How to Catch Lots of Ducks

In 1948, refuge manager Herb Dill and maintenance worker Howard Thornsberry invented the first cannon-projected net trap to catch numerous waterfowl for banding purposes on Swan Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Missouri. On their first attempt, they caught 20 geese with their cannon that cost less than $70 to build. They said that it took several experimental runs with doses of explosives of potassium chlorate and sugar to get the charge right. Initially they suffered lots of big explosions or fizzles! This innovative tool is still widely used today, and it’s invention was another example of clever field employees inventing something others said could not be done. We have several old cannons and nets here in the museum. The nets come to us in a very dirty state, and it is always fun to watch the volunteers try to vacuum away the bird feathers and poop.

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Predators such as bobcats also use guzzlers, as water troughs are sometimes called, as a reliable water source in the dry desert. Photo by USFWS

Wildlife managers have long used water, especially in the arid Southwest, as a tool to help support healthy animal populations. What began as a handful of managed water sites for quail and mule deer around 1940 blossomed into some 6,000 sites intended to increase populations and benefit overall health for dozens of mostly game species in 10 western states by the close of the 20^th century. Provisional water – contained in troughs, large tires, basins, open tanks and dammed up pools ­­– is now used to support a vast range of wildlife management and species conservation work, from increasing mule deer and other game populations to recovery efforts for endangered Sonoran pronghorn and desert bighorn sheep.

A new study, however, reveals that in some cases, use of the common wildlife management tool can be fine-tuned to optimize benefits for targeted species by reducing risk from predators that are likewise drawn to the same water sources. Published in PLOS One, the Public Library of Science’s peer-reviewed open-access scientific journal, the research represents significant implications for other like-minded wildlife management efforts.

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Monk seal on discarded fishing nets. Photo by NOAA

In 2005, a research vessel ran aground off Pearl and Hermes Atoll, part of the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge, approximately 1,200 miles west of Honolulu, spilling thousands of gallons of fuel and oil. A nearly $4 million settlement has resulted in the removal of  138 metric tons of marine debris from the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, which the atoll is part of, since 2011.

Shipwrecks and ghost nets — how a reef was saved in the remote Pacific

By Amanda Dickson

I was inspecting boxes being exported from the International Mail Facility in Chicago, Illinois, with my partner, Wildlife Inspection Canine Lancer, a 6-year-old yellow Labrador retriever. We had done this search many times over the last few years, but this time was different. From the moment we entered the inspection area, Lancer had his nose in the air sniffing intently. I could tell he was following a scent. We zig-zagged through the bins, and Lancer stopped and alerted to a box being shipped to Asia. Cautiously, I opened the box and found 15 live turtles. (At left: Lancer with three boxes he found containing turtles. Photo by USFWS) The animals were stuffed into socks and tightly wrapped in tape so they couldn’t move. There was nothing on the outside of the box that would have tipped off a wildlife inspector to its contents. It had been falsely labeled to contain makeup and cosmetics, but Canine Lancer knew immediately that hidden wildlife was inside.

Department of Justice: Chinese Man Extradited for Allegedly Financing Turtle-Trafficking Ring

Over the next six months, Lancer found 23 boxes containing a total of 263 turtles being smuggled out of the United States. Across the country, other Service wildlife canine inspection teams had also found large quantities of turtles being smuggled. The boxes came from different U.S. shippers and were always labeled to contain innocuous items like clothing or toys. Service special agents initiated investigations and discovered there were many co-conspirators. In this case, the co-conspirators were illegally taking turtles from the wild in the United States, trafficking them across state lines and smuggling them to Asia.

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Wisdom incubates her newest egg. Photo by Jon Brack/Friends of Midway Atoll NWR

Wisdom, the world’s oldest known and banded wild bird, has returned to Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge and Battle of Midway National Memorial. At least 69 years old, Wisdom, a moli or Laysan albatross, was first seen at her nest this year at the end of last month. Biologists have confirmed that she has laid an egg.

A Reason for Hope

Splash-backed poison frogs at the time of seizure. Photos by Alberto J. Gonzalez/USFWS

In September, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wildlife inspectors carefully placed a container of 21 splash-backed poison frogs, including 19 of a rare blue-morph coloration, on a plane home to Brazil. The country doesn’t allow the frogs to be exported, but they are prized by collectors. U.S. wildlife inspectors seized the frogs as part of the fight against wildlife trafficking. In Brazil, the frogs will have a permanent home at the São Paulo Zoo, one of Brazil’s premier institutions.  

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Dr. Connie Cassler works on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's conservation banking program in South Florida. Photo by USFWS

By Coleman Mayfield 

When Dr. Connie Cassler started working on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's conservation banking program in South Florida back in 2010, she had no idea it would grow into one of the most successful conservation banking programs in America. 

Thanks in part to a superb foundation laid by former South Florida Ecological Services Office biologist George Dennis and lots of hard work by Connie and others, South Florida’s conservation banking program has blossomed into a great success story over the past decade with more than 16 banks established and approximately 14,500 acres placed into conservation.

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Every November, our country celebrates Native American Heritage Month providing an opportunity to learn about the vast history of Native Americans and vital contributions they have made to our country.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service  has a mandated obligation to ensure that the federal Indian trust responsibility is fulfilled, and every program of the Service has a role. (At left: Liz Wallace, a jeweler and an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, cuts silver wire in the process of making a piece of jewelry. Photo courtesy of Liz Wallace)

The Service’s Office of Law Enforcement (OLE) supports Native Americans and Alaska Natives in numerous ways such as training tribal conservation law enforcement officers, assisting with criminal investigations, providing eagle feathers and parts for use in religious ceremonies, supporting subsistence hunting, and enforcing federal laws that protect Native American culture such as the Marine Mammal+ Protection Act, Archeological Resources Protection Act, and the Indian Arts and Crafts Act (IACA).

The IACA is a truth-in-advertising law that prohibits misrepresentation in marketing of American Indian or Alaska Native art and craft products within the United States. To enforce the IACA, the OLE works closely with Department of the Interior’s Indian Arts and Crafts Board (IACB), led by Director Meridith Stanton, an enrolled member of the Delaware Nation and a Choctaw Nation descendant.

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Mojave desert tortoises occur in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts north and west of the Colorado River in southwestern Utah, southern Nevada, southeastern California and northwestern Arizona. They live on a variety of terrain from sandy flats to rocky foothills but face numerous obstacles when seeking suitable habitat in the wild. Roadways are one of the greatest dangers, accounting for the deaths of more than 200 tortoises a year. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service works closely with the U.S. Marine Corps and other organizations to treat injured tortoises. Desert Tortoise Rescue tells the recovery story of one particular tortoise struck by a vehicle and the team that saved it. It highlights the work of Palm Springs Fish and Wildlife Office biologist Scott Hoffman, who partnered with the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms’ egg incubation and hatchlings headstart facility, and Turtle Island’s conservation, breeding and research center in Austria. The video also provides ways to help protect the threatened species.

We, the nation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, owe a huge debt to military veterans. They defend our country and its interests, willing to put their lives on the line. Then, some choose to put their diverse talents to work for the Fish and Wildlife Service. And what an array of talents it is! We like to point out that the Service is much more than biologists. Take a look at this photo gallery of a few of our veterans. It proves the point. You will find biologists, scientists and refuge managers but also public affairs officers, tractor operators and administrators. And more! Thank you, veterans, for your sacrifices and for lending a hand to conserve the nature of America.