WXPR Wildlife Matters

You never know who, or what, you'll run into out in the woods.

In today's Wildlife Matters, we're talking biodiversity.Northwoods Wildlife Center Executive Director Bryon Black shares what it looks like in the Northwoods.

A chance encounter with a common bird in an unexpected place inspired the topic for this week's Wildlife Matters with the Masked Biologist.

Inspired by a Curious North question, this week's Wildlife Matters finds the Masked Biologist pondering what might be causing a snapping or popping sound in and around lily pads. The answer may surprise you. If you weren't already aware, WXPR has a great feature called Curious North. You can submit your questions or ideas you have about a variety of topics here in the Northwoods, and staff and feature writers (like myself) help answer them. Today's episode of Wildlife Matters was inspired by a Curious North question: What is the snapping sound that seems to go with lily pads in lakes? As a wildlife biologist, I tend to focus more on terrestrial habitats, as that is where most of my focal species tend to live. However, shorelines are an extremely important habitat for a wide variety of wildlife, especially amphibians, waterfowl and furbearers. To know aquatic plant species is to be able to analyze water quality and wetland health. So, while I admit I am not great at deep water habitats,

There seem to be more red foxes than usual this year across northern Wisconsin. In this week's Wildlife Matters, the Masked Biologist takes an in-depth look at these fascinating canines. Recently a colleague and I were out in a boat doing a survey when we saw some activity on shore. We moved in for a closer look and were treated to a show. A red fox was raiding a snapping turtle nest, carrying off one egg at a time, caching them in different locations nearby. When finished, the fox used its nose to fill the turtle nest back in and trotted away seeming pretty satisfied with a job well done. Foxes are the smallest canines in North America. Here in the Northwoods we have two kinds of foxes. The red fox is the more commonly observed of the two. It likes forest with lots of rabbits and rodents, and open areas such as meadows, hayfields, pastures and marshes. Most of us picture a bright, rusty red or almost burnt orange fox with a white throat, black legs and a white-tipped tail. In fact,

One of the benefits of having experts like the Masked Biologist as a WXPR contributor is that you get the latest breaking wildlife news, good or bad. Unfortunately, this week's Wildlife Matters has some bad news, and the Masked Biologist is asking you to keep your eyes open for birds with their eyes pasted shut. Passion for natural resources can be an emotional roller coaster. You can get some good news one day, bad news the next. Lately, it seems more bad news than good, seeming to last longer. We hear bad news about white nose syndrome wiping out bats, for years, then get a glimpse of good news that maybe some bats are showing signs of resistance or adaptation. That's the way it goes anymore. Unfortunately, I have more bad news today. There is a new bird disease. It is crippling and so far 100% fatal. It is very new to us here in Wisconsin, in fact this may be the first you are hearing of it, but it will not be the last. It seemed to have started out, in all places, in the Washington

Are we ready to give our children the tools they will need to face environmental challenges in the future, or are the tools we've always used good enough for them? The Masked Biologist tackles the toolbox question in this week's Wildlife Matters. I learned to rebuild a car engine when I was five. My father, in addition to working a couple of jobs, had a vehicle repair business. If I wanted to spend time with him, I had to be out in the shop evenings and weekends. His interest became mine. When I was about ten years old, my dad gave me my first toolbox, a big rusty one. It was one of his first toolboxes when he started working on cars. I sanded it down and painted it red, and loaded it with any tools he would give me. I hauled that toolbox with me everywhere I went for over thirty years. When my oldest son turned ten, I gave him that toolbox. I told him where it came from, that he was the third generation to get it, and that he could make it his own just like I did. He said he wanted to

Here in Wisconsin, almost all our snakes are non-venomous, and rely on deceptive defense measures to scare off potential threats. The eastern hognose is one such snake and has slithered onto center stage in this week's Wildlife Matters. Last month I came across an article about eastern hognose snakes that immediately captured my interest. Snakes tend to cause concern and fear in many people, and understandably so. Their appearance, movements, and behavior are entirely different from ours, and from many of the birds and mammals average people enjoy. Eastern hognose snakes will never win any popularity contests, or beauty contests, but they might win awards for best dramatic actor. Hognose snakes get their name from their upturned snouts, and like hogs, they use them to root around in soft soil in search of food, especially their favorite—toads. They are thick-bodied snakes that can reach lengths of two to four feet, depending on where you are in North America. They can get quite large

In this episode of Wildlife Matters, the Masked Biologist looks at a news story from the west coast that involved bears, dogs, people, and at least one bad decision. If you were watching television or cruising social media at all last week, you may have seen a story and video clip about a teenage girl who drove off a bear that was engaged in a scuffle with her dogs. Now I don't normally tear stories from the headlines, but when I saw the commentary from reporters and comments from the public at large, I felt that maybe this would be an opportunity to address the topic of intentionally engaging with bears. If you haven't seen the video yet, I'll describe what I saw. In California, a brown bear with two cubs were walking along the top of a block fence between yards, walking toward a house where there was a camera, maybe a security camera as it is fixed and shooting from above. Multiple dogs come running from the house barking at the bears, sending the cubs running back the way they came.

Although still somewhat unusual, sightings of sandhill cranes in fields, meadows and wetlands of the Northwoods are increasingly common. Sandhill cranes are currently a nongame species, but could that change? Generally speaking, sandhill cranes are a familiar sight—and sound—in much of Wisconsin. They are less concentrated in the Northwoods, but you can find them in rural areas as well as locations like Woodboro Lakes, Thunder Marsh, Powell Marsh, and many shallow wetlands and wild rice beds. You can usually see them in larger groups in the early spring and again in fall, while in the process of migrating. This time of year, you can see them in smaller family groups. They are usually out in pastures, grasslands, wetlands and farm fields foraging for seeds and other fodder. Sometimes they will eat berries, even smaller live prey like frogs, insects, snakes, and small mammals. I have even had first-hand accounts of cranes raiding other birds' nests in spring and eating eggs or nestling

In recent days, a report titled “Conserving and Restoring America the Beautiful” was released in response to one of President Biden's first Executive Orders. The Masked Biologist pulls this report apart and shares some highlights in this week's Wildlife Matters. Conserving and Restoring America the Beautiful is a brief but important document. It is a preliminary report to the National Climate Task Force from the US Departments of the Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, and the Council on Environmental Quality. This report was triggered by Executive Order 14008 titled Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, signed January 27, 2021 to kick off a government-wide endeavor prioritizing clean energy, economic recovery and job creation while attempting to turn the tide of climate change. This is a very brief report, only 24 pages including endnotes. However, there is a lot of content. I thought I would call attention to the highlights most pertinent to us here in the Northwoods. A phrase

A common resident of the Northwoods, the porcupine is often the source of much frustration and consternation for forest managers and homeowners. The Masked Biologist wants to help you get to know the porcupine and maybe share some tips or tricks to reduce porcupine damage in this week's Wildlife Matters. On a recent family outing, we noticed that wildlife is on the move taking advantage of what's shaped up to be an early spring. We also noticed that one animal that seemed to be bad at safely crossing roads was the porcupine. Porcupines are the second largest rodent in North America, the beaver being the largest. A full grown adult porcupine can reach 30 inches long and weigh 30 pounds. There are 27 varieties of porcupine located around the world. In Wisconsin, we only have one porcupine species—the North American Porcupine. The North American porcupine is unique among these subspecies because it is the only one in the world adapted to cold winter temperatures. In the wild, a porcupine

Do you have a favorite axiom or indicator that tells you spring has arrived? As usual, the Masked Biologist has much to say on the topic in this week's Wildlife Matters. Spring is a tricky season, no two ways about it. There is so much riding on the arrival of spring, and springtime conditions. Animal migration, emergence from winter dens, plants leaving dormancy all heavily impact the Northwoods. Timing is everything; birds have to nest at the right time—songbirds need copious insects to feed their young, eagles need open water to find fish, and owls need to be able to catch rodents. Humans, too, take a gamble on spring, although the stakes are less often life and death. We might plant out flowers too early or pull down our storm windows resulting in some cold, drafty nights. A notable exception is farmers, who stake their livelihood on the springtime weather. Here in Wisconsin, farming is crucial to our way of life, and one bad call in spring can be disastrous for one farmer or for

A strange otter encounter, not once but twice, resulted in a Curious North question for the Masked Biologist, who talks about the North American river otter in this week's Wildlife Matters. Today I have the pleasure of responding to an interesting inquiry that came in through Curious North here on WXPR. The listener wrote: “Twice this week I've heard really loud strident calls that sound almost but not quite like a raptor. Best described as chirping, but loud. Once near the Davenport street Wisconsin river bridge, the other by the Boyce drive bridge over the Pelican. The calls were echoing, as if under the bridge. I followed the sound with my binocular and eventually discovered River Otters! 2 each time. They seemed to enjoy the amplification and reverberation provided by the bridge. Here's my question. What are otters up to in mid-late March? What's the chirping all about? What type of den do otters use? What's their typical life cycle?“ What a great topic this is! I find river otters

One of the surest signs of spring here in the Northwoods is the arrival of flocks of Canada geese. You may not have given it much thought, this year or any year, but Aldo Leopold did. I thought I heard geese honking recently. Above the din of the noisy road outside, and the noisy family inside, I strained my ears to make sure. One of my boys saw me concentrating, appearing puzzled. “I think I hear geese” I told him. He replied that he had heard geese the day before. He attends Rhinelander High school, and last semester he had Aldo Leopold's Sand County Almanac as assigned reading for part of his virtual learning. I always make myself available to discuss any of his learning that he wished, but he had never really talked about the book. Until that day. He said “geese must have meant something important to Aldo Leopold. He mentions them a lot in his book.” I smiled and nodded. “Aldo Leopold focused intently on geese, in fact. He considered them the heralds of true spring.” Then my son

Different animals use different strategies to get through the winter. Some are more obvious than others. What about turtles? The Masked Biologist gives us a glimpse into their lives in this week's Wildlife Matters. Recently a large snapping turtle garnered some attention on social media by doing what turtles do—swimming around slowly under water. What was a little unusual, at least for the photographer, is that the turtle swam right under where they were standing—there were a couple of inches of clear ice between them. Every once in a while, it occurs to us to wonder what different animals do to survive the winter. I always tell people that animals have three options at their disposal, that they can use alone or in combination: migrate, hibernate, or mitigate. We probably know numerous animals that employ each strategy. It is well known that birds and some insects (like butterflies) migrate to warmer climes in the winter. Some make huge migrations, like arctic shorebirds that travel

News is just coming to light about a momentous wildlife management event from last December. It involves a little black-footed ferret named Elizabeth Ann, who along with a horse named Kurt, inspired this week's Wildlife Matters. Black-footed ferrets have had a long, slow road back from the brink of total extinction. They are victims of their prey; prairie dogs were the target of farmers and ranchers on the prairie shot them, poisoned them, and destroyed their colonies early in the last century. To make matters worse, an exotic disease plague suppressed their numbers even more. By some estimates, the populations of prairie dogs were reduced from their original levels by as much as 95%. Sadly, the loss of the prey resulted in the loss of their primary predator, which didn't have a suitable alternate prey species, and their numbers crashed. The ferret has the unfortunate distinction of being on the very first list of endangered species under the 1966 Endangered Species Preservation Act.

Did the recent cold snap help us in our fight against invasive species? The Masked Biologist says “yes and no” in this week's Curious North-inspired edition of Wildlife Matters. Recently, listener Bill Boldon went onto Curious North at WXPR and asked the question: Is the extended cold period long enough to help kill invasive species? Well, it depends. Like my dad used to say, “yes with an if or no with a but.” Invasive species are extremely adaptable by nature. They can move into an unoccupied niche and exploit it, and they lack the natural suppressive measures that would keep them in check in their home environment. Here in the Northwoods, our environment is fairly hostile toward otherwise aggressive invaders. That being said, we definitely have aquatic invaders that have pulled it off, like Chinese mystery snails, eurasion water milfoil, and zebra mussels—presumably by hitching a ride with unwitting boat owners and water recreation enthusiasts. Once they get here, there are some wins

If you've ever attended a public meeting to testify, you probably have noticed there is a broad range of testimony types that yield varying results. The Masked Biologist gives a few pointers for effective testimony. I have been watching a lot of meetings lately about natural resource issues, from wildlife hunting seasons to land acquisition or sale. Meetings have been a big part of my life in a career as a public servant, and it occurs to me that there are numerous simple ways that people can make their brief time testifying at the podium more effective. Here are a few. Avoid personal attacks – maybe a board member made a callous or personal remark or committed some other misstep. If you are calling attention to it as a point of order, that's one thing, but if you are looking like you have an axe to grind or are squeezing sour grapes, it will not score you points with the committee members. Remember, they are serving as elected representatives which means they are volunteering extra

Recently three dogs were poisoned, one fatally, while on a walk in the woods with their owners. Do you know what poison does to dogs and other animals? What can you do to protect your dogs? Is there any way you can help? The Masked Biologist tries to help with answers in this week's Wildlife Matters. In general, there are a couple of factors to keep in mind when killing an animal. First, the method of kill needs to minimize physical pain and suffering. Slitting an animal's throat might be effective, but it takes a while to bleed out where cervical dislocation (breaking the neck and severing the spinal cord) is much quicker. The second factor to consider is the mental anguish or emotional pain of the animal. If you have ever watched the life leave an injured animal, you know what I mean. They know they are dying and are unable to do anything about it. So, say you want to drown a trapped animal. In physiological terms, drowning may be a quick and humane way to kill an animal, but

The gray wolf has been on and off the federal endangered species list for years. Right now, it's off the list. But designation on the endangered species list can be politized, and politics have shifted. The Masked Biologist has more about what's happening with this year's wolf hunt. Last week was a crazy week. There was a lot going on, and everything felt rushed. In Washington DC, President Trump rushed to finish some things before he left office, and the same day, President Biden rushed to undo many of the things that his predecessor had done, or left undone. I led with talking about rushing and politics because, well, whether you realize it or not, natural resource management (at all levels) and political activity are inexorably interlinked. The unavoidable example of the day is the wolf hunting season. There is a rush to action that will impact wolf population management in the state. On November 3rd, 2020, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services finalized a rule that removed the gray

Have you thought about your funeral plans and their impact on the environment? It is not a pleasant topic, but it is one the Masked Biologist thinks deserves some extra thought, as he shares in this week's Wildlife Matters. There were times in my life when I would worry, I suppose somewhat oddly, about where everyone is supposed to be buried. I even remember thinking at one point, “Where does it end? How much land can we afford to make into cemeteries?” Everything else seems like it can change—forest to grassland, grassland to cropland, farm buildings to forest, but cemeteries stayed cemeteries. I think it started with my childhood on the outskirts of Milwaukee, where occasionally I would ride with my grandpa to deliver funeral flowers and casket sprays to enormous cemeteries as part of his floral business. As I got older, the reality and permanence of death sank in as we would go around the cemetery at our church and school to see which of us could find the grave marker with the

Do you have a role to play in the management of Wisconsin's elk? In this week's Wildlife Matters, the Masked Biologist makes the argument that you do, and gives us a quick peek at the state's elk management plan. I spent some time this new year's holiday trying to decide what to write about; as sometimes happens, in this case, an idea came to me from the headlines. The Wisconsin DNR has released its draft ten-year elk management plan. I thought I would take this opportunity to encourage you to get involved. After all, these are your elk, and as residents, citizens, hunters of Wisconsin this affects your recreation, your sportsman's dollars, your agricultural outputs, and many other facets of life. Now statistically, about a quarter of you listening right now are not aware that Wisconsin historically had elk, or that our state has reintroduced elk populations into two locations. I have done a couple of episodes about elk over the years, my most recent one about the ELF antenna array on

As the year comes to a close, the Masked Biologist takes a few minutes to ponder the fate of endangered species around the globe and closer to home. It's that time of year again. Every year, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources updates its red list, bringing the threatened and endangered species discussion to light. As stated on their website, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (known more simply as the IUCN) harnesses the experience, resources and reach of its more than 1,400 government and non-government organizations and the input of more than 17,000 experts, making them the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it. This group has been generating its red list since 1964, calling attention to the most imperiled living species around the globe each year. We're not just talking animals here—the list includes fungi and plant species as well. Along with the basic

What is a wildlife overpass, or underpass, and does Wisconsin have any? Why or why not? Valid questions, to be certain, and the Masked Biologist has a few answers for us. Recently I saw an article from Smithsonian Magazine about a wildlife overpass in Utah that is getting significant use from a variety of wildlife species much earlier than expected. This is cause for celebration for local wildlife and road authorities in Utah, for certain. It has gotten quite a bit of attention lately because this wildlife overpass has motion sensing cameras, usually called game cameras, trail cams or trap cameras, in place to record numbers and species of animals putting it to use. They put together a brief video and posted it on Facebook, titled Parley's Canyon Wildlife Overpass 2020 . You can watch a montage of creatures trotting across the overpass, some clearly less comfortable than others. Bobcats and coyotes, black bears, deer and moose make their way past the cameras—even porcupine and marmots

The fall colors may be past peak, but there is still a forest of color to view, you just have to know where to look. At least that's the case the Masked Biologist makes in this week's wildlife matters.

When you ask people what they like most about autumn, usually the beautiful fall colors are near the top of the list. In this episode of Wildlife Matters, the Masked Biologist examines the science behind the beauty of autumn leaf colors.

What started out as routine yardwork became a battle against unwelcome invaders. The Masked Biologist shares his tale of woe in this week's Wildlife Matters.

Perhaps you have heard of foxfire, an ethereal glow that appears in the deep dark woods late at night. The Masked Biologist casts some light on the subject in this week's Wildlife Matters.

As winter turns to spring, the Masked Biologist ties together constellations, spring, and the restoration of a wildlife species almost lost in this week's Wildlife Matters.

Saint Patrick's Day is almost here, so the Masked Biologist decided to make that holiday, and it's creatures, the focus of this week's Wildlife Matters.

There may be few images that inspire thoughts of strength, courage, and independence more than that of the majestic bald eagle soaring in the blue sky. Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, there are poachers that shoot and injure these birds and leave them to die. The Masked Biologist focuses on this topic in this week's Wildlife Matters.

Planting a tree is an act of love and sacrifice, knowing that depending on the species, you may not live long enough to see it reach maturity. In this episode of Wildlife Matters, the Masked Biologist reflects on the meaning behind the act of planting an oak tree.

No doubt we are in the middle of winter here in the Northwoods. At the same time, though, wildlife is looking forward to spring, and we can do some advance work to prepare for its arrival. The Masked Biologist shares some timely reminders in this week's Wildlife Matters.