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.
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.
Presentations by Levi Lewis and Rob Furrow at the Avanza Rising Scholars Conference May 16th.
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.
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.
The UC Davis Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology lost a deeply valued colleague, friend, and mentor in Ronald E. Cole, Curator Emeritus, on July 12, 2025.
The Wildlife Society has award fellowships to 10 wildlife professionals for 2025. The Wildlife Society gives TWS Fellows Awards each year to individuals who have “distinguished themselves through exceptional service” to the profession and have been members of the Society for at least 10 years.
