May. 23, 2022
Wood turtles are one of the most endangered freshwater turtles in North America. To ensure a future for these reptiles, scientists first need to understand where wood turtles remain and how many are...
Sep. 20, 2021
Find out how Smithsonian researchers are using camera traps to study bobcats on the Northern Great Plains.
Sep. 10, 2021
Sometimes, science stinks — literally! In Montana, researchers are setting up “scat traps" to attract swift foxes, so they can learn from the droppings the foxes leave behind.
Jan. 12, 2021
Cuckoos are extremely secretive birds and difficult to spot. Researchers are developing a tool, using remote sound recorders and artificial intelligence, to help detect them.
Jan. 07, 2021
In the midst of the pandemic, as the story goes, a team set out to bring swift foxes back to a land they had disappeared from more than 50 years ago. Learn more in this update from landscape...
Nov. 09, 2020
Spending your days with a herd of bison is an idyllic way to pass a summer. I would know, because most of my days from May to August were spent observing the behaviors of a herd of about 300 bison in...
Sep. 11, 2020
Ecologist Andy Boyce discovered a lobster fossil near his field site in Montana, evidence that long ago this area of the Northern Great Plains was once the floor of a shallow sea.
Jul. 02, 2020
At their field site in north-central Montana, ecologist Andy Boyce and intern Andrew Dreelin are learning more about how black-tailed prairie dogs change the landscape and support the many species...
Apr. 30, 2020
New research from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and Shenandoah National Park finds that invasive species of forest insects and pathogens contributed to about a quarter of the tree...
Apr. 24, 2020
Landscape ecologist Hila Shamon lives and works in Montana, where she studies the prairie and its wildlife. Over the last year and a half, she has been working with Fort Belknap Indian Reservation...
Apr. 01, 2020
Smithsonian ecologists worked with American Prairie Reserve staff to fit bison with GPS ear tags. Their movement study will help researchers understand how bison move and use the landscape at the...
Feb. 12, 2020
Across Laikipia County in central Kenya, endangered species like the reticulated giraffe, Grevy’s zebra and African wild dog, coexist alongside rapidly growing numbers of people and livestock. A...
Oct. 22, 2019
Long-billed curlew are shorebirds that spend their summers breeding in the grasslands of Montana. Smithsonian ecologists are equipping them with GPS trackers to learn more about their movements.
Oct. 17, 2019
In September 2019, the Smithsonian scientists launched Snapshot USA, a nationwide camera trap survey effort in the hopes of capturing the first-ever “snapshot” of wildlife across the U.S.
Oct. 04, 2019
In Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, eastern coyotes join the ranks of top predators, along with black bears and foxes. Still, these clever canines face threats in their native habitat. Using GPS collars...
Aug. 12, 2019
How can you begin to study something as vast and diverse as the American prairie? Find out in the latest blog from landscape ecologist Hila Shamon who is stationed at American Prairie Reserve in...
Jul. 31, 2019
All seasons on the prairie are special. But spring is just a little more special than the rest, as every day birds return for summer breeding season.
Jul. 18, 2019
Kristina Anderson-Teixeira—a forest ecologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s (SCBI) Conservation Ecology Center and at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s Center for...
May. 08, 2019
Landscape ecologist Hila Shamon spent the first two weeks of April working with American Prairie Reserve to place GPS collars on plains bison.
Apr. 19, 2019
The Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute's dedicated staff are at the forefront of shaping the world’s understanding of animals and their habitats. Wildlife conservation is...
Feb. 08, 2019
Conservation ecologist Andy Boyce lives on the American Prairie Reserve in Phillips County, Montana. It's rugged, it's wild and it's one of the only places left on Earth where scientists have the...
Feb. 08, 2019
Ecologist Bill McShea shares how the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s collaboration with American Prairie Reserve will help scientists better understand how changes to the grasslands...
May. 04, 2018
What is causing the disappearance of reticulated giraffes across the plains where they were once plentiful? Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute scientists and partners are on the case.
Mar. 27, 2018
Smithsonian scientists and partners have developed a mathematical model to help understand why certain landscapes are especially vulnerable to losing their forests and the species that rely on them,...
Mar. 13, 2018
Scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute have found that poaching is an emerging crisis for Asian elephants in Myanmar. They published their findings March 13 in PLOS ONE.