Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/tag/wildlife/page/3/)
Backyard habitats benefit both wildlife and the people making them. For wildlife, they provide food and a safe place to nest. People benefit because of the positive feelings associated with added greenery and the presence of wildlife.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Ultrasonic acoustic detectors are being used to detect and identify the northern flying squirrel that is endangered in Pennsylvania.
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.
Cougar habitat in North America has been shrinking due to development, land fragmentation and “human-induced mortality,” wildlife researchers warn.
A decade after the death of bestselling author and conservationist, Sigurd F. Olson, his son found some of his loose-leaf journals in an unplugged refrigerator. The journals have since been turned into a book that will be published in June.
A new approach to combating white-nose syndrome involves constructing ventilation systems in bat dwellings.