biodiversity

Helping people understand coyotes

Stan Gehrt has recent reason to howl. The scientist in CFAES’ School of Environment and Natural Resources, who has pioneered research on urban coyotes, was featured in the March edition of the National Wildlife Federation’s Ranger Rick magazine for children (“Coyotes in the City”); and was quoted in Newsweek magazine on Feb. 14 and April 26 (“Are Canada Goose Jackets Inhumane? The Controversy Explained” and “Coyotes Are New York’s Newest Immigrants,” respectively).

More information on Gehrt’s work is available on the website for his Chicago-based Urban Coyote Research Project.

Also check out CFAES’ Urban Coyotes: Conflict and Management fact sheet. (Photo: Getty Images.)

What do Americans think about wildlife?

By Mary Guiden, Science Writer and Senior Public Relations Specialist, Colorado State University

Abundant and healthy wildlife populations are a cultural and ecological treasure in the United States. Over time, however, decisions about how agencies manage wildlife have become highly contested: How should managers handle human-wildlife conflict, endangered species restoration, and predator control?

A new 50-state study called America’s Wildlife Values—the largest and first of its kind—describes individuals’ values toward wildlife across states. Leading the study were researchers from Colorado State and Ohio State, including Alia Dietsch and Jeremy Bruskotter of CFAES’ School of Environment and Natural Resources.

Continue reading What do Americans think about wildlife? →

Student club watching, protecting campus birds

“A club at The Ohio State University is working to tackle the problem of birds colliding head-on with building windows.” So begins our latest CFAES Story, which features CFAES’ Ornithology Club and was written by Yianni Sarris. Sarris is an Ohio State political science major and a student writer with CFAES’ Marketing and Communications unit.

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‘So many snakes!’—and that’s a good thing

If you’ve been to the Lake Erie islands lately, you’ve probably seen Lake Erie watersnakes, which were brought back from the brink of extinction—to the benefit of the islands’ natural systems—by scientists and volunteers with CFAES’ Stone Laboratory.

Learn more in the video above and in our latest CFAES Story.

Study: Artificial light harms ecosystem health

Artificial light at night isn’t just a health problem for those of us sitting in bed scrolling through Instagram instead of hitting the sack — it hurts entire outdoor ecosystems.

When the critters that live in and around streams and wetlands are settling into their nighttime routines, streetlights and other sources of illumination filter down through the trees and into their habitat, monkeying with the normal state of affairs, according to new research led by CFAES scientist Mažeika Sullivan.

Continue reading Study: Artificial light harms ecosystem health →

How to keep urban coyotes a respectful distance

What not to do if you see a coyote? Run back into your house, says CFAES scientist Stan Gehrt, an expert on urban coyotes, in a recent article in The Atlantic. “Over time, when you do that, coyotes learn they can make people disappear,” he says.

The article features a stylin’ way to coyote proof your dog (not shown). Read the full story. Then learn about Gehrt’s coyote research.

Insect diversity in urban landscapes

CFAES’s Department of Entomology hosts talks by two of its graduate students starting at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 12: “Lady Beetles in the City: How Does Urban Habitat Management Affect the Abundance and Diversity of Native and Exotic Lady Beetles?” by Denisha Parker; and “The Impacts of Soil Legacy and Management on Biodiversity and Biocontrol Services in Urban Landscapes” by Emily Sypolt.

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Giving thanks for a most interesting bird

“The great size and beauty of the Wild Turkey, its value as a delicate and highly prized article of food, and the circumstance of its being the origin of the domestic race … render it one of the most interesting of the birds indigenous to the United States of America.” — naturalist and artist John James Audubon in his classic Birds of America, published in sections between 1827 and 1838.

Read Audubon’s full entry on the turkey.

Get the inside, outsized story on how Audubon’s epic tome came to be — what’s a double-elephant folio? — in writer Erin McCarthy’s “The Book So Big It Needed Its Own Furniture” published by Mental Floss. (Image by Audubon from the book, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.)