Genetic diversity in animals and plants has declined globally over the past three decades, an analysis of more than 600 species has found. The research, published in the journal Nature, found declines in two-thirds of the populations studied, but noted that urgent conservation efforts could halt or even reverse genetic diversity losses. Dozens of scientists […]
Tag: Prairie Dog
Endangered Cloned Ferret Gives Birth to Healthy Kits
A significant advancement in wildlife Conservation has been achieved with the birth of two healthy kits from Antonia, a cloned black-footed ferret. Antonia’s existence traces back to Willa, a genetically diverse ferret whose genetic material has been preserved since 1988 at the San Diego Zoo‘s Frozen Zoo. Cloning Willa’s cells has offered hope for increasing […]
The Forest Service Gets a Slap on Their Prairie Dog Killing Plan
On the Thunder Basin National Grassland of northeastern Wyoming, the livestock industry has been pursuing an aggressive campaign to expand poisoning and shooting of prairie dogs. And in 2020, the Forest Service gave them a plan amendment that radically expanded prairie dog killing, and eliminated a special designation of a Black-footed Ferret Reintroduction Area to […]
New trackers bring prairie dogs’ little-known underground life to light
To say tracking prairie dogs is difficult would be an understatement. The animals spend most of their time in burrows. Since conventional GPS collars don’t function underground, the movements and interactions of prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) have remained notoriously elusive to the researchers who study them. What do they do? How do they move within […]
Interesting Animals to Watch at the Zoo
Have you ever visited a zoo only to find that all the animals are sleeping or inside their shelters? Visiting early in the morning is a good way to help ensure the animals are active and awake, but nothing will guarantee active animals. However, no matter when you visit or what the weather is like, […]
Ferruginous Hawk on Rat Farm Road
Our first Christmas Bird Count will be coming up on December 14th in Fall River Mills so I thought I would take a drive up there to see what I could see as the day approaches. Rat Farm Road is a long gravel road leading from the small town of McArthur, through some sage/prairie habitat […]
Long winter’s nap
Grab forty winks. Saw logs. For a species that’s habitually short on shut-eye, we humans sure have come up with myriad ways to talk about it. We also spend a lot of time and money studying sleep, or the lack thereof. Yet, in spite of decades of inquiry, researchers still don’t have a good fix […]
Wildlife Slaughter in South Dakota
Imagine my amazement this morning to see a Google advertisement inviting me to hunt wildlife in South Dakota – and I live in Switzerland! It seems that South Dakota is being promoted as the ideal tourist destination for wildlife hunting. So I clicked on the advertisement and within a few minutes realized that wildlife hunting […]