Colorado Parks and Wildlife released five gray wolves into the state as part of a voter-mandated reintroduction effort. The wolves (Canis lupus), taken from Oregon, were released on a remote mountainside on public land in Grand County on Dec. 18. Voters narrowly approved the reintroduction process in November 2022, although ranchers and farmer opposed the project due to fear of wolf attacks on livestock. Colorado Parks and Wildlife plans to release 30 to 50 wolves in the next five years. The canids have historically roamed the state but were extirpated by the late 1800s. The reintroduction effort follows incidents of natural wolf colonization in the state.
Wildlife Vocalizations is a collection of short personal perspectives from people in the field of wildlife sciences.
My undergrad thesis supervisor once told me that, “the best way to be a scientist was to act like a scientist.”
Fisher collars a Columbian black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus) as part of a nonlethal urban deer management research program in the municipality of Oak Bay, within greater Victoria, British Columbia. Credit: Alina C. Fisher
It’s much like “fake it ’til you make it,” but it helped me to keep going while battling imposter syndrome and adversity.
We all face adversity, but some tenacity can get you a long way. A lot of us second-guess our abilities and our professional worth—especially women—and the best way to overcome it is to acknowledge that those fears are unfounded and to just keep going.
Fisher during a mountaineering fieldwork training trip in 2019 among fellow researchers with the Mountain Legacy Project. This was taken at 5040 hut in Alberni-Claoquot, but the main research takes place along the eastern slopes of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Credit: Alina C. Fisher
Don’t let disappointments or surprises derail you. Keep doing your science, enjoy learning (it’s a life-long process), and celebrate your successes.
Scientists say an upward trend in wildfires throughout the eastern U.S emphasizes the importance of protective management. The new analysis includes data spanning more than three decades from the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity Database. The findings suggest an increased wildfire risk in the eastern and southern portions of the Eastern Temperate Forest, an ecoregion that stretches from the Atlantic Coast to eastern Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota. “We don’t have the expansive wildfire problem that the western U.S. does yet, so this is also an opportunity to get ahead of the problem and prepare for shifting wildfire patterns before we start seeing the frequent destructive fires that we’re seeing in the West,” said Victoria Donovan, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of forest management at the UF/IFAS West Florida Research and Education Center. The team said the fire increase is due to human ignition and that climate change may be a factor.
When Endi Piovesana set out to study avian predation on red-backed salamanders, the jury was still out on whether it even happened or not.
“The conclusions that I was reading up on were kind of inconsistent,” said Piovesana, an undergraduate student at Michigan State University. One article said birds weren’t major salamander predators. Another said the opposite. “It was pretty variable across the board.”
Piovesana, with help from his mentor Alexa Warwick, a professor at Michigan State University, hoped to set the record straight on this common salamander, which occupies woodlands throughout much of eastern North America. He presented his research on a poster at The Wildlife Society’s annual conference in Louisville this year.
Instead of deploying one method in his research, he and his colleagues had a three-pronged approach. In the fall and spring of 2021 and the fall of 2022, Piovesana set out camera traps with clay model salamanders at the Rose Lake State Wildlife Area near the University of Michigan campus. “The idea was to try and capture what would have been naturally occurring interactions,” he said.
He placed the cameras in shrubby areas that birds would be attracted to. The models also attracted birds.
When reviewing the footage, Piovesana captured live video of an American robin trying—unsuccessfully—to capture and eat a live red-backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus). “It was very cool, because you can actually see the salamander drop its tail, and it’s able to get away,” he said.
Piovesana set up containers—some with red-backed salamanders, some with mealworms and some that were empty—to see what various bird species preferred to eat. Credit: Endi Piovesana
Piovesana noted predation occurred mostly from American robins (Turdus migratorius), blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata) and common grackles (Quiscalus quiscula). They all exhibited similar foraging behavior, including overturning leaf litter and woody debris. “It seems pretty conducive to finding salamanders,” he said.
Still, capturing these interactions was pretty rare. Piovesana was more likely to find footage of opossums or raccoons going after the clay models, which he originally baited with peanuts.
To add more depth to his study, Piovesana conducted a genetic analysis of bird fecal samples to look for evidence of salamanders. He didn’t find any, but he thinks that may be because he collected the samples in the fall, when birds are more likely to be eating fatty foods to fuel up for migration in the winter. “In the spring, they’re looking for more protein so they can feed their young,” he said. He hopes to conduct the genetic research again next spring.
Piovesana presented is research at the annual TWS conference in Louisville. Credit: Courtesy Endi Piovesana
The third part of his research involved setting up a more controlled experiment inside an aviary. After capturing birds at a banding station, he placed them inside the aviary with plastic containers that held either red-backed salamanders, mealworms or were empty, and he hid in a hunting blind to watch. He also set up video cameras to see which prey the birds were choosing, but he hasn’t yet reviewed the footage.
Initially, he has seen some interest by the birds in the salamanders, though. “I definitely noticed a few strikes from the American robins,” he said.
Piovesana said the findings are important, especially as North American birds continue to decline.
“Red-backed salamanders are just such an insanely abundant source of biomass in the forest where many of these birds that are in decline reside,” he said. “Understanding their needs is key to conserving them, and I think trying to identify potential relationships here would be pretty significant in advancing those conservation efforts.”
As migrating birds travel back and forth between summer breeding grounds and winter rangers, places along the route provide important opportunities to rest and refuel. But where the birds choose to stopover is often a mystery. In a recent study, researchers used weather radar imagery to maps these stopovers. They found over 9,000 square miles of land across the eastern United States served as stopover hotspots.
These hot spots mostly consisted deciduous forests and isolated pockets of forest. Most of these lands were unprotected, researchers found, although protected landscapes had a higher density of stopover areas. And the spots birds choose in the fall are often different than the ones they choose in the spring.
“This information is incredibly important,” said Princeton professor David Wilcove, a co-author of the paper published in Current BIology. “Without it, we wouldn’t know which sites to protect to ensure safe passage for the birds.”
In the debate over real or artificial Christmas trees, the birds may have an opinion. In many cases, some conservationists say, Christmas tree farms can function like young forests, offering resources for migrating birds and other species.
When the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests started a Christmas tree farm, the New York Times reports, managers found birds, deer and foxes were attracted to the landscape.
While not every conservationist is a fan—concerns range from pesticide use to lack of tree diversity— many see Christmas tree farms as providing important benefits that might not be available without these acres of manicured trees.
“None of that is to say that a Christmas tree farm is a replacement for untouched nature,” David Mizejewski, a naturalist with the National Wildlife Federation, told the Times. “I encourage people to think of things through an ecological lens, where everything has a life cycle. And what’s more important is that while it’s living, it’s actually contributing to that ecosystem.”
The Wildlife Society, through our continued partnership with the USDA Forest Service, is excited to announce the availability of research assistantships for Native undergraduate or graduate students in the summer of 2024 as part of the Native American Research Assistantship (NARA) Program. Applications are being accepted now through Jan. 26, 2024. Visit the link above for additional information and instructions on how to apply.
Established in 2014, NARA provides training for careers in natural resource and conservation-related fields, promotes Native student advancement in the wildlife profession, and elevates Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (ITEK) within federal research projects.
“As we enter the 10th year of this collaborative initiative, I reflect on the unifying strength of our mission and appreciate the opportunity for TWS to support and empower Native students along their professional journeys,” said TWS CEO Ed Arnett.
“We are proud of the achievements and contributions of past NARA participants and look forward to witnessing their continued growth and success within the wildlife profession and beyond. We are also grateful for the longstanding support of our partners at the U.S. Forest Service in helping to create and provide these unique opportunities to advance the next generation of wildlife leaders.”
Applicants selected for NARA will engage with representatives from TWS, while learning from and working with an interdisciplinary team of USFS Research and Development on a three-month research project. This year, we are seeking Native students for four projects during the summer of 2024. Each assistantship will include a paid stipend of at least $6,500.
For detailed information on the available opportunities in 2024 and instruction on how to apply, please visit the Native American Research Assistantship (NARA) Program. The deadline for applications is Jan. 26, 2024.
Two men have been charged with illegally killing some 3,600 birds, including bald and golden eagles, and selling their parts and feathers on the black market. Prosecutors accuse the men of killing the birds on or near the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana and elsewhere. A federal grand jury in Montana indicted the men on charges of violating the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, violating the Lacey Act concerning wildlife trafficking, and conspiracy. The men face up to 11 years in prison and fines of over $200,000 in what one of the defendants reportedly called a “killing spree.”
After shooting the eagles, prosecutors said in court records, “the defendants then illegally sold the eagles on the black market for significant sums of cash across the United States and elsewhere.”
There’s nothing better than having a meal and drink by the poolside—whether you’re a human or a bat.
Researchers have found that these artificial water bodies may be an important foraging and drinking resource for bats as South Africa climate gets dryer due to global warming.
“If bats can locate and access [swimming pools], then they’ve got water all year round if they need it,” said TWS member Tory Bennett, an associate professor in environmental and sustainability sciences at the Texas Christian University.
The Amakhala Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape of South Africa sits on land that Dutch colonists converted for farming. But with ecotourism becoming more popular, the property was transformed to a game reserve.
Bennett wanted to get a better idea of bat population success there, since the taxa is an indicator of ecosystem health. She had previously noted bats using swimming pools to forage and drink in Texas and wondered if they may be using swimming pools at several different hotels on the reserve.
Poolside listening
Bennett and her colleagues surveyed bats using acoustic detectors set up around swimming pools at the tourist lodgings on the reserve. For a study published recently in the Journal of Wildlife Management, Bennett and her graduate student James McGee analyzed data collected from detectors at two pools from July 2018 to December 2020.
They recorded 24,909 bat echolocation calls above the swimming pools and identified seven out of 23 local species: Cape horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus capensis), Geoffroy’s horseshoe bats (R. clivosus), Botswana long-eared bats (Laephotis botswanae), Cape serotine bats (Neoromicia capensis), Natal long-fingered bats (Miniopterus natalensis), Egyptian free-tailed bats (Tadarida aegyptiaca), and lesser woolly bats (Kerivoula lanosa).
Since bats have distinct echolocation calls for different activities, researchers can identify specific resource use, including whether bats were approaching a water source, drinking or foraging. By analyzing the recordings, the team found 1,374 calls related to foraging and 9,286 calls related to drinking.
These results suggest that bats were mostly using the swimming pools for drinking water, while some bats were feeding above these pools, perhaps on insects attracted to the water. But use depended on species. For instance, the Cape serotine and Botswana long-eared bats were using the pools more as a drinking source, while Egyptian free-tailed bats used them for foraging more, and Natal long-fingered bats used the pools more evenly for both. Researchers could tell that these species were approaching the water surface but recorded no distinct feeding or drinking calls, potentially because calls from these species are so high frequency that are difficult to detect and record. They were certainly using pools as a resource though, Bennett said.
While the International Union for Conservation of Nature doesn’t list any of the seven bats as conservation concern, five of the 23 species found locally are designated vulnerable. Pools might provide a buffer for bats—natural water sources in the area are increasingly drying up due to climate change, and this area has been experiencing a long drought. But swimming pools represent a permanent source of water.
“The take home message, so far, is that we should not exclude swimming pools as a potential water resource for bats,” she said, adding that migrating bats could use them as a stopover resource while residents can use them all year. “They may not have another choice at this point.”
In future research, she plans to use cameras to get a better idea of what the species are doing at the pools, particularly among the horseshoe and woolly bats. She and her colleagues also want to compare how bat activity and resource use above swimming pools compares with activity and use above natural water sources in the area. This could reveal why bats are choosing to use these pools in the first place.
This article features research that was published in a TWS peer-reviewed journal. Individual online access to all TWS journal articles is a benefit of membership. Join TWS now to read the latest in wildlife research.
Loud noise in poor, urban neighborhoods is not only dangerous to people living there. It can also affect wildlife.
Urban ecologists have been looking at how systemic biases and racism shapes urban ecology and biodiversity. For instance, poorer areas often have higher levels of air and water pollution and less green space. But noise has often been left out of that research.
Assistant professor at Colorado State University Sara Bombaci hoped to close that gap. But finding the data proved difficult. Bombaci and her team hoped to use biodiversity datasets in poorer neighborhoods that had historically been redlined—areas deemed risky investments because of their large minority populations.
“We have this large spatial dataset of noise across the U.S., and we have the redlining maps of noise across the U.S.,” Bombaci said. “We were really hoping to just pair that with some biological data.”
But just like many things in poorer neighborhoods, the datasets showed inequity, too. Other research has also shown that citizen science data like eBird or iNaturalist are biased. “It’s also not equitably distributed across cities,” she said.
That led them to conduct a literature review to understand what past studies have said about urban noise effects on wildlife. For their research, they assumed that noise would be higher in redlined communities and that noisier areas would have greater impacts on wildlife.
“We pulled out the numbers of noise that were affecting wildlife, and we paired that with the numbers of noise levels that are found in our redlined communities,” she said. “We speculate that that those levels of noise could be impacting wildlife to a greater degree because of the cumulative evidence we found throughout the literature that says as noise increases, the impact to wildlife also increased.”
A meadowlark along a road. Urban areas have less green space and other resources for wildlife. Credit: Sara Bombaci
Their findings appear in a study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution. Some of what they encountered was expected, like inequities in noise. “But what was surprising was how clear those patterns were,” Bombaci said.
The team knew that human population size would be a strong predictor of noise. They ran a model to see if population size would swamp out other factors like redlining. But they found that redlining was the stronger predictor of noise pollution compared to population size.
They also looked at the maximum levels of noise that neighborhoods were experiencing. In their research, they looked at 83 cities, with each neighborhood graded, with A being the higher income areas with a higher white population and D grades being the lower income with higher populations of people of color as a result of redlining.
Greenlined neighborhoods that were A-graded nearly always had maximum noise levels below 90 decibels, which is the level that noise can be harmful to people. “That’s the level where human health is drastically impacted,” Bombaci said. Similarly, that’s the level that cumulative impacts to wildlife are greatest.
When they looked at redlined neighborhoods that were D-rated, almost all of them have maximum noise levels above 70 decibels. “That figure matters because it’s the EPA upper limit to avoid hearing degradation,” she said. “The EPA suggest we should manage areas to keep them below 70 decibels to avoid those hearing impacts to humans, you can imagine they also have cascading impacts to wildlife.”
Many of the studies they looked at showed that noise affects wildlife vocalizations as well as population sizes. Bombaci said while this can have negative effects on wildlife itself, lack of wildlife can also negatively affect human health. “There’s several studies that have documented that having access to nature and biodiversity is really important for human health and well-being, or even just access to natural soundscapes,” she said. “What’s good for biodiversity can be good for human wellbeing as well in cities. And so human communities in these redlined neighborhoods, not only are they dealing with the human health impacts of having this elevated level of noise, but also receiving less benefit from nature itself.”
There are some ways to help reduce noise in some underserved communities, though. For example, noise barriers in construction or industrial zones can limit noise. Vegetation or tree lines can also buffer noise. There’s also new smart technology, Bombaci added. In Paris, noise radars are measuring the noise levels of moving vehicles and identifying their license plates to fine vehicles that are making too much noise. There’s also quiet road and pavement technologies. Changing the sirens on ambulances is also an option. These changes can benefit people as well as wildlife.
“This study highlights how you can simultaneously advance scientific understanding and wildlife conservation, and also think about how you can integrate or consider these systems of oppression and how they can shape biological processes,” Bombaci said.
