the same wolf pack in their close vicinity. It could be coincidence, but necropsy reports and other evidence showed this was highly unlikely. Rather, it looked as though this pack was killing wolverines in the Chugach State Park area.
Further necropsies on the third wolverine killed revealed that its skull had been smashed in. The researchers hadn’t noticed that at first, since the skin on its head wasn’t broken. Young speculated that the wolves may have inflicted this trauma by swinging the wolverine into a rock or tree. “When they kill something, they tend to play around and move it,” she said.
Collateral damage
Young can’t be sure of what happened in the third case, but the presence of the moose carcass and the nearby wolverine den can provide some clues. Though the researchers didn’t examine the moose carcass in any detail, it’s possible that the wolf pack killed the moose. Since the wolverine den was nearby, the female might have also come out to feed on the moose carcass and encountered the wolves there. Or it could be that the wolverine was traveling to or from its den when it encountered the wolves feeding on the moose carcass.
The den of an adult female wolverine was near a moose carcass. Credit: Kiana Young
What’s also curious is that the wolves don’t seem to have fed on any of the three wolverine carcasses. Puncture marks on the wolverines’ hides and necks match pretty well with wolf jaws, but the first two carcasses weren’t consumed, and the evidence mostly suggests smaller scavengers fed on the third carcasses after happening upon it later.
Why the wolves attacked the wolverines is another big question. “Our guess is it’s a combination [of factors], the main thing being territoriality,” Young said, adding that wolf packs typically defend food resources or dens from other wolf packs as well as other predators like bears or coyotes (Canis latrans). In the second dead wolverine case, where wildlife managers witnessed a scuffle between bears and the wolf pack, they later confirmed the presence of a nearby wolf den.
In the areas of these incidences, there may be limited resources to feed a large pack of wolves. They may see a wolverine as competition. “Wolverines are quite a bit smaller, but they have a very similar habitat niche and a very similar diet niche,” Young said. “They live in a lot of the same places and eat a lot of the same things.”
A necropsy revealed that the third wolverine killed had a partially crushed skull. Credit: Kiana Young
As far as the apparent outcome of the encounters, Young said that while wolverines are “feisty,” they may not be able to handle a pack of wolves.
The fact that this has occurred three times in a relatively short time period suggests that these interactions are probably happening elsewhere, but just haven’t been observed that often due to the low density of wolves and wolverines on landscapes, Young said.
“Especially with these species, they are hard to study on their own,” she said. “When you look at the interactions between them, it gets even harder.”
But knowing that these interactions occur, researchers can begin to ask questions like whether climate change will affect these disputes over resources or territory.
Biologists suspect a deadly strain of bird flu has killed at least one king penguin, raising concerns about the virus’ impact on penguin populations in Antarctica. If confirmed, it would be the first known penguin death due to the H5N1 virus, which has devastated both wild and domesticated birds around the world.
The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research reported the suspected case in a king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) on South Georgia Island. A gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua is also believed to have died there from H5N1.
Previously, H5N1 was confirmed in the death of a gentoo penguin on the Falkland Islands, and more than 20 chicks either died or showed symptoms. The virus has also resulted in the deaths of seals, gulls and other birds.
A December report warned that H5N1 could have “immense” impacts on Antarctic wildlife, including endangered emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri), because of dense colonies that could allow the virus to spread.
A small population of collared brown lemurs translocated more than two decades ago appears to be doing well in its new home, despite ongoing conservation challenges.
“Collared brown lemurs are quite resilient,” said Giuseppe Donati, a professor in primatology and biological anthropology at Oxford Brookes University in the U.K. “They cope well with translocations if post-release management is provided.”
The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers collared brown lemurs (Eulemur collaris) endangered, mostly due to habitat loss—the forests they live in are cut for charcoal production, agriculture and wood extraction. The medium-sized primates are also hunted for bushmeat in southeastern Madagascar where they live.
One population near Fort Dauphin—a large town in the southern part of the country—had nearly no forest left by 2000, so wildlife professionals stepped in. They captured 28 remaining individuals in the area using blowguns with anesthetic darts. Donati said that the team favored this technique over tranquilizer guns, since the blowguns propel the darts with less force. “You don’t really make any noise,” he said. “It’s less likely to injure the animal.”
Over the next two years, they moved these 28 individuals to Mandena Conservation Area, a newly protected coastal forest where lemurs had been previously extirpated due to hunting for bushmeat. At the time of reintroduction, there were also no predators in the area, so it seemed like a good fit.
For a study published recently in the Journal of Wildlife Management, Donati and his colleagues analyzed lemur genetics and the landscape over the decade following translocation to see how the operation had fared.
Researchers Elena Racevska and Giuseppe Donati attach a radio-collar to an anesthetized lemur in Mandena Conservation Area. Credit: Mamy Razafindrasamba
Intruders wanted and unwanted
One problem arose during the first few years after reintroduction. While there were no predators in the area when the lemurs were first moved, fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox) must have detected the arrival of the prey species and moved back in. By 2005, the cat-like predators related to mongooses had reduced the number of collared brown lemurs to less than 16 individuals, Donati said.
“We found ourselves in a complicated situation because the fossa is also endangered,” he said.
After consultation with conservation managers in Madagascar, the researchers decided to capture the fossas that had moved into Mandena and move them back to a larger tract of forest where they likely came from. The reasoning was that this small tract of forest wouldn’t long sustain the fossas in any case, after they depleted the lemur population.
Luckily for the lemurs, this strategy seemed to work. Their population in Mandena grew over subsequent years, so much so that by the most recent assessment in 2023, researchers found 49 individuals.
Genetic analysis also revealed a surprise for the researchers—not all the lemurs strictly descended from the 28 that had been translocated. In fact, three individuals had dispersed naturally from other remnant populations in the area. These individuals bred with some of the translocated lemurs and successfully raised offspring.
Donati said this discovery suggested that habitat fragmentation didn’t stop lemur dispersal and gene flow.
New digs, new strategy
Looking at the lemurs’ behavior, the team found that initially after their translocation, they began to act differently than is typical of the species. Collared brown lemurs are usually social, forming groups of roughly a half dozen animals. But when they were translocated, these larger groups split into smaller units of just a few individuals. Donati said this was likely because the lemurs were unfamiliar with the food sources in this new area. Smaller groups that split off in different directions are more likely to find enough food for each individual than larger groups.
“This is a strategy to minimize competition,” he said.
The return of these lemurs serves both ecological and ecotourism functions—which helps to boost the local economy, Donati said. Collared brown lemurs are an ecosystem engineer, dispersing large seeds that birds and smaller species wouldn’t.
“The idea behind these translocations was also putting back some individuals, so they could restart the process of dispersing large seeds through these areas,” Donati said. Another ongoing study is suggesting that lemurs seem to be helping to regenerate the forest since reintroduction to this area.
“We are able to demonstrate that these lemurs actually have an impact,” Donati said.
After its creation, tourists have been visiting the Mandena Conservation Area to see the endangered animals. The trouble is, the COVID-19 pandemic put a temporary halt on the income the local economy derived from tourists. Monitoring also decreased, and as a result of these factors, illegal logging increased in Mandena.
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Cold-blooded species that live in more temperate climates might fare better than tropical species as the planet warms, researchers found. They hope these findings can inform conservation efforts in the midst of climate change.
“We know that climate change will have an effect on the distribution of species, and we’re already seeing this effect,” said Nikki Moore, a PhD student at McGill University in Montreal.
Moore led a study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution looking at data from around the world to learn about how reptile, amphibian, fish, intertidal animals and insect ranges have shifted as the climate has warmed.
They looked at these cold-blooded species because of the close connection between temperature and their bodies’ responses, said Jennifer Sunday, senior author of the study and an assistant professor at McGill University.
The researchers had access to a wide breadth of data thanks to a working group of the Synthesis Centre for Biodiversity Sciences in Germany, which fosters collaboration between different disciplines. The working group was made up of scientists from around the world looking at species’ cold and heat tolerances.
The researchers got a list of cold-blooded species, found their current ranges and looked at factors that could show how their ranges may be affected by temperature.
Some scientists have suspected that tropical species’ ranges may be less limited by temperature, but the researchers found these species, like stream anoles (Anolis lionotus), seem to be more affected by warmer temperatures than species in more temperate parts of the globe, like the viviparous lizard (Zootoca vivipara). Species at higher latitudes tend to have more cushion between current temperatures they currently experience and the highest temperatures they can tolerate—their “thermal potentials,” the researchers found.
Sunday said this paper can provide more insight into which species may face challenges in a warming climate.
“We generally expect temperate high latitude species to respond more variably to warming at their warm range,” she said. “We might not see huge mass local extinctions at their warm range edges. They may hang in there for a while. Tropical species, we expect to be more sensitive.”
While it’s important to look at species on an individual scale, Moore said, the research can inform other studies that try to connect physiology with species distribution models and project where they will be in the future.
Tiny ants are having a big impact on the lives of lions.
In a study published in Science, researchers found that invasive ants are changing the tree cover in Ol Pejeta Nature Conservancy in Kenya, making it harder for lions to hunt zebras—their preferred prey.
Combining remote cameras, tracking collars and other data, the three-decade-long study explored a web of interactions in the ecosystem. As part of that, researchers discovered that the big-headed ant (Pheidole megacephala) has set off a chain of events that has shifted the lions’ predatory behavior.
The invasive insects have destroyed colonies of native ants that nest in acacias and protect them from leaf-eating animals. Lions (Panthera leo) use the trees as cover for ambushing zebras (Equus quagga). With fewer acacias, the lions are turning their attention to buffaloes (Syncerus caffer), but they are a more challenging prey.
“These tiny invaders are cryptically pulling on the ties that bind an African ecosystem together, determining who is eaten and where,” said Todd Palmer, an ecologist and professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Florida and an author on the study.
As the wolf turns to face the camera, it lets out an iconic howl. It’s part of the footage captured by trail camera of California’s newest known pack of gray wolves (Canis lupus), known as the Yowlumni Pack.
The pack appeared last summer in the Sequoia National Forest near the Tule River Tribe of California’s reservation and ancestral land. The Tribe partnered with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to name the pack, which comes from the Yowlumni band of the Tule River Yokuts.
“This was described by my mother, Agnes Vera, who was born on the Tule River Indian Reservation in 1926,” said Vernon Vera, a Tule River Tribal Elder. “She was the last fluent speaker of Yowlumni until her passing in 2010. She taught that the Yowlumni were speakers of the ‘Wolf Tongue.’”
Biologists believe the pack consists of a breeding pair and six pups.
I was born and raised in Marietta, Georgia; home of “The Big Chicken” and the political intersection between pro- and anti-hunting individuals. As a child, I was receptive to the idea of hunting and enjoyed the wild game my uncle brought over for the holidays; however, the idea of harvesting my own meal made me anything but hungry. In fact, the first time I held a firearm with intention to shoot at an inanimate object shaped like a deer, I sobbed and solidified my fear of firearms and hunting as I reached for the tissue box.
As fate would have it, I started taking wildlife-focused classes at the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources and fell in love with my now fiancé, Calvin Ellis. Around this same time, Calvin had just accepted a student coordinator position with a program that teaches college students within the natural resources field to hunt, called Academics Afield, and was planning an upcoming dove hunt.
With all firearms a safe distance away, I volunteered to take photographs of the new hunters as Calvin taught them shotgun safety, best hunting-practices, and led them around the dove field. We all left that night covered in dust, with two harvested doves, and smiles that grinned from ear to ear. I loved every second of it.
Halseth holds a coyote pup and listens to its heartbeat. This was taken in Chicago, Illinois and all coyotes were handled for research purposes as a part of the Cook County Coyote Project, where Halseth is obtaining her master’s of science. Credit: Jeff Nelson
Two more Academics Afield hunts rolled by where I caught myself learning in between taking photographs: how the Pittman-Robertson Act helped to rebuild wildlife populations after substantial declines and continues to fund important wildlife research projects. I learned how to sustain your family with free-range and additive-free meat, and how to respect a firearm instead of fearing it. I witnessed a range of emotional responses as my classmates harvested their first animals. Smiles, stoicism and tears were all responses exhibited by individuals in our group, and I found myself crying right alongside some of them. This time, my tears were not out of fear or sadness, but out of respect for the animal, the practice and the community I found in the woods. Later that year, I harvested my first deer and have continued to hunt as my wildlife career moved me from state to state.
Halseth and her fiancé, Calvin Ellis, at an Academics Afield clay-shooting event following Halseth introduction into hunting. Academics Afield is an organization that teaches hunting and shooting sports to college students. Credit: Miranda Hopper
My love for wildlife was always present in my life and was in no way a direct byproduct of my newfound passion for hunting. However, I believe that becoming a hunter during my early professional career has significantly altered my career path. As I continue my formal education in graduate school studying disease transmission amongst wildlife populations, I am constantly reminded of how hunting has become interwoven into everything I do now: I see the animals I research in novel ways, I’ve made deeper connections with professionals in the field that share this passion, and I have become a part of a group of stakeholders that are some of the most ardent supporters of wildlife historically and present day.
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Researchers have trained computer programs to help them count manatees and improve conservation efforts.
In the winter, the Indian River Lagoon is an important area for Florida manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris), which seek out its warmer waters, created by power plant outflows. But in recent years, the marine mammals began dying off when algae choked off the sea grasses they rely on, causing some to starve.
State and federal wildlife managers responded to monitor the manatees and provided supplemental feeding, but Xingquan Zhu, a professor at Florida Atlantic University, and his colleagues wondered if there was a better way to keep track of them. Since they typically gather in clusters, it can be hard to distinguish individuals and count them.
“This motivated us to provide a better way to track them, because our current approaches rely on manual counting or using drones, which are not only costly but also heavily depend on weather and cannot deliver real time results,” said Zhu, senior author of a study published in Scientific Reports that used artificial intelligence to help count manatees.
Researchers used lines to label manatees for artificial intelligence. Credit: Florida Atlantic University
Using camera images from the nonprofit organization Save the Manatee, which collects surveillance videos from Blue Spring State Park and Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, Zhu’s team trained computer programs to recognize manatees.
Rather than using dots to label individuals, which many AI programmers use, they used line segments and special filters, which they found better captured manatees’ unique oval shapes. The result was a density map that researchers believe can offer a lower-cost solution to count manatees in real time.
That opens lots of research opportunities, Zhu said. For example, using real time, on-site surveillance cameras, biologists can get a better snapshot of how many manatees are present and if they need to take action, like providing supplemental food. Underwater cameras could provide even more information to advance the study.
Zhu and his colleagues made their methods—including source code and data—public to share with other researchers.
“We are publishing those materials online for public access and hope more researchers can jump in—not only for the manatee,” he said. “Together, we can make advancements to the science.”
TWS member Roel Lopez, CWB, has received the Conservation Trailblazer Award from the Dallas Safari Club. The award recognizes three decades of contributions to wildlife conservation by Lopez, who heads the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Rangeland, Wildlife and Fisheries Management and directs the Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute.
“For decades, Dr. Lopez has been a nationally recognized leader in wildlife conservation,” said Corey Mason, chief executive officer of the Dallas Safari Club and Dallas Safari Club Foundation. “He has led many state and national conservation organizations and has a unique ability to bring people together to advance wildlife conservation.”
Much of Lopez’s work has focused on endangered and fragmented wildlife populations, military land sustainability, and rural land trends and demographics.
“Dr. Lopez has dedicated his career to advancing wildlife conservation not only through research and educational outreach, but through the development of the next generation of conservation leaders,” said Jeffrey W. Savell, vice chancellor and dean for Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M. “His actions in and outside of the classroom seamlessly integrate research, leadership and service, enabling our college to produce tomorrow’s leaders and advance natural resource stewardship.”
