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.
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.”
For the first time, researchers documented coyotes feeding on harbor seals in California. Researchers set up trail cameras at MacKerricher State Beach in Mendocino County, California, during the season when pups were born in the spring of 2023 and 2024. When they reviewed the footage, the researchers saw three instances of coyotes (Canis latrans) taking harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) from the beach and eating them. The researchers said while this is the first study to confirm this happening, it has likely been going on for centuries. Further, this phenomenon is likely occurring outside of California, too. Researchers have documented coyotes hunting seals in Washington state and Massachusetts.
Eighty-eight years after wildlife biologists at the North American Wildlife Conference in St. Louis decided to form a new organization to support their growing field, The Wildlife Society has surpassed the founders’ wildest hopes for what the organization could be.
Since 1937, TWS has grown to include more than 11,000 members in wildlife science, conservation and leadership across North America and beyond. Though the Society’s mission—to empower wildlife professionals to advance conservation through science, community and professional excellence—has remained constant, the organization has changed, too.
The Wildlife Society launched The Journal of Wildlife Management (JWM), one of the Society’s first programs and its flagship and longest-running publication, in the founding year. “It was the first of its kind that was very specific to this emerging discipline of wildlife management,” said TWS CEO Ed Arnett.
In 1958—the year Wildlife Monographs was first published—TWS member Cliff Bampton and two other interns trapped 118 bears in the Adirondack Mountains—all before the dart gun was invented. Credit: Cliff Bampton
The success of JWM carried momentum, and the Society launched Wildlife Monographs in 1958, followed by the Wildlife Society Bulletin in 1973. In 2007, TWS began publishing its member magazine, The Wildlife Professional. “I’ve been a member for about 40 years now, and in that time, I’ve seen how the Society has evolved to bring our members and colleagues together—from a professional society to so much more than that,” Arnett said.
The poster for the first TWS Annual Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1994. Credit: Gary Rasmussen
The Wildlife Biologist Certification Program has also been one of the Society’s signature offerings since its launch in 1977. TWS’ membership currently consists of more than 400 Associate Wildlife Biologists®, 1,900 Certified Wildlife Biologists® and 32 Qualified Airport Wildlife Biologists. Now, members and nonmembers alike can search for a certified wildlife biologist via TWS’s Certification Directory.
“We’re more than just a scientific Society,” Arnett said. “We publish science but also advocate for strong policy, have a certification program and train new leaders.” With the addition of web articles and TWS’ social media presence—which has boomed in the last year—Arnett said that TWS has continued to grow to tell the stories of the wildlife profession to its members and to the public. “We’re not only sharing science, but we’re telling people what it’s like to be a scientist, what certain agencies do and why wildlife scientists, managers and wildlife itself are all so important.”
Women of Wildlife (WOW) was TWS’ first community founded in 2011. WOW has led workshops, symposia, webinars, panel discussions and other events to support the participation of women in the wildlife profession. Past TWS President and Aldo Leopold Memorial Award Winner Carol Chambers said she’s proud to see the participation of women—and all genders—in TWS, and that she hopes that the Society continues to be an inclusive and diverse organization that represents all wildlife biologists. “Having all voices participating provides better collaborations and better science,” Chambers said. “We’re in a time when we need the best science we can generate to deal with climate change, habitat loss, invasive species and other factors affecting wildlife.”
The first cover of The Wildlife Professional in the spring of 2007 featured Travis Booms, one of the founders of TWS’ Out in the Field community, which supports LGBTQIA+ members. Credit: Josh Spice
From the beginning, TWS members and leadership have recognized the importance of wildlife policies grounded in science and informed by the expertise of wildlife professionals. Recent efforts have strengthened the Society’s work in policy. “In the past decade, we’ve seen growth in collaborative policy engagement across TWS thanks to initiatives like the Conservation Affairs Network,” said Kelly O’Connor, TWS’s Conservation Policy Manager. “It’s more important than ever that TWS supports our members’ efforts to bring their crucial perspectives into the policy process.”
Mariah Beyers, Director of Member Engagement—who first joined TWS as a member in 2011—thanked TWS membership in a recent letter. “The strength of TWS isn’t just in the research we support or the policies we help shape,” she wrote. “It’s in the people who make up this community—mentors and mentees, colleagues and friends—bound together by a shared commitment to wildlife and to each other. That’s what makes this Society extraordinary, and I’m proud to be a part of the TWS family.”
Wildlife species can’t really tell researchers when they’re sick, so one team of scientists wanted to get some clues into how they were feeling by studying their waste. Indiana bats (Myotis sodalist) are federally endangered, and researchers need to know about the health of individuals to know if there are population impacts. In a study published in Microbial Genomics, a team of wildlifers captured Indiana bats in front of a hibernation site in Missouri and took fecal samples. Back at the lab, they extracted DNA from the samples to get a better look at their gut microbiomes and any parasites present. The team found the presence of a protozoan parasite called Eimeria, and by looking at the bats’ microbiomes, they could see how the parasite affected them. They found that bats with high loads of Eimeria had more Clostridium bacteria, which is associated with severe tissue damage in other species. “This is where our work adds value,” said Andrew Bennett, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and lead author of the study. “Before, if we just detected Eimeria, we wouldn’t necessarily be able to say whether it was causing problems. But by analyzing changes in the microbiome that are associated with Eimeria load in these bats, we gain a noninvasive marker that can help us assess their gut health.”
On a morning in late March 2024, a female polar bear ambled across a frigid slope in Svalbard, Norway. One, two, then three cubs popped out of the snowy bank, seemingly out of nowhere, one sliding down the mountain and another climbing up its mother’s back.
“The cubs are playing, moving around, strengthening their muscles and exploring, as well as strengthening bonds between mother and cub,” said Louise Archer, Polar Bears International postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto Scarborough. “Sometimes we have a camera deployment that doesn’t survive the curiosity of a polar bear family,” she laughed.
While adorable, researchers are recording these videos for an important reason. Polar bear (Ursus maritimus) cubs are especially vulnerable during denning—linking this critical period to the survival of the species.
In the Arctic, pregnant polar bears dig dens in snowbanks where they stay throughout the winter, giving birth to tiny, vulnerable cubs. Over the next three to four months, the cubs drink the mother’s fat-rich milk and grow to about 20 times their initial birth weight within the den. “It’s like an extension of the womb,” Archer said.
Polar bears can build their dens on snowbanks on sea ice or on land, but as sea ice in the Arctic shrinks, polar bears are building their dens more often on land. Humans, too, are expanding their presence in the region, which can be a problem as polar bear mothers have been known to abandon their dens and cubs upon disturbance. On average, less than half of polar bear cubs make it past their first year.
Due to the disturbance problem, denning has been challenging to study for researchers as well. Researchers don’t know much the first few weeks when mothers first bring their cubs out of the snow and into the world. In a study published in the Journal of Wildlife Management, Archer and her colleagues analyzed nearly a decade of satellite tracking and camera trap data to get a better understanding of the first delicate moments that occur as polar bear families emerge from their dens in Svalbard, Norway.
The terrain in Svalbard is intense, Archer said. Among the fjords and mountains, pregnant females dig into the leeward slopes so snow builds over their dens throughout the winter. “When you’re looking at a closed den, all you see is a white blanket. It would be impossible to pick one out by eye alone,” she said. Using locations derived from satellite collars placed on the bears by the Norwegian Polar Institute, the researchers deployed cameras facing suspected dens.
Of the 13 deployed, nine camera traps captured footage of polar bear mothers and cubs emerging from their dens for the first time. On average, bears first broke out of their dens on March 9. After their first emergence, as seen starting at 2:15 on the above video, the bears stayed in their dens for an average of 12 days, although this period varied. “Each den had its own story,” Archer said. One bear family stayed only two days, while another stayed for 31. The length of time the mothers and cubs spent outside the den also varied. Sometimes they came out for less than a minute, sometimes for several hours.
Past research shows better survival when cubs hang around their dens longer after initial emergence. “The longer they spend around the den, the more time they have to acclimatize,” Archer said. It’s a trade-off, though. Each day that the cubs grow stronger and more capable within the safety of the den, the mother spends another day without eating. “She hasn’t eaten for five to eight months, so for her it’s really important to get back onto the ice and build back her fat reserves.” Understanding what the triggers are for leaving the den is important for understanding variation in polar bear behavior.
Archer was surprised to observe den-switching: two polar bear mothers built separate dens after their initial emergence. A less surprising finding was how dependent polar bear cubs are on their mothers—the young bears only emerged from their dens without their mothers 5% of the time.
Camera traps are expensive and impractical in such difficult terrain, especially when researchers are guessing where to place the cameras to capture an emergence. But Archer and her colleagues hope that their work will provide a new tool to polar bear researchers studying such delicate and inaccessible dens. “We were able to use the photos to link each behavior with a data point on the collar and build out a predictive model,” she said.
Overall, improved knowledge of how, when and why polar bears emerge from their dens can help researchers answer questions in the future about the survival of cubs in this vulnerable stage and how that might change over time due to factors like climate change and increased human disturbance. “Being able to study and monitor polar bears during this critical period will give the populations the best chance of survival into the future.”
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.
Amidst the continued termination of the nations’ federal workforce, The Wildlife Society joined forces with the American Fisheries Society (AFS), the Society of American Foresters (SAF) and the Society for Range Management (SRM) to issue a statement in support of federal employees and their critical work for conservation. The Societies expressed deep concerns regarding cuts to the federal workforce and how this will impact science, habitat management and restoration, public education and many other aspects of natural resource conservation in America.
“These professionals serve as stewards of public trust resources across the nation,” said SAF CEO Terry Baker. “The impacts of federal downsizing of employees and budgets on forestry, fish and wildlife, rangelands and people dependent on our ecosystems are only beginning to manifest but undoubtedly will have long-lasting impacts on conservation.”
The statement highlights the importance of continued federal investment in natural resource conservation. These investments return enormous health dividends for the country and the world and are an economic engine for our national, state and local economies.
“We can all appreciate the health benefits of being outdoors and enjoying the natural world,” said AFS Executive Director Jeff Kopaska. “But it’s critical for people to understand that conservation delivery in the U.S., including the work of federal employees, pays back more than double every taxpayer dollar spent into both the local and national economies.”
The four professional societies support auditing federal agencies, budgets and work, but only if they follow a more transparent and credible process. “An audit of government agencies with metrics designed to assess economic and other factors of performance is undoubtedly a good exercise and could yield redundancies, poor return on investments and other issues,” said TWS CEO Ed Arnett. “However, it’s unclear how the federal agencies and their workforce are currently being assessed relative to the consequences of terminations we’re witnessing. The leveraging capability and economic return on conservation investments of federal dollars should be part of the process, as well as engaging legislative representatives responsible for appropriating taxpayer dollars.”
Federal agencies responsible for sound natural resource management have experienced declining staff capacity and funding to do their critical work for decades. Jess Peterson, Executive Vice President of SRM, worries about the future ability to fully support managing our system of public lands and waters and delivering private lands conservation. “When layoffs target probationary employees—often early-career professionals—it damages the pipeline of expertise and professional workforce. Current staffing levels already are significantly less than what is needed to manage both public and private lands,” said Peterson. “Continued layoffs and budget cuts to federal agencies will only make it harder to deliver conservation on our private and public lands and waters that benefit all Americans.”
Scientists don’t have much insight into what sea turtles do in their early lives once they’ve hatched on land and ventured out into the ocean. But researchers looking at dispersal movements of the young turtles found evidence of them being active swimmers rather than passive drifters. In a study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, researchers tracked juvenile sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico from 2011 to 2022. They tagged and followed 131 turtles—94 green turtles, 28 Kemp’s ridleys (Lepidochelys kempii), five loggerheads (Caretta caretta) and four hawksbills (Eretmochelys imbricate). The team found that contrary to assumptions that juvenile turtles stay far offshore, the turtles were actually crossing over the continental shelf more than expected. They also saw that the turtles were approaching the shore and then turning to avoid it. “That was interesting because we had these passive drifters that we released with them, and many of them washed up shore and none of the turtles did,” said Katrina Phillips, the lead author of the study and a postdoctoral graduate at the University of Central Florida. Phillips and her colleagues said these findings are important for managers to consider when assessing risks from human activity and conducting conservation efforts.
Researchers have identified priority conservation areas for endangered giant otters in South America after a comprehensive, first-of-its-kind report. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists giant otters (Pteronura brasiliensis) as endangered, mostly due to overexploitation for the fur trade from the 1940s to 1970s. By the 1980s, the species was extirpated from many areas. To better understand the status of the animals right now, experts from 12 South American countries worked together to publish a report about their ecology and known range. They identified the 22 important conservation units that amounted to nearly one-third of the species’ range. About 35% of these identified areas are designated as protected areas, they found. “No one who has ever been fortunate enough to encounter a group of giant otters in the wild will ever forget the experience,” said lead author Rob Wallace, senior conservation scientist for the Wildlife Conservation Society in Bolivia and the Andes-Amazon-Orinoco region and a member of the IUCN Otter Specialist Group, in a press release. “Periscoping from the water, snorting and squeaking, they simply ooze charisma, and as accomplished and acrobatic swimmers, they are one of the Amazon’s top aquatic predators.”
The Trump Administration has selected a former Wyoming Game and Fish Department director to be the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Brian Nesvik was nominated to lead the Service after serving in the Wyoming agency for 29 years, working his way up from being a game warden. He was appointed director of the state agency in 2019 and retired from the position in 2024. Nesvik also served in the Wyoming Army National Guard for 35 years. Nesvik will undergo a Senate confirmation hearing for the new position.
