Wildlife
Commentary: Bullfrogs are my favorite band
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Bullfrogs are hard to spot, even though they’re loud and large. Using environmental DNA can be helpful in locating and understanding elusive creatures like bullfrogs.
Commentary
April: Hidden Migrations
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Animal migrations are among nature’s most stirring spectacles. So why do so few of us know about spectacular migrations that happen every spring, right in our own back yards? Because these are migrations of fish, out of sight beneath the surfaces of our rivers and streams.
Wildlife
DNR keeps people guessing on social media
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After a four-year hiatus, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has revived its popular Facebook series “IdentiFriday.” IdentiFriday asks participants to guess the species of a plant or animal based on a small portion of a picture each Friday. The correct answer is then posted with the full photo later in the day.
Wildlife
The pandemic that closed the U.S./Canadian border to people may have opened it to the invasive sea lamprey
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Great Lakes invasive species cling to shipments and navigate canals to migrate, but one aquatic invader – sea lamprey – benefitted from border closures instead. During 2020, 93 Great Lakes tributaries and 11 standing bodies of water were scheduled for chemical treatments for lamprey, but only 26 tributaries and six standing bodies of water were completed.
Fish
Streamside incubator could help restore grayling to Michigan
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A new project hopes to find the best design for an incubator to produce the fish that hasn’t been in Michigan waters since 1936. It is part of a multi-step effort by the Michigan Arctic Grayling Initiative, a collaboration of more than 40 partners to make the fish self-sustaining in the Great Lakes.
Wildlife
High tech surveillance tracks endangered flying squirrels
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Ultrasonic acoustic detectors are being used to detect and identify the northern flying squirrel that is endangered in Pennsylvania.
Homepage Featured
Lost and found: native aquatic plant in Ohio
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A scientist may have found a native aquatic plant in Ohio that was once thought to be wiped out in the state. The watermilfoil species has not been seen in Ohio in at least 20 years.
Homepage Featured
Invasive species now called spongy moth
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The bothersome gypsy moth will now be known as the spongy moth. The Entomological Society of America made the change because the word “gypsy” is considered a derogatory slur against the Romani people. The word was dropped from its list of common names last July and the new name was just announced.
Wildlife
Suburban Michigan aquarium an ark for Florida corals
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In a small back room of an aquarium in a Michigan suburban mall lies a tank of endangered corals native to places more than a thousand miles away.
Wildlife
Ecologist ponders fairness to wildlife and the thoughts of moose
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John Vucetich has studied wolves and moose for over 20 years on the pristine, isolated island in Lake Superior. He leads the island National Park’s wolf-moose project.