New book digs into Indigenous cuisine through archaeology, culture and ecology
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By Isabella Figueroa
In a new book, archeologists who study past societies of the Great Lakes and Midwest agree “you are what you eat,” but they say there’s a lot more to it than that. It’s also how we eat: the ways we “prepare, cook and consume” those foods are influenced by our history, family and natural environment.The book’s essays use the concept of cuisine to go beyond ingredients when studying thousand-year old foodways in regions that now make up Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and other states.
Wildlife
White throated sparrow takes first place in fattest bird competition
By Clara Lincolnhol
A very round white throated sparrow is the heavyweight champion of the 2025 Wisconsin Fat Bird Week contest. The bird, coined the “spherical white-throated sparrow,” won by a landslide, receiving 72% of the vote in the final round against its nearest competitor, a “rotund ruby-throated hummingbird.”
Wildlife
Skyline’s lost salamanders: What’s in a name?
By Ashley Han and Olivia Watters
Can two animals look the same, act the same, even share a mother and yet be two different species? You can find an answer in a very particular kind of salamander which resides in the Skyline High School wetlands: the LJJ unisexual hybrid salamanders. These salamanders are akin to legend in this Ann Arbor school’s halls. Ask around and you’ll get a dozen different answers to what these creatures are, why they matter –and where they’ve gone.
Wildlife
Skyline’s lost salamanders: Forgotten wetlands and the fight for restoration
By Ashley Han and Olivia Watters
Every year, Skyline High School students go salamander hunting. AP Environmental Sciences (APES) students in this Ann Arbor school have heard too much about the school wetlands’ rare salamanders to not investigate for themselves. When construction for Skyline broke ground in 2004, it revealed a rare population of LJJ unisexual hybrid salamanders – first incorrectly thought to be silvery salamanders.