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Wild Cam: Watch coyotes hunt with badgers

March 11, 2025 by Olivia Milloway

Emma Balunek was combing through hours of trail camera footage in northeastern Colorado when she saw something surprising. Amidst the swift foxes, pronghorn, ravens and endless golden eagles was an unlikely pair: an American badger and coyote.

The coyote stood still on the right side of the frame, watching as the badger scurried in from the left. They had come to a rock pile together on their way to hunt prairie dogs. “The badger handles the belowground work, and the coyote handles the aboveground work,” said John Benson, Associate Professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and TWS member.

A conservation photographer on the hunt for a graduate research project, Balunek dug up everything she could on badgers (Taxidea taxus) and coyotes (Canis latrans) collaborating with each other. She found that Indigenous people have long known about the relationship, telling stories of badgers and coyotes that become unlikely friends. Westward expansionists also recorded the association in their journals in the 1800s, with a smattering of scientific publications and one-off observations in the last several decades. “That’s when I realized we didn’t know much about the relationship from a scientific standpoint,” Balunek said.

Working with Benson, Balunek has set up camera traps across five sites from New Mexico to South Dakota to answer questions about how, when and why the animals are cooperating. Although scientists have had long-standing interest and acknowledgement of the association, Balunek said there hasn’t been a large-scale focused research effort to try to document it. “We’re trying to get as close as we can to documenting the full extent of where [the association] occurs.”

Because Balunek couldn’t set up cameras everywhere that coyotes and badgers coexist in the wild, she decided to enlist the help of people like herself who might have seen the unlikely pair while spending time on the prairie. Prairie dogs (Cynomys sp.) and black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes), for example, are two commonly studied species that both live in the habitat where Balunek expects this relationship might occur. “Many researchers may have seen badgers and coyotes together, but it doesn’t really move beyond that,” she said. This is likely because the low number of observations makes the phenomenon hard to study, something she hopes to change by monitoring hot spots with her trail cameras and crowdsourcing opportunistic encounters from other researchers and citizen scientists.

More questions than answers

In her ongoing work, Balunek will map citizen scientist data, published records and her own observations showing where coyotes and badgers have been seen hunting together. She has set up an online form where people can submit historic and current observations through the fall of 2025. Balunek and Benson expect to see the relationship occur where the pairs can hunt small, burrowing animals like prairie dogs and ground squirrels in tandem, but they’re interested to see if the pairs hunt together in some places across this range but not others. So far, they’ve received submissions from Wyoming, South Dakota, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, California, Texas, Montana, Oregon and even some from Mexico and Canada.

The researchers are hoping to uncover not only where associations happen but also how they change at different times of the day and throughout the year. Learning more about these factors could offer insight into how each species benefits—or doesn’t benefit—from the association. Some scientists argue that badgers get the short end of the stick, doing the dirty work while coyotes get off easy. “The badgers are digging, digging, digging; there’s dirt flying everywhere, and the coyote is just sitting in the back,” Emma laughed. “But [badgers] are so good at digging.”

A three-year telemetry study conducted in Jackson, Wyoming, published in 1992, showed that coyotes were 34% more successful in hunting ground squirrels when hunting with a badger. It was harder for the researchers to quantify hunting success on behalf of the badgers because they eat their prey while underground and are therefore out of sight to researchers. Scientists did note that the badgers spent a longer time underground when hunting with a coyote, though, so they assumed the badgers were more successful at capturing and eating their prey while there was a coyote standing watch aboveground to corner any fleeing prey.

Inspiring curiosity for the prairie

Balunek said that their preliminary results show that the animals hunt together year-round and are changing their normal daily schedules so they can hunt together. “If the badger is normally active at dawn and dusk and during the night but will hunt with a coyote during the day, that’s possible evidence to suggest that the badger is gaining something from this relationship,” she said.

Although the mutual benefit may seem too incredible to believe, scientists have documented similar interspecies cooperative hunting in other species, like the grouper fish (Plectropomus pessuliferus) and the giant moray eel (Gymnothorax javanicus) in the Red Sea. In a similar fashion, the animals use their complementary hunting styles: the moray eel flushes prey from coral reef crevices while the grouper chases down prey in the open water.

Benson said you have to consider the costs of the association, too. Badgers are notoriously fierce: “Both species have been documented killing the other,” he said, although on both sides this is usually adults preying on the other species’ offspring.

“It’s important scientifically, but also interesting from a storytelling perspective, to consider the risks that these animals are taking—which suggests there must be a decent benefit,” Benson said. “It’s probably some level of an uneasy alliance.”

Research is just part of Balunek’s project, though. Comentored by Michael Forsberg of the Platte Basin Timelapse, a project in partnership to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln that aims to inspire care for the environment through the power of story, Balunek is working to bridge the gap between science and the public. “It’s a really neat program where we can both learn something scientifically but also tell the story to a broader audience,” said Benson, who advises Balunek on the research side of the project.

Man-made rockpiles in Colorado, which first drew Balunek into the unlikely relationship of the coyote and badger, play a central role in many of her storytelling projects and trail camera videos. “The grasslands are one of the most endangered ecosystems,” Balunek said. “Using this interesting relationship is one way we can catch people’s attention and teach them about why the prairie matters.”

If you’ve seen the badgers and coyotes together, Benson and Balunek encourage you to submit your observations—past or present—here.

This photo essay is part of an occasional series from The Wildlife Society featuring photos and video images of wildlife taken with camera traps and other equipment. Check out other entries in the series here. If you’re working on an interesting camera trap research project or one that has a series of good photos you’d like to share, email Olivia at omilloway@wildlife.org.

U.S. butterflies face declines

March 11, 2025 by The Wildlife Society

Butterflies throughout the United States have declined 22% between the years 2000 and 2020. In a new study, researchers brought together butterfly monitoring data from 35 different citizen science programs. This included records of over 12.6 million butterflies across the continental U.S. Using this data, the researchers determined butterfly abundance for 342 species. Each year, they found, butterfly abundance decreased by about 1.3% throughout the country. Butterflies in the southwest faced the most severe declines. Of the species the team studied, 100 declined by more than half. “Our national-scale findings paint the most complete—and concerning—picture of the status of butterflies across the country in the early 21^st century,” the authors wrote. But the authors said that with conservation strategies, populations can become more sustainable.

Read the study in Science.

Wildlife experiences can ease PTSD symptoms

March 10, 2025 by The Wildlife Society

Direct interactions with wildlife species can help war veterans deal with symptoms related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). For a study published recently in Human-Animal Interactions, researchers immersed 19 war veterans with PTSD symptoms in a variety of wildlife and nature-related activities in Massachusetts for over four months. The veterans took forest walks, helped care for wildlife in a rehabilitation center, watched wildlife in a sanctuary, and did birdwatching. The participants of these activities reported improved psychological symptoms, such as a reduction in anxiety, especially in situations where they were more immersed in wildlife settings. “While many studies involving interactions between humans and other species aimed at improving psychological or physical health have involved domestic animals, few have focused on wildlife,” study author Donna Perry from the University of Massachusetts’ Chan Medical School said, in a press release. “We found that the response of veterans with PTSD to wildlife immersion suggests improved psychological symptoms as well as connection to nature/wildlife and increased understanding and concern for animal welfare and conservation-related issues.”

Wild Cam: Drought brings drinking problems for Tequila bats

March 7, 2025 by Joshua Rapp Learn

Not everybody can say they love their job. But TWS member Mallory Davies was right at home rappelling 30 meters down a hips-wide chute to a cave floor nearly boot-deep in bat guano. Her mission? To gather fecal samples in one of the only known roosts of both Mexican long-nosed and lesser long-nosed bats located near Hachita, New Mexico.

“This [cave] is really special and unique,” said Davies, a bat researcher at the University of Arizona and an organizer of TWS’ Out in the Field community.

Davies’ efforts were going to help her track both bat populations. She had previously noticed something amiss in the behavior of the lesser long-nosed bats (Leptonycteris yerbabuenae) and Mexican or greater long-nosed bats (L. nivalis). Instead of feeding only on nectar from agave plants, they seemed to be consuming a fair portion of insects and sugar water—behavior that goes against conventional wisdom for the species. Davies and her colleagues wanted to know why. They thought the change in diet could be related to a combination of changing climate patterns and urban development.

Tequila problems

Lesser long-nosed bats (pictured above) and Mexican long-nosed bats typically migrate between the southwestern U.S. in the summer and Mexico in the winter. They also live year-round in parts of southern Mexico and Central America.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed both the Mexican long-nosed bat and the lesser long-nosed bat under the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 1988. The agency delisted the latter in 2018, according to the Federal Register. The Mexican long-nosed bat remains federally endangered.

But conservation challenges persist, even for the lesser long-nosed bat. The species, also known as the tequila bat, is a pollinator that mainly feeds on the nectar of the agave plants also used to produce tequila and mezcal in Mexico. But the bats in the southern part of their range are running into some trouble.

While some mezcal producers use a more sustainable agave plant selection, tequila producers—and some bigger-market mezcal producers—are replacing wild agave plants with cloned monoculture crops to create more product. Since producers of both liquors—tequila is really just a type of mezcal—harvest agave plants before they flower, lesser long-nosed bats are finding it increasingly hard to find nectar in parts of Mexico, such as the region surrounding the town of Tequila.

“They are converting this landscape and not letting any of it go into flowering,” Davies said.

Meanwhile, in the northern end of the bat’s range in the southwestern U.S., climate may be causing a mismatch between the flowering times of agave plants and the migration time of the species. For one reason or another, nearly the whole nectar corridor from Mexico to the southwestern U.S. faces threats.

What the bats are eating

Davies, who presented her ongoing work at the 2024 TWS Annual Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, studies populations of both species that roost in the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Big Hatchet Mountains Wilderness Study Area in New Mexico (pictured above)—the largest known roost site for lesser long-nosed bats in the U.S. with thousands of individuals—as part of her PhD dissertation work. This area is a post-maternity roost for lesser long-nosed bats—a place where mothers bring their young after they learn to fly. There, the young bats feed on nectar before making a 1,600-kilometer journey down to Juxtlahuaca in the state of Guerrero in southern Mexico for the winter.

Davies wondered why the bats stopped in this area at all—the timing just didn’t make sense. “They are coming before the agave is available and staying months after the agave is done blooming,” Davies said.

To learn more, she and her colleagues began gathering fecal samples from the bats in 2020, targeting both long-nosed bat species and another nectar bat—the Mexican long-tongued bat (Choeronycteris Mexicana). They laid plastic tarps on the ground before the bats arrived to roost in January. Then, they collected the samples from the tarps the following January and set out new ones.

DNA analysis of the years’ worth of guano samples revealed which species roosted there, since it’s nearly impossible to tell the difference between Mexican long-nosed and tequila bats by just looking at them. In fact, they found evidence for 11 species inside or near the cave, including Townsend’s big-eared bats (Corynorhinus townsendii). It also revealed that the bats in this area have a more varied diet in the Big Hatchet Mountains than previous research had found.

“During periods of drought, we’re finding fully aquatic insects in their diets,” Davies said. While researchers noted the bats sometimes indulged in the occasional ground insect, the sheer proportion of aquatic insects is odd, Davies said—and she isn’t even sure it’s intentional. They might be ingesting aquatic insects incidentally at a higher rate than usual while drinking water during drought periods. Or they may be targeting water with a little extra protein in it on purpose when times are hard. Davies hopes to answer this question in her ongoing research.

Something else is going on when it comes to tequila bats’ diets, though. As part of their research, Davies and her colleagues also examined evidence from trail cameras left on backyard hummingbird feeders within 100 kilometers of the roost site in Rodeo and Silver City in New Mexico and in Portal, Arizona. Footage there revealed that when only a few flowering agave plants remained, the numbers of bats taking advantage of the artificial nectar left at these feeders spiked. In fact, nectar bats such as the Mexican long-tongued bat pictured above are sometimes foregoing their usual migration south to Mexico, staying in urban areas and feeding on sugar water and insects in the U.S.

It’s possible that the bats are adopting a quirkier diet, whether it’s insects or artificial nectar, in dry periods due to a shortage of agave in the Big Hatchet Mountains. Davies, pictured above with a lesser long-nosed bat, said that young agaves can’t survive drought. The young plants are also more susceptible to javelinas (Dicotyles tajacu) eating them in dry periods. It takes years for agaves to reach their flowering stage, after which they wither and die. As extended drought periods are becoming more common in the northern Chihuahua Desert, both Mexican and lesser long-nosed bats may be seeking new food sources as the region loses flowering agave plants.

The ability of bats to change their diet in response to changing food availability is good news in some ways. “These bats are very plastic in their diets,” Davies said. “I think they are taking advantage of anthropogenic resources like water troughs and hummingbird feeders.”

Making improvements

In the southern portion of the bats’ range, conservationists led by the National Autonomous University of Mexico are making efforts to improve the availability of flowering agave in mezcal regions in Mexico. They are giving producers a bat-friendly certification when they improve the sustainability of their production. That may be through measures like allowing 5% of their agave to reach the flowering stage.

In the north, Davies worries about whether bats drinking sugar water will sustain the population long-term or whether it will be as nutritious for long-nosed bats. While she hasn’t conducted population-level studies on the health of the bats, many of those the team does study have low body weight and appear unhealthy. “It doesn’t seem ideal,” Davies said.

She also wonders whether hummingbird feeders may act as a disease reservoir for long-nosed bats. There is still a lot that biologists don’t understand about these species, but she hopes to learn more about why the bats choose to stay in the area past peak blooming seasons in her ongoing work.

Watch: Narwhals’ tusks help them chase prey and hunt

March 7, 2025 by The Wildlife Society

Tusks are one of narwhals’ defining features, but researchers have never been entirely clear about their function. Now, drones have revealed more about how the northern cetaceans use these large appendages that are actually overgrown teeth. New footage analyzed in a study published in Frontiers in Marine Science shows narwhals (Monodon monoceros) using these unicorn-like horns to herd, guide, stun and perhaps even kill their arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) prey. Scientists had previously observed narwhals raising their tusks out of the water in tandem, something that may represent some sort of competition between males for mates. But researchers haven’t well documented them using their tusks to manipulate the behavior of prey. “I have been studying narwhals for over a decade and have always marveled at their tusks,” said Cortney Watt, a co-author of the study and team lead at Fisheries and Oceans, Canada, in a press release. “To observe them using their tusks for foraging and play is remarkable. This unique study, where we set up a remote field camp and spent time filming narwhals with drones, is yielding many interesting insights and is providing a bird’s-eye view of their behavior that we have never seen before.”

What the DOGE is happening?

March 6, 2025 by Cameron J. Kovach

For over a century, the federal government has served as a consistent foundation in North American wildlife conservation on public lands and beyond. Today, even the smallest shift in that foundation has far-reaching repercussions. It can influence what research agencies fund and what studies researchers published. It can also affect talent recruitment and staff capacity for implementing management actions on public lands. Human nature leads us to assume that our current federal governance structures for wildlife conservation initiated during the same era as the founding of The Wildlife Society will continue. However, many are starting to realize that recent changes—expected and unexpected—in the federal government have already altered that reality for wildlife conservation.

President Trump has kicked off his second term at a blistering pace, signing at least 73 executive orders in one month. Whether you support or oppose the changes he’s making, there’s no denying the shockwaves that have reverberated through the wildlife community. Moreover, the speed at which the administration is making these changes has resulted in mass confusion about what’s happening and uncertainty about what comes next.

If you have found yourself trying to make sense of it all, know that you are not alone. While I don’t have all the answers, I hope sharing what I do know and my perspectives on what comes next will help you contextualize the shift we’re seeing across the entire executive branch of the federal government.

Finding clarity amidst the noise

While you have undoubtedly read many of the news headlines, I suspect you are still befuddled by the endless twists and turns in the form of daily courtroom rulings and contradictory outcomes (e.g., is federal funding frozen or not?). This is purposeful and directly linked to the new administration’s often-stated outcome: a dramatic reduction in the size of the federal government. So, how do you make sense of what you’re seeing? And how can you regain a sense of what the future holds, when new changes are seemingly implemented on a daily basis? For me, it comes down to finding certainty amid the disruption by looking at intent and what we can reasonably expect comes next.

This does not mean we should completely withdraw from the dialogue around what’s going on today. Rather, we should understand that the need for our work persists even if the foundation around us has changed. Looking at President Trump’s executive orders provides a roadmap for what his administration is seeking to accomplish. These documents have created the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and the administration is using these orders to justify terminating employees, cutting funding and shuttering entire agencies. Once you view the true purpose and intent of each order, all the noise created by the tactics and politics begins to fade. You may not like the intent—in fact, the intent may harm you—but you will at least have some clarity and insight into what might happen next.

In reviewing President Trump’s executive orders to date, every TWS member should be aware of the following:

Executive Order 14148 of Jan. 20, 2025 – Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions – Rescinds 68 executive orders and 11 memoranda from the Biden Administration that focus primarily on the government’s approach to climate change, the environment, COVID-19, ethics and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Specifically, it directs the heads of each agency to “take immediate steps to end federal implementation of unlawful and radical DEI ideology.” Targeting positions and programs around DEI for cuts is efficient for the administration, given the prevalence of DEI work across the federal government and beyond. Further, by emphasizing DEI and the framing of DEI work as “unlawful and radical,” the administration is likely intending to divert attention away from other significant budget cuts and policy changes. The Wildlife Society continues to recognize the value of including the richness of human diversity in our efforts to discover, educate, inform policy, and involve the public in wildlife science and management as reflected in our Position Statement on Workforce Diversity in the Wildlife Profession.

Executive Order 14151 of Jan, 20, 2025 – Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing – Orders the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to terminate “all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and ‘diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility’ (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences and activities in the federal government, under whatever name they appear.” This applies to all positions, trainings, committees, programs, services, activities, budgets, expenditures and federal grants related to DEI, DEIA and “environmental justice.” Like the first referenced order, this order establishes a broad foundation for the administration’s cuts, especially when combined with a subsequent executive memorandum that directs “the heads of executive departments and agencies to review all funding that agencies provide to NGOs … [to] align future funding decisions with the interests of the United States and with the goals and priorities of my administration, as expressed in executive actions.” As of the date of this article, a district court judge issued a nationwide, preliminary injunction preventing the Trump Administration from implementing this order because it may infringe upon First and Fifth Amendment rights protected by the U.S. Constitution.

Executive Order 14153 of Jan. 20, 2025 Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential – States that it is now the policy of the United States to “fully avail itself of Alaska’s vast lands and resources” and “efficiently and effectively maximize the development and production of the natural resources located on both federal and state lands within Alaska.” It also orders the Secretary of Interior and other relevant agencies to “rescind, revoke, revise, amend, defer or grant exemptions from any and all regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies and any other similar agency actions that are inconsistent with the policy.” The order does not explicitly mention the use of the best available science nor does it describe how decision makers will incorporate scientific evidence. Given the order’s emphasis on specific action without consideration of the best available science, this could result in agencies ignoring science that contradicts a desired outcome, which would conflict with TWS’ Position Statement on the use of Science in Policy and Management Decisions.

Executive Order 14154 of Jan. 20, 2025 – Unleashing American Energy – Primarily aims to promote energy and mineral exploration and production on federal lands and waters, including the Outer Continental Shelf. Like the previous order, it focuses on eliminating regulatory barriers. The order also attempts to terminate key climate funding that Congress previously approved by immediately pausing the “disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.” In addition to other directives for eliminating subsidies favoring electric vehicles and other energy-efficient technology, the order references the scope and integrity of the scientific process several times. The order describes prioritizing environmental analyses by adhering “to only the relevant legislated requirements for environmental considerations” using “robust methodologies” that are not “arbitrary or ideologically motivated.” This narrows the scope of what science may be used and carefully avoids the use of terms like “best available science,” which carry legal meaning through regulations and years of established case law. It also has strong potential to politicize science by introducing an ideological review component to what science may be considered in environmental analyses. The order then disbands the Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases and withdraws as government policy several reports and technical documents related to greenhouse gas monitoring and the social cost of greenhouse gases. Lastly, the order contains a policy statement, “to guarantee that all executive departments and agencies provide opportunity for public comment and rigorous, peer-reviewed scientific analysis.” While seemingly innocuous, TWS did see specific peer-reviewed studies opened up for public comment during the first Trump Administration (read our comments here). As a result, TWS will monitor how agencies interpret this policy to ensure the terms “public comment” and “peer-reviewed” are not conflated as a way to promote alternative facts with no empirical or theoretical support that cast doubt about sound scientific information, which would again conflict with TWS’ Position Statement on the use of Science in Policy and Management Decisions.

Executive Order 14156 of Jan. 20, 2025 – Declaring a National Energy Emergency – Gives the Secretary of the Interior and other relevant federal agencies the authority to use emergency provisions under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to the “maximum extent permissible” to facilitate the nation’s energy supply. This means that the Secretary can suspend or modify enforcement of certain ESA regulations to expedite energy-related projects and activities. The order instructs the Secretary of the Interior, as chairman of the Endangered Species Act Committee, to convene the committee no less than quarterly to “review and consider any lawful applications … for exemption from obligations imposed by Section 7 of the ESA.” In the event that the committee has no pending applications for review, the committee is still charged with convening to “identify obstacles to domestic energy infrastructure specifically deriving from implementation of the ESA or the Marine Mammal Protection Act.” So, even when no one submits applications for ESA exemptions, the “God Squad,” as it’s often referred to, will still convene to assess the removal of obstacles created by the country’s key laws for the protection and recovery of imperiled species. While TWS does not oppose balanced energy siting and development processes, viewing species listings as a barrier to expedited energy development runs counter to several of TWS’ position statements focused on environmental quality and the conservation of biological diversity.

Executive Order 14158 of Jan. 20, 2025 – Establishing and Implementing the President’s “Department of Government Efficiency” – Establishes the United States Department of Government Efficiency Service (DOGE) as a temporary organization within the executive office of the president, replacing the existing United States Digital Service. The order places a DOGE team of at least four individuals within each agency to “implement the president’s DOGE agenda.” While the focus of this order is on IT efficiency and data interoperability, reference to the “DOGE agenda” is widely regarded to mean recommendations for substantial cuts to the federal budget. The order directs agency leaders to give DOGE full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems and IT systems. This temporary organization will terminate on July 4, 2026.

Executive Order 14162 of Jan. 20, 2025 – Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements – Directs for the immediate withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement and other international climate commitments made under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This includes immediate revocation of any purported financial commitment that the U.S. made under the UNFCCC. Moving forward, the policy of the Trump Administration will be to “put the interests of the United States and the American people first in the development and negotiation of any international agreements with the potential to damage or stifle the American economy.” This order runs counter to the policy of The Wildlife Society regarding global climate change, wildlife and sustainability, which calls for greater emphasis on intergenerational and cultural equity, effective dissemination of climate change information, broad engagement of experts in climate change research and stronger actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Executive Order 14192 of Jan. 31, 2025 – Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation – Seeks to shrink the regulatory framework of the United States by requiring that “whenever an executive department or agency publicly proposes a new regulation for notice and comment or otherwise promulgates a new regulation, it shall identify at least 10 existing regulations to be repealed.” Further, it requires all agencies “to ensure that the total incremental cost of all new regulations, including repealed regulations, being finalized this year [FY25] … be significantly less than zero.” This could soon have significant effects on environmental regulations through the elimination of various protections and standards related to air and water quality, forever chemicals, endangered species, migratory birds and more. It’s also a precursor for a much wider-ranging deregulatory effort outlined below.

Executive Order 14210 of Feb. 11, 2025 – Implementing the President’s “Department of Government Efficiency” Workforce Optimization Initiative – “This order commences a critical transformation of the federal bureaucracy” that is likely to have major impacts on the federal workforce beyond the recent “fork in the road” deferred resignation program or termination of probationary employees. Specifically, it asks agencies to identify “any statutes that establish the agency, or subcomponents of the agency, as statutorily required entities” by March 13, 2025, as a way to identify “whether the agency or any of its subcomponents should be eliminated or consolidated.” In this same timeframe, the order also directs the OPM to initiate rule-making that would expand OPM’s ability to make suitability determinations on federal employees. Currently, OPM’s ability to implement suitability actions, or the cancellation of eligibility or removal of an employee from a position, is limited to nine factors focused primarily on lawful behavior. However, the contemplated rulemaking seeks to add new, more subjective considerations to the list for OPM suitability actions, including failure to comply with generally applicable legal obligations, failure to comply with provisions that would preclude regular federal service, and refusal to certify that they have not restricted an employee from disclosing gross waste of funds or misuse of government resources. With these new factors in mind, the recent efforts of OPM to exert greater oversight on federal employees (e.g. “What did you do last week?” email) makes more sense as it establishes a potential basis for OPM suitability actions. The order also instructs agencies to “promptly undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force (RIFs), consistent with applicable law, and to separate from federal service temporary employees and reemployed annuitants working in areas that will likely be subject to the RIFs.” Lastly, in “reforming the federal workforce to maximize efficiency and productivity,” the order instructs all agencies to make hiring decisions in consultation with DOGE and requires “that each agency hire no more than one employee for every four employees that depart.” As already outlined in our memorandum to members on Feb. 19, professional, science-based management requires the appointment and hiring of professionally competent individuals capable of dealing with the complexities of modern management and science into wildlife agencies at all levels. The Wildlife Society is deeply concerned by any reductions in the federal workforce that limit an agency’s ability to appropriately develop and use science in policy and management decisions.

Executive Order 14219 of Feb. 19, 2025 – Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President’s “Department of Government Efficiency” Deregulatory Initiative – Instructs all agencies, in coordination with DOGE, to “commence the deconstruction of the overbearing and burdensome administrative state” by identifying regulations to modify or rescind based on seven factors. These factors include but are not limited to unlawful delegations of legislative power, no underlying statutory authority, and costs that outweigh public benefits or cause harm to national interests. Agencies are instructed to prepare these lists by April 20, 2025. The Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs will then “develop a Unified Regulatory Agenda that seeks to rescind or modify these regulations, as appropriate.” This order opens the door for large-scale changes in how the government operates and may potentially affect things like the definition of habitat under the Endangered Species Act, permitting processes under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the definition of navigable waters and regulation of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations under the Clean Water Act, and various climate-focused regulations. With many core environmental laws dating back to the 1970s, much of the evolved regulatory framework that now supports wildlife conservation could be in question if this executive order remains in effect.

Executive Order 14222 of Feb. 26, 2025 – Implementing the President’s “Department of Government Efficiency” Cost Efficiency Initiative – Focuses on federal spending, contracts, grants, loans and property. This includes the immediate review of all contracts and grants for termination or modification to reduce overall federal spending and to “advance the policies of [the] administration.” This administration will complete this review by March 28, 2025. During this time, they will freeze all agency employee credit cards. The order also labels conference travel as nonessential and states that each “agency head shall prohibit agency employees from engaging in federally funded travel for conferences or other nonessential purposes unless the travel-approving official has submitted a brief, written justification for the federally funded travel,” which will be reviewed by DOGE and posted publicly. Finally, the order directs agencies to submit a plan to OMB for “the disposition of government-owned real property which has been deemed by the agency as no longer needed” by April 27, 2025. This order has obvious financial repercussions for TWS as the organization receives financial support from several government agencies. Federal employees also make up a large chunk of our annual conference attendance. However, the biggest area of concern from this order is the vague language and lack of exceptions around the potential divestiture of public lands. TWS will watch closely how the agencies determine what land is no longer needed and what additional guidance the administration provides.

Executive Order of March 1, 2025 – Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production – Like the previous orders on expanding energy and mineral production, this order points to the idea that “heavy-handed federal policies have prevented full utilization of [timber] resources.” This order calls for agencies to “take all necessary and appropriate steps consistent with applicable law to suspend, revise or rescind all existing regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies, settlements, consent orders and other agency actions that impose an undue burden on timber production.” This includes once again using the Endangered Species Committee “to facilitate the nation’s timber production.” Unlike the previous orders, however, this order also calls for specific legislative proposals to “expand authorities to improve timber production” and “ensure [ESA] consultation is streamlined.” By March 31, 2025, we can expect the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to provide updated guidance for increasing timber production.

Maintaining professional solidarity

Anticipated changes to the federal government and associated reductions in the federal workforce have not yet reached their zenith. In fact, it appears as though the Trump Administration is just getting started.

Is everything included within these executive orders legal? Not likely. As mentioned above, some courts have already placed preliminary injunctions on implementing the orders, but most cases have yet to be decided. With the amount of changes the administration is proposing, though, it’s likely that the legal and regulatory framework for wildlife conservation in the U.S. will evolve in the coming years. Article II of the U.S. Constitution grants undefined executive powers to the president. Over the next several months, we’re going to witness an administration test the limits of those executive powers. Many people and organizations have already filed lawsuits with regard to presidential executive authority that will eventually reach the Supreme Court. While the Supreme Court has traditionally upheld limited executive powers through its rulings, its recent decision to overturn the Chevron Deference in the Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo case supports much of what the Trump Administration is seeking to achieve by potentially limiting the executive branch’s regulatory authority (“Chevron is overruled. Courts must exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority.”). The Chevron Deference was a broad regulatory authority granted to agencies through legal precedent to interpret a law that is unclear or vague.

When the dust finally settles, I expect the federal courts will roll back some of what the Trump Administration is doing. However, some of the changes will remain. The outcome could be a federal government that looks quite different than the one we knew just a year ago.

Understanding there are differences of opinion among our membership, The Wildlife Society views our role in this current climate as three-fold: providing as much real-time information as possible to our membership on the Trump Administration’s decisions and their impact; speaking up for the crucial role of wildlife professionals and the scientific process in federal agencies charged with executing laws such as the Endangered Species Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Clean Water Act and National Environmental Policy Act; and working with TWS leadership and membership to navigate the changes, defend against efforts to weaken the role of wildlife professionals, and build toward a sustained future for wildlife conservation and wildlife professionals.

For those of you concerned by what you just read, The Wildlife Society is here to provide you with the tools to speak up. Let your representatives in Congress know how these changes affect you and the ability of wildlife professionals to conserve wildlife. Let your governor know that properly managed public lands are a valuable asset for your state. However, also take time to think about how you can help support your colleagues. Find avenues to be a positive role model for the next generation of wildlife professionals. Frustration only goes so far, and we need impassioned and inspirational leaders to help us navigate the profession through this time of uncertainty.

If you are supportive of the recent changes the administration has made and proposed through the executive orders, I hear you. Many in the conservation community and beyond want to see a more efficient and less bureaucratic system and one striving to balance the nation’s budget. However, the question becomes: How does wildlife conservation fit within the framework being proposed? Working together on next steps for wildlife and the wildlife profession will be essential to retaining not only our wildlife resources but also the professional talent needed to manage those resources. I encourage all members to actively listen to the concerns and ideas of others as we navigate a path forward for wildlife conservation under the Trump Administration.

If you haven’t made up your mind yet, don’t worry. Wildlife conservation is not dichotomous, and professional solidarity does not mean solidarity of thought. We are stronger as a professional society when the voices and perspectives of those spanning the full spectrum of political ideologies, backgrounds, and experiences are reflected in our voice (TWS Position Statement: Workforce Diversity in the Wildlife Profession). We are united through our values, our vision, and our mission. That remains true no matter what the political landscape looks like or what challenges we face along the way. Knowing what’s coming doesn’t always mean we can change the outcome, but it does mean that we can prepare as a unified professional society for what comes next.

If we allow this moment to divide us, if we cease communication, or if we ignore the signs in front of us, our ability as a professional society to effect change will diminish. I encourage everyone, regardless of your political opinions, to start a dialogue with your elected representatives—and each other. Share with them your perspectives on what’s happening, but don’t stop there. Let them know that you are part of a diverse community of wildlife professionals known as The Wildlife Society that can serve as a resource to Congress as they navigate the inevitable legislative response to President Trump’s executive actions. When Congress does engage—and they will—let’s make sure that wildlife professionals have a seat at the table.

Wild Cam: What do wolves eat in the high arctic?

March 5, 2025 by Joshua Rapp Learn

There shouldn’t be any trees on Ellesmere Island. As the northernmost island of Canada, even the south coast lies hundreds of miles north of the tree line. So, as Morgan Anderson and her colleagues trekked through the mountainous landscape on a mission to learn more about Canada’s northernmost wolf packs, she was surprised to encounter tree stumps. That is, until she realized that they were petrified remains dating back to a warmer time of the Earth when Ellesmere didn’t sit so far north. They were likely eons older than the undated stone rings the team would occasionally find in their campsites marking past tents from the pre-Inuit Dorset, Thule or other cultures that hunted muskoxen there in centuries past.

“Nunavut’s its own world,” said TWS member Anderson, a senior wildlife biologist with the British Columbia Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship. “Just a really wild place to be.”

Today it’s mostly just the Arctic wolves (Canis lupus arctos) that tread over the evidence of past ecosystems and ways of life as they hunt muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus). But western scientists don’t know much about the canid’s populations and predation patterns.

Anderson hadn’t originally planned to center her research around wolves in this area. She had been working with the Nunavut Department of Environment on recovery efforts for Peary caribou (Rangifer tarandus pearyi)—the northernmost herd of the ungulates in North America. But getting government approval for collaring caribou or even muskoxen from the Inuit proved difficult. “It’s seen as disrespectful that you go and disturb an animal, then don’t use it,” Anderson said. The Nunavut government and communities were more supportive about collaring wolves, so she and her colleagues decided to examine how wolf predation affected the population of the Peary herd, which has experienced declines in recent decades.

In a study published recently in the Journal of Wildlife Management, Anderson and her colleagues fitted GPS collars on wolves captured on Ellesmere Island from 2014 to 2017. Each year, they would replace collars on some wolves and collar new individuals. While they didn’t fit any new collars in 2018, some of those placed in previous years were still working, so they had some data from that year. In total, the team had collars on individuals from five packs on Ellesmere and one pack from the neighboring Axel Heiberg Island. Wolves can move freely between these islands over sea ice for most of the year.

Finding kill sites

The researchers used the location data to determine sites where wolves likely killed prey. Then, they set out on treks—sometimes for weeks at a time—across the mountainous island to examine the evidence. They ran algorithms to determine where the most kill sites were. Then, a helicopter or a small Twin Otter plane dropped the team off near these areas. The team took a shotgun with them for protection. But they didn’t really plan to use it, since there aren’t many polar bears (Ursus maritimus) in the area due to a low density of seals. Anderson said she never felt threatened by bears or wolves. The latter are so tolerant of humans that they would brazenly steal wrenches from the pockets of helicopter engineers.

The tolerance the wolves have for humans there was a blessing in other ways—film crews often traveled with Anderson’s team looking to capture footage of hunting and denning behaviors. They also helped with funding and logistics.

On their journeys, the team would visit as many suspected kill sites as they could. The evidence for these remained on the landscape for some time in the barren area, especially since other scavengers didn’t disturb them. “We’d just blitz it,” Anderson explained about the treks. The fact that it never got dark meant they often worked very long days before realizing it was time to stop.

When the team wasn’t spending time with the wildlife, they spent it with the local people. The team would wait out the weather in the communities of Grise Fiord or Resolute Bay, which is on the neighboring island of Cornwallis. “It gives you plenty of time to hang out with the community members and build relationships,” Anderson said, adding that this learning from local knowledge can help to frame the results and inform management recommendations.

Analysis of their data revealed the wolves are difficult to keep up with. “They are pretty much always moving unless they are sleeping or eating,” Anderson said. In fact, one collared female dispersed more than 1,000 kilometers from Axel Heiberg to the southern coast of Devon Island.

A stable predator-prey dynamic

The evidence also pointed mostly to wolves preying on muskox calves and adults—during the study years, Peary caribou weren’t abundant in the area. But the muskoxen are only part of the story, Anderson said. The wolves are also preying a lot on Arctic hare (Lepus arcticus). But they eat these smaller mammals rather quickly and almost completely, so it’s hard to tell from GPS collar data when they catch hares. Wolves also don’t really leave remains of hares on the landscape. Conversely, scientists can find the bones of past muskoxen dating back centuries lying around the outside of wolf dens.

The researchers aren’t sure about the specific metabolic needs of Arctic wolves compared to their cousins farther south, but they roughly estimated that each individual wolf would need to kill 115-228 hares per year, and a pack would need to take down about 44 muskoxen per year.

Population estimates reveal that both the wolves and the muskoxen they prey on have relatively stable populations on Ellesmere. This is good news, Anderson said, but it also means that anything that throws that relationship out of balance may spell trouble for the Peary caribou in the region.

For example, in other parts of Canada, higher moose populations in some areas due to logging practices or oil and gas cutlines have led to an unnatural boost in gray wolf (C. lupus) populations. This, in turn, means that they incidentally kill more woodland caribou in these areas.

It’s unclear whether something like this may happen in the far north as well, but Anderson said it’s something that wildlife managers should pay attention to, especially as factors like climate change or increased human presence could throw predator-prey dynamics out of balance in Ellesmere.

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. 

Caribou movement patterns reveal distinct populations

March 5, 2025 by The Wildlife Society

Researchers used individual movements of caribou to help them identify distinct population units. In a study published in Biological Conservation, the team used data collected from GPS collars placed on caribou (Rangifer tarandus) across western Canada. From this data, they identified six distinct behavioral groups and could determine whether they were migrating, how large of an area they were spending time in and if they were moving to different elevations. Past approaches used genetic analysis to identify caribou populations at risk. “We took the approach of using behavior to try to see if there are differences between individuals and groups that can be clustered into similarities,” said Margaret Hughes, a PhD candidate with the Department of Biological Sciences in the Faculty of Science and lead author of the study. “You can infer when and where they’re going and try to infer why they are doing that based on what’s actually out across the landscape.” The researchers said each group requires different conservation actions. “It allows conservation managers to recognize ecologically meaningful variation within species, helping to maintain biodiversity and improve management strategies,” Hughes said.

Read the study in Biological Conservation.

Climate Connections features Elizabeth Znidersic

March 4, 2025 by The Wildlife Society

Sometimes the best way to detect species is to listen for them. A recent Yale Climate Connections radio program shared TWS member Elizabeth Znidersic’s work using sound recorders to detect secretive marsh birds. “You usually don’t see these birds. You only ever hear them,” Znidersic told the radio program. Her findings revealed that in response to flooding, the Australasian bittern (Botaurus poiciloptilus) shifted its breeding pattern. Yale Climate Connections interviewed Znidersic, a postdoctoral researcher at Charles Sturt University, at The Wildlife Society’s 2024 Annual Conference in Baltimore, Maryland.

Listen to the radio segment here and rea an accompanying article on the Yale Climate Connections website.

Sea otters help kelp forests return—but how quickly?

March 4, 2025 by The Wildlife Society

When sea otters return to coastlines, they can help facilitate the growth of kelp forests that sea urchins once destroyed. But their ability to do so is based on a few factors. Managers reintroduced the otters to British Columbia in the 1970s and to Nicolas Island in California in the 1980s. In a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers looked at 30 years of data from community collection studies in both areas. They found that the sites where sea urchins overgrazed due to the absence of sea otters (Enhydra lutris) had kelp forests that grew back. However, it took much longer for kelp to grow back in the Southern California site. The research team found that this was because there was more competition between different urchins, kelp and other species there. “We always thought keystone species control their ecosystem the same way, regardless of where they are or what else is in the ecosystem,” said Ryan Langendorf, the lead author of the study. “A more modern view is that they are still very important, but they can have different effects in different places.”

Read the study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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