Wild Animals Roland Kays

Ngatia joined a research project studying African wild dogs in Laikipia Kenya when they were some of the best news in conservation – an endangered species that reclaimed lost territory and found new ways to coexist with people. Then a canine pandemic hit that wiped out the entire population … except one animal: WDF128. Ngatia tells the story of how a new population sprung from the ashes of a pandemic through the perseverance of one female African wild dog.

Ocelots in Texas are closely monitored, so Mamma Jane grew up around remote cameras since 2011, and wasn’t afraid of the lenses. When Fin and Fur Films called about doing a documentary, Dr. Lombardi was skeptical if they could get a shot of Mamma Jane and her kittens, but thought they might be able to get some footage with remote cameras. He was right— and guided by Jason’s earlier camera-trapping experience and GPS telemetry data, the crew turned Mamma Jane into a reality star in the PBS Nature documentary “American Ocelot.”

F202 lived right in the heart of Yellowstone National Park where Anton used groundbreaking technology to study not only where she moved, but also how she hunted. F202 was a fantastic hunter and mom, rearing a number of litters in the park. However, some of her offspring wandered out of the park where they can be legally hunted, showing the challenges of large predators living with the risk of this harvest, and the value of protected areas as a way to help species survival.

Fishers are woodland creatures who traditionally avoid people and prefer dense forests. Lobstah was a (very large) fisher who bucked this trend by surviving in small suburban forests, hunted in coastal shrub habitat, and even ran along the rocky coast of Rhode Island.  By tracking his movements, Ganoe was able to learn more about how fishers have adapted to the modern word.

In 2019 a small yellow bird in The Bahamas was given a radio transmitter and a mission – show us what Kirtland’s warblers do. Nicknamed 007, this bird not only migrated all the way to Michigan, but also displayed a new behavior that scientists had never tracked at this spatial scale before. This discovery shows how the species was able to recover its lost range over the past three decades and offers hope for their adaptation to climate change.

While Dr. Hinton progressed along his career as a wolf biologist – from intern to master’s student to PhD student – the Kilkenny female (11170F) matured from a young teenage wolf into an Alpha female. While Hinton spent time tracking and watching the Kilkenny female, a new idea started crystallizing in his mind about what factors made the difference between a wolf deciding to breed with another wolf, versus hybridizing with a coyote.