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A Story of Ural Owl Conservation Built by High School Students and Teachers The Ural Owl conservation project began in 2015 at the foothills of the Suzuka Mountains in northern Mie Prefecture, Japan. At that time, a teacher who was advising a high school nature research club at Yokkaichi Nishi High School heard the call of a Ural Owl (Strix uralensis) together with students one evening after the rain. Inspired by that moment, the teacher and students immediately began researc

Years ago, I received a call about a sick raccoon in a homeowner’s front yard. At the time, I was a relatively new wildlife rescuer, and this would be my first raccoon rescue. I was unprepared for what I encountered. The raccoon was in profound distress. His body was painfully emaciated, his fur patchy and unkempt, and his movements suggested significant neurological impairment. As I approached, the situation became even more devastating: he had gnawed at his own front leg un

“Hey folks, just wanted to give you a heads up about bear activity in the area. There’s been a black bear getting into food hangs up at one of the alpine lakes and we want to make sure campers are prepared with proper food storage.” The backpackers pause and turn; surprise etched across their faces. “Wow, really? On a trail this active I didn’t think there was any chance of bear activity.” Despite their surprise, the small group is not unprepared, and they explain that they h

I was talking with a friend the other day about our wildlife photography experiences. We were having a great chat about the places we had traveled to, and the wonderful things that we had seen. While in this conversation it dawned on me that my favorite stories involved extremely uncomfortable or darn right miserable living conditions. A Santa Rosa Island Fox near Skunk point. At one time the 86 square mile island only had fifteen of these endemic foxes left in existence. The

In southeastern Ohio, between one and two hours from Columbus, sit three tracts of non-contiguous land comprising 244,000 acres. With 300+ miles of trails, these acres are used annually by an estimated 240,000 hikers, hunters, mountain bikers, fisherman, rock climbers and other outdoor recreationists alike. They’re enjoyed by region locals, college students at nearby Hocking College and Ohio University, and non-locals engaging in tourism, a major revenue source for this part

In the summer of 2024, my fifth year of re-nesting raptors, I managed two Barn Owl re-nests. The first nest was in a more traditional barn setting, and I was able to intimately document their recovery. This nest originally had seven owlets, but three had fallen from it. Unlike most owls, Barn Owls will not take care of grounded young; If you fall out of the nest, you are on your own. After the property owner notified the Ohio Wildlife Center a local wildlife rehab center that

Image credit: Laura Hubers/USFWS Frozen Feathers I spent a week in the desert. Most of it was spent in remote Trans-Pecos Texas down to the Rio Grande River and Big Bend National Park. The middle of the week was full of rich experiences, from getting stuck in quicksand while pursuing black-throated sparrows to basking in natural hot tubs at Terlingua Springs with temperatures in the 80s, but that is fodder for another tale. What I want to talk about is the bookending of this

To some, Ohio may not seem like a particularly exciting state. We’ve got the Buckeyes, and maybe we go down to Hocking Hills once a year -and don’t forget the Hell is Real  sign on 71- but is that it? On the contrary, when it comes to wildlife, Ohio’s got some seriously cool characters.  As the shallowest and warmest, Lake Erie is the most ecologically productive of the Great Lakes, boasting the greatest number of fish species present in any Great Lake. In spring, millions of