Wildlife

Get your hands dirty during “Big Worming Week”

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Now that we’ve let you in on the big invasive worm secret, we’re letting you know how to help. Great Lakes Worm Watch is hosting the fourth annual Big Worming Week, which started Sunday and will run through Oct. 2nd. Things started in the Hartley Nature Center where the Worm Watch team taught the public how to sample plots and collect valuable data on worms.

The team offers workshops all year to prepare folks to help out during Big Worming Week.  While they encourage and will accept samples year-round, Big Worming Week minimizes the data’s seasonal variability and makes comparing the results easier. In addition to workshops telling you how to be a scientist, there’s a game show about worms, tools to identify worms, books about worms and other wormy things.

Wildlife

Lake Erie water snake slithers off the endangered species list

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A nonpoisonous Lake Erie water snake is no longer listed as a federally endangered species. The snake’s numbers plunged as more people settled Lake Erie’s western islands, according to the Toledo Blade. Populations rebounded after federal and state agencies protected inland and shoreline hibernation and breeding grounds. Earning federal protection in 1999, the water snake is the 23rd species to be delisted, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Wildlife

Great Lakes eels are a conservation challenge

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Something slithers beneath the surface of the Great Lakes and it’s not a sea lamprey.

It might look similar, but the mysterious American eel isn’t a sucker.

And it’s in trouble. Its population is decreasing dramatically and no one is sure why.

Wildlife
The 2011 winning Ohio Wildlife Legacy Stamp. Image: Ohio Department of Natural Resources

Spot. Snap. Stamp.

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If you live in Ohio and see a salamander scattering past, don’t scream and swat it. Shoot it, instead. With a camera, that is. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Third Annual Wildlife Legacy Stamp photo contest is underway. Focusing on a different animal each year, this contest hopes to promote the diversity of Ohio’s wildlife.

Wildlife

Great Lakes SmackDown! Terrestrial Terror

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By Alice Rossignol and Rachael Gleason

Welcome to the Great Lakes SmackDown! Terrestrial Terror

Which terrestrial invasive species is the most ecologically destructive to the Great Lakes region? We want you to tell us. We’ll follow the NCAA tournament and pit 16 of the most formidable terrestrial invasive species against each other in “land brawls.” We also threw in a few aquatic wildcard species. We’ll ask biologists, resource managers, invasive species experts and Echo readers to weigh in on each battle.

Wildlife

Great Lakes trumpeter swans are back

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It’s time to break out the brass band because trumpeter swans are back.

Standing up to 4-feet tall with up to an 8-foot wingspan, trumpeter swans are the largest waterfowl in North America. Their Great Lakes range includes: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, New York and Ontario.

Early settlers hunted these birds nearly to extinction in the 1800s — using them to make powder puffs and feathered hats.