The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks has canceled its fall turkey hunt due to years of declining numbers. Kent Fricke, the state’s small game biologist, told the Associated Press that fewer wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) are reaching adulthood in Kansas. Other states are also seeing declining numbers of the game birds—Mississippi also canceled its fall hunt this year. These states and others are conducting studies to try to determine why the numbers are dropping, but it’s possible that habitat destruction from urbanization and extreme weather is playing a role.
Some cockatoos don’t just sing. They also play drums, and researchers found, they make their own instruments.
Studying wild palm cockatoos (Probosciger aterrimus), which occupy parts of northern Australia and New Guinea, researchers found they seem to create their own instruments according to personal taste, rather than available materials. Using seedpods and objects like drumsticks, they use rhythmic drumming to attract mates. They published their findings in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
“I think being really individual and being creative and being out there on your own is part of what the females are looking for,” lead author Rob Heinsohn, a conservation biologist at the Australian National University in Canberra, told Science News.
Read more in Science News, and watch the video below.
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Metals at mine sites can be a risk for migratory birds, but it’s hard to assess how much of a risk it is without understanding what “normal” metal levels are in the birds. In a study in the Wildlife Society Bulletin, researchers examined metal concentrations in waterfowl in western Montana, where pollution from a mining pit has resulted in fatalities in the past.
Other articles look at attitudes toward wild pigs, Indigenous knowledge and wildlife management, predicting Texas horned lizard (Phrynosoma cornutum) size using scat, and more.
The September issue of the Wildlife Society Bulletin is now available.
The Wildlife Society recognizes Seth Magle and Jeannine Fleegle for their outstanding contributions to the wildlife profession.
Both members earned the 2023 Special Recognition Service Award. The award honors individuals or groups who have made a contribution, either in the long or short term, to the wildlife profession, wildlife conservation, management or science, or to a specific species, community, ecosystem or region.
Seth Magle, the founder and executive director for the Urban Wildlife Information Network, a global monitoring survey for multiple cities around the world, has contributed to the field of wildlife ecology and urban ecology.
“Dr. Magle’s visionary leadership and tireless dedication have had a profound impact on the study of urban wildlife and have led to significant advancements in our understanding of the ecological and societal implications of urbanization on wildlife, especially with regard to how landscape level factors among cities influence biodiversity within a city,” said TWS member Mason Fidino, an ecologist at the Lincoln Park Zoo, in his nomination letter.
Data from the Urban Wildlife Information Network that Magle has helped spearhead has helped researchers public more than 30 peer-reviewed articles. Not only has Magle grown the UWIN network to almost 50 participating cities around the world, but he has contributed to public outreach and education about urban wildlife by partnering with local communities, schools and other organizations.
Jeannine Fleegle also won the Special Recognition Service Award for her work on white-tailed deer research and management over the last two decades. She has specifically been dedicated to chronic wasting disease management and public outreach about the disease.
It’s not easy to specialize in a disease that’s so widespread and hard to stop from spreading. “A lot of people who work with it or have had to deal with it kind of throw up their hands up, like I can’t do anything, why bother?” said Fleegle, a wildlife biologist with the Pennsylvania Game Commission. “And I said, no. I can’t do that. I won’t do that.”
Her work has spanned from Minnesota to Pennsylvania. In Minnesota, she developed the Department of Natural Resource’s statewide CWD surveillance program from 2002 to 2004. “I basically started from the ground up,” Fleegle said. “And I’m really I am really proud of that, because when I look at the program that Minnesota has now, it’s still there.”
In Pennsylvania, she continues to communicate to the public about CWD through presentations, media interviews, brochures, magazine articles and more.
Fleegle has “extraordinary skill in communicating complex science problems or ideas to the general public,” wrote TWS member Duane Diefenbach, leader of the Pennsylvania Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit with the U.S. Geological Survey, in a nomination letter. “Moreover, she conveys information in an interesting way.”
Fleegle was surprised when she learned she received the award, thinking she was opening an email about someone she nominated earning one. “I had no clue that I had been nominated,” she said. “For me, it doesn’t say as much about me as it says about what other people think of my work. That’s really where I’m so touched—that other people think I do good work.”
In the wake of Hurricane Idalia, flamingos are showing up in unlikely places—as far-flung as Pennsylvania and Ohio. Biologists believe the tropical birds were probably flying between Cuba and Mexico when high winds sent them off course to a variety of states, including Alabama, Texas, Virginia and the Carolinas.
“This is jaw-dropping how many flamingos have been seen,” Scot Duncan, executive director of Alabama Audubon, told the Washington Post.
The Bureau of Land Management recently laid out revisions to its oil and gas regulations in a new proposed rule, including updates to long outdated monetary policies and new leasing practices aimed at reducing conflict with wildlife and their habitat.
“The rule would help steer oil and gas development away from important wildlife habitat or cultural sites, and instead toward lands with existing infrastructure or high production potential,” The Department of the Interior said in a press release.
Along with requiring a new $5 per acre Express of Interest (EOI) fee established in the Inflation Reduction Act, the proposed rule also provides a new approach to deciding which lands oil and gas companies can lease. An EOI is an early process where oil and gas companies request certain tracts of land be open to leasing. The BLM wants to give preference to leasing land that’s near existing oil and gas infrastructure, encouraging expansion of pre-existing operations.
The BLM sets a new precedent in this proposed rule by stressing the importance of avoiding conflict with wildlife habitat including wetlands and connectivity areas when leasing tracts of land in an EOI.“ Giving preference to leasing outside of important wildlife habitat would help to ensure that important seasonal ranges remain connected and that species can access important resources undeterred as they move across the landscape,” the BLM wrote in their notice of the proposed rule.
The proposal also completely prevents oil and gas development on national wildlife refuges, including restrictions on drilling on any lands that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages. The BLM states in its proposed rule that it won’t consider any EOI overlapping with a national wildlife refuge. The BLM and USFWS would work in cooperation with state wildlife agencies to determine important wildlife habitats that should be protected or closed off to new oil and gas development. However, the Secretary of the Interior will directly approve drilling operations, making drilling on national wildlife refuges possible on a case-by-case basis.
The BLM rulemaking also would raise the prices of lease bonds, royalty rates, minimum bids, and rental rates for oil and gas companies looking to develop projects on federal lands. The rule is also intended to increase returns to the public and disincentivize speculators or less responsible actors.
The recent proposal raises bonding rates, which have been the same for 60 years, from a $10,000 minimum to $150,000, disincentivizing future speculative leasing, a practice in which oil and gas companies lease public lands with little intention to develop them, often to the detriment of wildlife habitat and outdoor recreationists.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021 used $4.7 billion of taxpayer funds to plug up orphaned wells on federal lands. The proposed rule would encourage more responsible oil and gas development and place less burden on taxpayers resulting from reclamation efforts.
Spiders that eat insects living in mercury-contaminated waters can pass the harmful chemical along to land animals that consume them. Researchers recently studied long-jawed spiders (Tetragnathidae spp.), which live on shorelines along two tributaries that flow to Lake Superior. They also looked at dragonflies and yellow perch fish (Perca flavescens) in the area. They found that when sediment was contaminated with mercury, like mercury from industrial pollution, it biomagnified up the food chain.
The findings suggest spiders could be a key link between contamination in waterways and animal that live nearby by passing the mercury on to the bats, birds and amphibians that eat them.
The United States Geological Survey will be revamping the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin. The Wildlife Society previously signed on to a letter supporting $55 million in funding for the first phase of renovations.
“The National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) continues to deliver impactful science on emerging diseases; for example, the Center produced rapid assessments of the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission from humans to wildlife that were instrumental in the development of interventions to protect people and wildlife populations,” TWS stated in its letter.
The NWHC is the only national center dedicated to wildlife disease detection, control, and prevention. The Center researches and investigates prevalent and emerging wildlife diseases as well as mass wildlife mortality from disease outbreaks. They develop national strategies to prevent and contain emerging wildlife diseases. Recently, the NWHC was on the front lines of detecting and controlling the ongoing avian influenza outbreak.
In its Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), the United States Geological Survey cited overcrowded laboratories and administrative areas as one of the reasons for the necessary renovations. They also emphasized a need for additional space for animal care and research as well as updated technology for biosafety engineering and equipment. “The NHWC needs a modern facility with sufficient space and modern technologies to support their mission-essential research,” the USGS wrote in its statement.
The increasing prevalence of wildlife disease adds to the urgency of renovations and updates to the NHWC. Wildlife diseases can eliminate wildlife populations, damage ecosystems, kill livestock, and threaten human health. As scientists predict more wildlife diseases will emerge and outbreaks will spread globally, overcrowded laboratories and outdated technology will hold back the frontlines from handling these issues in the U.S.
Going forward, TWS has advocated in testimony to the House and Senate Interior Appropriations subcommittees for the remaining $82 million of the renovation budget to be approved to ensure the USGS can complete all needed renovations to the NWHC. The new facility opening date is dependent on two key factors: the progress of the EIS process and the allocation of funds by Congress.
A new U.S. Agriculture Department grant will fund researchers to test wildlife for the presence of the virus that causes COVID-19. The $4.5 million grant will allow researchers to collect samples from 58 species—chipmunks, squirrels, mice, moose (Alces alces), raccoons (Procyon lotor), wolverines (Gulo gulo), three deer species and several bat species—to monitor potential spillback to humans.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus has already been documented in some wildlife in the U.S., including white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). Researchers worry that could lead to new variants that could reach humans as well as agricultural animals.
“Overall, our goal is to safeguard the health of humans, wildlife and agricultural systems,” said Kurt Vandegrift, associate research professor of biology at Penn State and principal investigator of the project.
As climate change continues, some butterflies may have better luck than others. Wing size and color may give some a boost but cause problems for others.
For a study published in the Journal of Animal Ecology, researchers looked at traits that may make some butterflies more susceptible to heat. They went to Panama, where some 2,000 butterfly species range widely in size and color.
“For insects affected by climate change, if we can make these predictions, we can manage for species before they’re lost,” said Esme Ashe-Jepson, a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge.
Ashe-Jepson wanted to learn more about the effects of climate change on insects. Most research focuses on larger animals, but insects make up most of life on earth, and they provide crucial services, including pollinating crops.
But because there are so many insects, Ashe-Jepson figured she’d better focus on one type. “Butterflies are a great group,” she said. “In thinking about why insects are so understudied and underappreciated, this is one group of insects that completely breaks that trend. They have been inspiring artists and poets for millennia.”
Ashe-Jepson and her colleagues went into the research without much knowledge of butterflies in the tropics at all. They weren’t even sure what plants the various caterpillars feed on. As a result, they set out to look at observable traits—wing color and size. They wanted to determine if different species would sit and endure the temperature—thermal tolerance—or escape to shady patches—thermal buffering. Both strategies have costs and benefits, she said.
To conduct the research, the team of biologists, including a local expert, ran through the jungle with giant butterfly nets to catch as many species as they could. “We’d sneak up on them before they noticed so they wouldn’t start flying away in response to us, which would artificially alter their body temperature,” Ashe-Jepson said. Once the researchers got a butterfly in the net, the team noted both its body temperature and the air temperature.
The researchers found that dark butterflies had the best luck—they were better at both thermal buffering and tolerance. Size also mattered. Large butterflies were better at thermal buffering, or escaping to cooler areas, but they weren’t as good at thermal tolerance.
A Melanis pixe butterfly. Butterflies with darker wings appeared to do better at temperature tolerance and finding shady areas.Credit: Esme Ashe-Jepson
When Ashe-Jepson looked at the butterflies’ taxonomy, she also uncovered some consistent patterns. For example, those in the family Pieridae, which include cabbage white butterflies, seemed to do great at thermoregulating and tolerating temperatures. “But what’s a little worrying about them is most pest butterflies come from that family,” she said.
On the other hand, those in the family Lycaenidae, which usually have small, bright iridescent wings, were the worst at thermal buffering and had low thermal tolerance.
While people can’t change the ability of certain butterflies to thermoregulate, managers can ensure they have shady areas, Ashe-Jepson said. That’s especially true in places where habitat fragmentation is particularly a problem. It could be a pretty cost-effective approach to aiding butterflies through climate change, she said.
“My take-home message from this entire project is, if we can just maintain microclimates, for example by planting or protecting trees that create shade, butterflies and other insects will be better able to cope with climate change” Ashe-Jepson said.
