Laser Focus on Sage Grouse
Researchers deploy cutting-edge technology to understand sage grouse and their habitat
Alarms wake the researchers, students, and technicians living in “Chicken Camp” at 3:45 a.m. this chilly April morning.
Bighorns Back from the Brink
Science and the recovery of an alpine specialist
It was shaping up to be a brutal winter.
Endlings
When the last passenger pigeon dies in the Cincinnati Zoo,
it is autumn,
a hot September day,
Staying Vigilant
Scientists are on the lookout for white-nose syndrome in Wyoming bats
Just miles from Devil’s Tower National Monument, the sun was dropping in the sky, and Ian Abernethy, lead vertebrate zoologist for the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database
Gone
A meditation on extinction
No more northern white rhinos live in the wild, and the three in captivity are too old to reproduce.
A Win-Win Situation
What’s good for sage grouse is good for landowners
I met Peter John Camino in the lobby of the Johnson County Public Library in Buffalo, Wyoming.
To the Bat Cave!
Conservationists turn to tourism to protect endangered bats
In the 1980s, more than 50,000 visitors toured Colossal Cave annually.
Lesson from a Tortoise
The Endangered Species Act works best when it’s never invoked
A first encounter with a gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) may not leave a lasting impression in one’s mind;
Case of the Missing Otters
UW researchers search for answers in the Green River Basin
Brady Godwin was on the lookout for river otters.
Amphibious Citizen Scientists
Wildlife managers turn to volunteers for help collecting hard-to-get data
I swished my dipnet through water and vegetation at the edge of the beaver pond, creating swirls of mud that obscured the bottom.
Conservation Easements in Wyoming
Each land trust, landowner, and conservation easement is one-of-a-kind
From verdant, low-elevation spreads in Wyoming’s northeast corner to high, dry western basins, private lands across the state are diverse.
Realtor Conservationists
Anticipating residential development to protect habitat
Each spring, just outside the town of Pinedale, Wyoming, some 5,000 mule deer slip through a 400-meter-wide gap between a housing development and Fremont Lake.
Carnivores, Not Condos
Ranches provide key wildlife passages between two protected ecosystems
On his ranch in Montana’s Ruby Valley, Rick Sandru can load hay and enjoy views of the snowcapped Tobacco Root Mountains as geese honk overhead.
Home Away from Home
How does conservation happen when the landowner lives elsewhere?
In Texas, authorities are dealing with a rash of timber thieves sneaking onto far-flung parcels of absentee-owned lands
Terror in the Backcountry
When wildlife comes face to face with winter sports enthusiasts
Imagine you’re out for a pleasant winter stroll and just about to bite into your turkey
The Feedgrounds Conundrum
Brucellosis spreads as Wyoming tries to protect livestock
As he does every single morning from November into April, Bondurant, Wyoming, rancher Kevin Campbell leads his two draft horses, Ed and Smoke, out of their pen and harnesses them to the hay wagon to feed elk.
A Brief History of Brucellosis
~1887 – British physician David Bruce investigated a mysterious illness that killed four soldiers on the Mediterranean island of Malta
The Big Picture
New research explores how critters fare in the oil and gas fields
Over the last 15 years, drilling has intensified in formerly remote wildlife habitats across the West.
Solutions: Sustaining Migrations
The journey from discovery to conservation in the Red Desert to Hoback mule deer corridor
It was going to be a routine mule deer study. The Bureau of Land Management contracted Hall Sawyer
Farming Sagebrush
Can fertilizer grow more deer on public lands?
Imagine the old green fertilizer spreader you haul out every spring to urge your tired lawn back to greenness, but much bigger and suspended from the bottom of a helicopter.