Tens of millions of bees are dying in road collisions every day on western U.S. highways, researchers found. Bees, like many other insects, are facing declines in the U.S. “Bees are keystone species that support plant diversity and reproduction,” said Joseph Wilson, an evolutionary ecologist and professor in the Department of Biology at Utah State University Tooele, in a press release. “Understanding how we can support pollinators at a landscape scale is an important step toward the protection of these important insects.” In a study published in Sustainable Environment, Wilson and his colleagues attached sticky traps to car bumpers to determine how many bees collided with vehicles on highways in the western U.S. The researchers suspect the high bee mortality, especially in deserts, is related to water runoff from roads creating flowering plants on roadsides that attract pollinators. The team also found that the highest bee mortality from vehicles occurred near national parks, where visitation has increased along with traffic. “We’ve raised a lot of questions,” Wilson said. “More research is needed to better understand how roads and roadside habitats are impacting insect movement, along with ways roadway design and maintenance, as well as vehicle designs, can be less detrimental to these pollinators.”
New working group meetings at The Wildlife Society’s Annual Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, drew large crowds of interested members. TWS working groups allow members with common professional interests to network, exchange information, and promote science-based decision-making and management of a variety of wildlife and their habitats.
At the 2024 conference, some working groups met for the first time, while others held interest meetings to determine potential member engagement in particular topics. Each new group interim chair said that the idea for their working group began as an effort to fill a subject matter and interest gap within TWS.
Conservation Detection Dogs Working Group
The Conservation Detection Dogs Working Group meeting attracted such a crowd that the small meeting room was standing room only by the time the meeting was underway. Led by interim chair, Julia Nawrocki, the group’s goal is to promote the ethical and scientific approach of using K9 teams in conservation research and management.
“We want the working group to serve as a place for people who are currently doing detection dog or any kind of K9 work to come together and share ideas and push the field forward,” Nawrocki said. “We also wanted to provide a place for biologists and ecologists who maybe want to use the method and create the knowledge for those who want to incorporate dog teams into their studies.”
The group only had their interim status approved in late 2023, but Nawrocki said that their member roster is already close to 90 people. A conservation detection dog symposium was held during the 2024 conference with 16 presenters and two question and answer sessions discussing topics from what makes a good detection dog to case studies of how dog teams have been used in research across the world.
Coastal and Marine Wildlife Working Group
The Coastal and Marine Wildlife Working Group held its first in-person meeting at the 2024 conference. The group focuses on both coastal and marine biology, including species like marine mammals, sea turtles, sharks, shorebirds and more.
Hannah Henry, interim chair of the working group and PhD student at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, said that the group is meant to be a space where wildlifers can come together, collaborate and discuss issues across taxa. She was inspired to start the working group after attending her first TWS conference in 2023.
“I was doing a talk about dolphins, but when I came here I thought, ‘Where is everyone within this field?’ so it felt like there should be a dedicated space where professionals can talk about these specific coastal and marine wildlife topics.”
Henry said that the group has already had many productive discussions and hopes to have a full symposium at a future conference.
“It’s really beneficial for working groups to come together at the conference because of the networking and finding people who share your interests,” she said. “I met someone at my own university that I’d never worked with before, and now we’re talking about doing a sea turtle project together.”
Latin American and Caribbean Working Group
Another group holding their first in-person meeting was the Latin American and Caribbean Working Group. The working group is dedicated to fostering collaboration and addressing critical wildlife and conservation issues while also enhancing communication and accessibility for people within Latin American and Caribbean communities.
Carlos Hinojosa, the group’s interim chair and senior at Virginia Tech, said that TWS Council just approved the working group in March.
“The working group is a great opportunity to connect with other Latin American professionals, and it’s great to see a large array of people from different places,” Hinojosa said. “From the Cayman Islands, Mexico, Belize, to Brazil, they saw the Latin American and Caribbean Working Group meeting on the itinerary and wanted to come take part.”
Hinojosa said that the working group is focused on highlighting Latin American and Caribbean achievements in the wildlife field while bringing attention to their work and advocating for Latin American and Caribbean conservationists.
“I wanted it to be an inclusive space where we can advocate for people and their work in the region,” he said. “That’s why I especially wanted to highlight the Caribbean. I feel like they often get left out of the conversation, but we’re all connected.”
Future opportunities for growth
Other new working groups that met for the first time at the 2024 TWS conference included the Disabilities, Neurodivergence, and Allyship Working Group, as well as an interest meeting for a private land-specific working group.
Those interested in joining any of the above working groups or other groups can learn more on the TWS working groups page.
Busy roads, a lack of green space and supplemental feeding is changing the genes of Eurasian red squirrels in Japan. Researchers recently looked at the genetic structure of the squirrels living in urban and rural areas in Hokkaido, Japan. They found that gene flow between the urban and rural populations of Eurasian red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) decreased, and genetic diversity has decreased in urban areas. The researchers believe these genetic changes occurred only within the last 30 years.
The winners of TWS’ 2023 publication awards include information about wildlife stewardship on Tribal lands, research on the response of greater sage-grouse to sagebrush reduction treatments in Wyoming, the effects of climate change on dispersal of reptiles and amphibians in the southwestern United States and more.
Here are the publications and authors that took this year’s prizes.
Terry Bowyer won the award for authored book for their publication Sexual Segregation in Ungulate: Ecology, Behavior, and Conservation. Bowyer’s book brings together his past four decades of work studying ungulates and the large carnivores that prey on them. He investigates the phenomenon of how different species living apart has far-reaching consequences for ungulate behavior.
Serra Hoagland and Steven Albert earned the best edited book award for their book, Wildlife Stewardship on Tribal Lands: Our Place is in Our Soul. The publication brings together Native American and Indigenous scholars, wildlife managers, legal experts and conservationists from dozens of Tribes to share their philosophies, histories, principles and practices for wildlife stewardship.
The book, The Codex of the Endangered Species Act: The First Fifty Years, earned Lowell Baier and Christopher Sega the award for best biography and history of wildlife management. As 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, the authors take readers through the history of the act, including its complexity and controversy.
I applied for the Fulbright Program not long after many Eastern European nations had split from the Soviet Union. I knew three researchers who had traveled to and worked in Eastern Europe, which piqued my interest. Never did I think my application to become a Fulbright senior lecturer and research scholar would be accepted, but the thin envelope I received held an acceptance letter.
Schweitzer conducts an aerial survey of nesting wood storks (Mycteria americana) in North Carolina to estimate nesting pairs. Credit: Melissa McGaw.
Soon, I was moving to Sofia, Bulgaria, to teach wildlife conservation and begin research. For the next four years, I went back to start a study abroad program and conduct avian research in the Central Balkans National Park.
I saw numerous bird species I had not seen before, as well as brown bears (Ursus arctos), red deer (Cervus elaphus) and chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra). The biologists were incredibly knowledgeable and assisted with plant and bird identification, as well as surveys in wilderness areas and along established hiking trails.
Schweitzer holds a great egret (Ardea alba) as part of a radio-telemetry project in coastal North Carolina. Credit: Matt Abraham
I met lifelong colleagues, exchanged ideas about conservation policies, and helped develop a monitoring program for the park.
I encourage everyone to undertake challenges that you don’t think you’ll surmount—success takes hard work and perseverance.
Breaking new ground and helping develop a long-term monitoring program for newly established ministries was exceptionally fulfilling, although it was a huge effort that took many years to accomplish.
Wildlife Vocalizations is a collection of short personal perspectives from people in the field of wildlife sciences.
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.
Using a wild cat as a case study, researchers have shown that Facebook and Instagram can help conservation efforts. The Urban Caracal Project, established in 2014, uses social media to educate about the caracal (Caracal caracal), a wild cat native to Africa. In a study published in Environmental Communication, researchers used Google Trends to determine how popular caracals became in the world before and after the project was created. The team also used Facebook and Instagram data to analyze the material the project posted online and to look at all public engagement on caracals. The team found that searches on the species doubled after the project launched. The team also found that the project now has more than 16,800 Facebook followers and more than 7,300 Instagram followers. In addition, WhatsApp and social media helped point the authors to caracal deaths that helped them assess the populations. “This paper contributes to our understanding of the various ways in which the public can participate in science,” said study authors Gabriella Leighton and Laurel Serieys from the University of Cape Town in a press release. “It shows how charismatic species can contribute to conservation and public awareness of biodiversity in urban areas. The research demonstrates how a public interest in urban ecology and the global phenomenon of ‘cats on the internet’… can be harnessed to leverage conservation action.”
There are just some concepts that one can fully understand only through experience. For example, the drive up to Yorkton, Saskatchewan, from St. Louis, Missouri, was an eye opener for me. On this drive, I traveled across most of the Prairie Pothole region, a massive expanse of historic shortgrass and some tallgrass prairie dotted with wetlands that are currently dominated by agriculture. One might not realize how much of this region, which waterfowl enthusiasts have affectionately named the “duck factory,” has been altered by humans unless they’ve made this trek.
I was headed to Canada for five weeks to band waterfowl as a part of the Western Canada Cooperative Waterfowl Banding Program. This joint effort involves the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Canadian Wildlife Service, state and provincial wildlife management agencies, the flyway councils, First Nations, nongovernmental waterfowl advocacy and research organizations, and hunters.
Jessi Tapp holds a canvasback (Aythya valisineria) outside of Yorkton, Saskatchewan as part of the Western Canada Cooperative Waterfowl Banding Program. Credit: Jessi Tapp
The success of this operation is critical to the management of waterfowl species and, in my opinion, is the epitome of why partnerships are key to wildlife conservation. Wildlife have no use for arbitrary state lines or country borders, and migratory birds cross those lines like it’s their job.
Overall, this was an incredible experience and far more physical work than I imagined. We had to move traps several times and adjust our schedules—sometimes working more than 12 hours per day—to avoid losing birds to predators.
The stress and fatigue, however, faded away when I had a bird in my hand and pondered about the journey that each one has been on and is about to take. Additionally, I realized there’s few places one can get the skills I attained in a month’s time by practicing the identification and determining age and sex of around 800 ducks in eclipse plumage.
Tapp holds mallard ducklings outside of Yorkton Saskatchewan. Credit: Andrew Gilbert
We ended up with around 2,500 total birds banded, consisting of about 1,000 mallards (Anas platyrhynchos), 1,450 blue-winged teals (Spatula discors), and a few other species. The real icing on the cake was the occasional call of a sandhill crane (Grus canadensis) and the daily opportunity to refine my shorebird and other waterbird identification skills at our trap sites.
For someone that loves waterbird ecology and hunting, being involved in this project is about as intimate with the management of this group of birds as one can get. I’d do it over again in a heartbeat.
Wildlife Vocalizations is a collection of short personal perspectives from people in the field of wildlife sciences.
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.
When some people think of the “most Canadian” species, the beaver or moose may come to mind. But in a recent paper published in The Canadian Field-Naturalist, scientists looking at evolutionary distinctness in Canada found that may not actually be the case. Instead, amphibian and reptile species in Canada are the most evolutionarily distinct species—the most distinct terrestrial animal was the spiny softshell turtle (Apalone spinifera), they found. Other species include the mudpuppy (Necturus maculosus), northern alligator (Elgaria coerulea), Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana), belted kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) and the pond slider (Trachemys scripta). “We weren’t surprised by the opossum,” said Emma Kominek, a master’s student at Simon Fraser University who collated the lists. “It’s Canada’s only marsupial. But the aquatic mudpuppy salamander? That was interesting.” To conduct the study. Kominek and her colleagues created family trees to develop scores of evolutionary distinction in the country. They looked at 222 mammals, 674 birds, 48 amphibians and 49 reptiles. The team said these findings are important for conservation purposes. “Conservation of species at risk is often done at the national level,” said lead author of the paper Arne Mooers, a biological sciences professor at Simon Fraser University, who sits on the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. “So, it made sense to consider our national evolutionary heritage in this way.”
John Silovsky, TWS member and director of the Wildlife Division at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, announced his retirement after more than a decade working for the state agency.
Silovsky’s career with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) began in 2014, serving as the district leader of the Post Oak Savannah Wildlife District. In 2019, he was promoted to the deputy director of the Wildlife Division before being named the director in late 2020.
Silovsky finds it difficult to describe the biggest highlight of his career, especially considering the opportunities he had to work with the diversity of Texas wildlife.
“There’s so much work we do here that’s important,” he said. “Texas wildlife is just as diverse as the people and the landscape that make up the state, from alligators to pronghorn. Then, you tie in bears and mountain lions, bighorn sheep, nongame species—wow, what an opportunity!”
John Silovsky, former director of the TPWD Wildlife Division, recently retired after a long career in wildlife management. Courtesy of John Silovsky
Some of Silovsky’s priorities while leading the TPWD Wildlife Division included focusing on the strategic management of chronic wasting disease (CWD) throughout the state, increasing the public’s trust in the agency, whether traditional constituents like landowners or more urban constituencies, and helping people find access to the outdoors and outdoor recreational opportunities.
“We’re a Wildlife Division in Texas, a largely private lands state, so really, we are in the opportunity business,” Silovsky said. “It’s important that we provide private landowners the technical guidance and tools to improve the health of their land. We have to get behind someone’s gate to be successful to effectively deliver conservation, so that requires trust with those landowners to help them meet their objectives. Conservation starts with those landowners.”
He said that as Texas’ population continues to grow beyond 30 million, the more adaptable the division needs to be in order to be relevant to new constituencies.
“We have so many urban constituents now, and it’s important for us to provide them with a greater understanding of the outdoor opportunities that are available to them,” he said. “The work we do to manage the natural resources must be important to them and add value to their lives. Uncovering and understanding the divides that arise within conservation due to different values, beliefs and perspectives will be key to all our success.”
Silovsky came to TPWD with over 30 years of wildlife management experience. After receiving a Bachelor of Science in biology from Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas, Silovsky held multiple positions with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, including conservation worker, program services manager and regional public lands supervisor for 20 counties in northeast Kansas.
Silovsky has been a TWS member since 1992. He said that every TWS meeting or conference he’s been to, whether nationally or within the Texas Chapter, has been a source of motivation.
“Those meetings are a chance to connect, reconnect, stay in tune with what’s going on,” he said. “It’s like pushing the rejuvenation button. To see young people coming in, that’s important, and I’m so impressed with their ability to communicate and become relevant with so many different audiences.”
In his retirement, Silovsky hopes to spend more time riding his road bike, perhaps across a new state, and he also has a lot of hunting and fishing to catch up on, he said. He hopes to pass along his love for the outdoors to his grandchildren.
“When I think about all the work I’ve done in these last 42 some years, working to recruit people into hunting, I hope I can convince at least two of the three of them to replace me in the license buying world.”
Frequent, severe wildfires throughout the American West have led to an increased need for the use of fire suppression products like long-term fire retardants, water enhancers and Class A foams. While the U.S. Forest Service must approve all products used on wildfires, the exact formulations are largely unknown. After wildfires, scientists have observed an increase in metal content in soils and surface waters, but these upticks have been primarily contributed to ash and other impacts from areas in the wildland urban interface. In a recent study published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters, researchersfound that long-term fire retardants contained concentrations of metals like lead, chromium and manganese, among others. The study also found that water enhancers and Class A foams contained metals but at lower concentrations. Despite these findings, studies have yet to document impacts on wildlife in these areas.
