News

For starters, they don’t even really act like ducks. Or look like the typical duck, either, with lanky legs that trail behind them in flight, a brilliant pinkish bill and an unmistakable white patch on the wings. They prefer to stand in the water rather than float. They are noisy as all get-out and will perch just about anywhere, from trees to utility poles to the roofs of houses.

The University of California, Davis, has won The Wildlife Society’s 2026 Student Chapter of the Year Award.

The Student Chapter of the Year Award pays tribute to and recognizes exceptional achievements.

“I am incredibly honored and proud of the officers and members of our student chapter,” said Rachel Ann Arias, former co-president of the chapter. “Everyone has been incredibly committed to creating a welcoming space for students interested in wildlife at UC Davis.”

In this episode of Field Notes, Dean Ashley M. Stokes visits the Putah Creek Nestbox Highway, a program run by the UC Davis Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology. For the past 27 years, researchers and students have tracked the return of western bluebirds to Davis by banding and monitoring young birds. Have you ever spotted a banded bird around town? If so, scan the QR code in the video to contribute your sighting to their records.

Ellie Bolas, who completed her Ph.D. in ecology this spring, is this year’s recipient of the Kinsella Memorial Prize for her doctoral research on how wildfires and human activities shape wildlife behavior and predator-prey interactions between mountain lions and mule deer in the greater Los Angeles area.

Full article: https://caes.ucdavis.edu/news/two-caes-graduate-students-recognized-their-research-leadership-and-service

After the sun sets and darkness falls over the vineyards near Lodi, American barn owls start to glide above the grapevines in search of rodents below. As the birds hunt, researchers at the University of California, Davis, and California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, and San Luis Obispo, are paying attention to how noises echoing through the fields influence these nocturnal raptors.

To know nature is to know one's self; and to protect nature is to preserve our future. Few are aware that motivated students in science, technology, engineering, and math can pursue lucrative and fulfilling careers in fisheries and wildlife biology.

The Academic Federation made the following announcement:

The Academic Senate made the following announcement:

When the time is right, a good love song can make all the difference.

A study from the University of California, Davis, found that temperature affects the sound and quality of male frogs’ mating calls. In the colder, early weeks of spring, their songs start off sluggishly. In warmer weather, their songs pick up the pace, and female frogs take note.

Better songs not only make the males more attractive mates, but they also suggest to females that environmental conditions are suitable for reproduction.

As climate change increases the frequency of droughts, UCLA and UC Davis researchers found one overlooked side effect: People report more conflicts with wildlife during drought, when resources are scarce.

For every inch that annual rainfall decreases, scientists found a 2% to 3% increase in reported clashes with a variety of carnivores during drought years, according to a paper published today, Nov. 12, in the journal Science Advances.