HERE is a NEW Craighead Beringia South publication in PLOS One covering our last 6 years of work on eagles and lead ammo. We've found that using non-lead ammo does reduce lead in eagles!

Samples collected by Craighead Beringia South scientists for our Gobi Bear project in Mongolia helped unlock the discovery of AEG, a small molecule that may have been the precursor to RNA. The discovery of AEG within cyanobacteria samples was made by collaborators at the Institute for Ethnomedicine and and at the Stockholm University Department of Analytical Chemistry.

To read about this important discovery, click HERE

To read the published journal report, click HERE

If interested in future internships and volunteer opportunities click here.  

Coleman signed up to make the most of the summer before entering his senior year at Jackson Hole High School through an internship with Craighead Beringia South. He had a keen interest in marine biology and impressed us with his knowledge of insects, fish and his overall awareness of nature. This summer he focused on gathering aquatic insects to compare current data with historical data to archive the health of streams over time. He also gained field experience with the Teton Cougar Project tracking and downloading a GPS collar. When Coleman is not tracking down cougars and aquatic insects he enjoys wakeboarding and golf.

Wilton, a falconer and sophomore high school student, has an interest in birds, their habitat and environmental impacts on their survival rates. He produced an impressive documentary film on bald eagle poisoning in Southeastern Wyoming. Summer duties at Craighead Beringia South included setting cameras for the Teton Cougar Project and assisting with eagle trapping for our Pinedale Eagle and Energy Development study. Wilton tracked and located a cougar family group while in the same day, fished the Gros Ventre River to acquire bait for the avian crew!

This summer Jessica was the field intern for the Sage Grouse Project. Volunteering for Craighead Beringia South in 2008, she fell in love working and learning about mammal and sage grouse ecology. After completing her summer internship Jessica will begin her junior year at Chadron State College for a wildlife biology/management degree. Born and raised in Wyoming, Jessica loves the mountains and enjoys every opportunity to be outside fishing, hiking, canoeing, camping, playing sports, and making memories!

This internship position was funded by a grant from the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole. 

Born and raised in upstate New York, Anna received her B.S. from Cornell University in May 2012 with a focus on applied ecology. Her main interests lie in carnivore biology, most specifically wild felids. She has worked on a variety of projects ranging from sea turtle nesting behavior in Costa Rica, suburban deer ecology in New York, predator-prey interactions in Panama, and cheetah-lion-hyena interactions in Botswana. She hopes to pursue graduate school in the next few years with a focus on felid ecology and conservation. When not hard at work in the field, she enjoys salsa dancing, competitive orienteering, climbing mountains, and playing as much basketball and soccer as possible.

Peter is from Hanover New Hampshire and recently joined the Beringia team after graduating from the University of New Hampshire with a degree in Wildlife Ecology. Peter has extensive experience on research projects ranging from black bears to Atlantic Bluefin Tuna. He spends much of his time reading, observing wildlife, and identifying and following tracks. Peter also enjoys building his own digital video and still photo wildlife cameras to better document and understand wildlife ecology.

Sophie was born and raised in a small town in southern New Hampshire and graduated with B.S. in Wildlife Ecology from the University of New Hampshire. She has a variety of experience ranging from tracking and conserving the endangered black rhinoceros in Namibia, Africa, creating enrichment activities for medically exploited chimpanzees in Bend, Oregon, and caring for several different types of penguins at the New England Aquarium in Boston, Massachusetts. She has been working as a volunteer on the Teton Cougar project for 2 months and hopes to continue her education by pursuing a Master's degree in Animal Behavior. When not working, Sophie enjoys running, knitting, playing with her dog and homemade pizza.

Zach has been studying and loving wildlife; the lands, waters, and skies that are home to all of them, since a very young age. He graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and has since been held captive in a cubicle while working in various fields of technology. He now has been released back into the wild and couldn’t be happier. With a particular passion for big cats and raptors, he loves to roam outside in search of whatever stories the land has to tell so he can be a voice and advocate. Zach enjoys watching, learning, photographing and writing about wildlife, singing, playing, writing and listening to music, playing outside, and learning about, practicing and sharing whole-body wellness techniques.

Over the past 15 years Old Bill’s Fun Run for Charities has helped local Teton County non-profits raise nearly $83 million. These funds enable organizations to address needs ranging from health and human services to our environment. Craighead Beringia South depends on the funds raised through Old Bill's to continue research and educational programs that provide replicable solutions for environmentally sound decision-making.

Old Bill’s is the most innovative fundraiser in the nation. A portion of each donation is matched by Mr. and Mrs. Old Bill, Co-Challengers and Friends of the Match. This increases the impact of each gift.

Please consider a donation to Craighead Beringia South through Old Bill's today. Donations are accepted now through September 14th at 5:00 pm. Donations can be made online or with a donor form found here.

Join us at the event Saturday, September 8th 10:00 am in the Town Square, Jackson, Wyoming. We look forward to celebrating this unique and important community event with you!

View online or as a PDF. To request a hard copy please email beringia@beringiasouth.org with your mailing address and one will be sent your way!

In addition to the non-invasive study, our ongoing research on collared cougars continues to provide insights on their prey selection, foraging ecology and social interactions.

A big THANK YOU goes out from all of us here at Craighead Beringia South to all of those that voted. Stay tuned for photos of the truck when it comes in along with continued updates on our work.

The findings are also covered in an April 2012 article in the Jackson Hole News & Guide.

On May 11th we were honored to be a part of the Avian Spring Celebration - celebrating birds, avian art, students in action and International Migratory Bird Day. Presented by the Teton Raptor Center and the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival the evening of May 11th brought together the community to celebrate and support bird conservation.

The special guest of the evening was Olivia Bouler, an artist, author, avian advocate and aspiring ornithologist - at only 12 years old. Even at her young age she has raised over $200,000 for bird rescue and recovery efforts in the Gulf and is a source of inspiration for children and adults.

The evening also included a screening of Saving Pelican 895 the story of the 895th surviving oiled pelican in Louisiana from the Gulf Oil Spill. The film highlighted how conservationists, agencies and wildlife activists joined forces to help wildlife. In addition, a short documentary, filmed by Jackson Hole High School student Wilton Springer, reported on eagles and pesticides in Wyoming.

The evening wrapped up with an Avian Expert Panel question and answer session. Craighead Beringia South’s research was represented on the panel by Bryan Bedrosian, our Avian Program Director. Bryan along with Jason Jones from the Teton Raptor Center, Bert Raynes author and birding enthusiast, Olivia and Wilton answered questions about local research and conservation projects while offering advice on possible actions to protect our wildlife. Olivia with all her enthusiasm summed it up best – no matter what your interest or age we all have the potential to do something to help wildlife or whatever your passion is - so go out there and do something! Here at CBS our talents and interests lie with wildlife research and education. We will continue our work and look forward to sharing the results with you!

Bryan talks with Avian Spring Celebration attendees about different features of hummingbirds, eagles, ravens, red tailed hawks and more!

Help us win a new car to make an even bigger difference!

Craighead Beringia South is proud to announce we’ve been selected as a finalist in Toyota’s 100 Cars for Good Program. Now we need your support!

Tell your friends and vote for Craighead Beringia South at www.100carsforgood.com on July 12th.

Toyota’s 100 Cars for Good program will be awarding 100 vehicles to 100 nonprofits over the course of 100 days based on votes from the public. A total of 500 nonprofits were selected from more than 4,000 applications nationwide. We are hoping to win a new Tundra pick up to help with our wildlife research to improve the management and conservation of our natural environment.

Thanks for your support!

Mongolia is also home of the Gobi Bear a critically endangered animal with a population ranging from 22 - 31 animals. Since 2006 Craighead Beringia South has been a part of the Gobi Bear Project conducting research and education to protect this incredible animal that faces many challenges. Tune in to NPR this week or follow the links below to learn more about Mongolia and the opportunities and challenges that mining is bringing to the country. 

NPR - Mineral-Rich Mongolia Rapidly Becoming 'Mine-golia'

NPR - Mongolia's Dilemma: Who Gets The Water?

Check NPR.org for part 3 and 4 of the series

For more on Craighead Beringia South's Gobi Bear study click here.

We were able to capture and outfit the female (on right) with a new transmitter so we are now tracking the whole osprey family group for our Osprey Migration study in partnership with Grand Teton National Park. The transmitters will help us study migration and family group dynamics. Stay tuned for more pictures and maps of this years migrations!

Each spring osprey return to the Grand Teton National Park (GTNP) area and can be seen fishing on local lakes and rivers. In partnership with Grand Teton National park Craighead Beringia South is tracking local osprey as part of a national effort to study and understand migrations of animals that spend only part of the year in GTNP.  

This fall we tracked four osprey from the Jackson Hole area to their wintering grounds in Cuba, Louisiana and Mexico. Stay tuned for updates on their return this spring.

For more osprey videos check out ARKive's website. 

The last few weeks Craighead Beringia South in cooperation with Grand Teton National Park and Wyoming Game & Fish Department has been monitoring lek sites for the arrival of male sage grouse. This week we found 17 male sage grouse starting to gather at the lek north of the airport!

Grand Teton National Park offers the opportunity to view a sage grouse lek during their spring strut. It requires an early morning, meeting a ranger at 5:30 am, but is worth it to view the male's spectacular display for the females. Click here for more info.

Since 2007 Craighead Beringia South has studied the sage grouse of Jackson Hole and the surrounding regions. With extensive field work complete we are continuing with several aspects of the project including two graduate student and community involvement projects. We aim to continue to understand and monitor sage-grouse demographics and habitat use.

To continue to monitor the health and size of the local population we hold an annual winter sage grouse census and help with lek monitoring each spring. For the spring of 2012 we will continue to monitor the local leks weekly in partnership with Grand Teton National Park and the Wyoming Game & Fish Department.

Last week we educated students through a new program - the "Cougar Posse" in partnership with The Cougar Fund and Florida Gulf Coast University. The first field trip of this program taught Kelly Elementary School fourth and fifth grad students about mountain lions.

The Cougar Posse is a program that teaches fourth grade students about cougars, the Florida panther and water conservation. The program incorporates a multi-disciplinary approach enhancing students' skills in reading, writing, geography, math, art, and research skills. Students revolve through five different stations where volunteers and scientists teach them about kittens, research, radio collars, infrared cameras, cougar tracks, natural history and water conservation. These experiences build confidence and help all participants to understand our natural world.

The program is a partnership between:

Craighead Beringia South - Putting science to work for wildlife Craighead Beringia South is a wildlife research and education institute located in Kelly, Wyoming.

The Cougar Fund - Based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming The Cougar Fund is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit advocacy organization working to protect the cougar throughout the Americas.

Florida Gulf Coast University - The Florida Panther Posse is an environmental education program run through the “Wings of Hope” program at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU).

Read more about the Cougar Posse in this Jackson Hole News&Guide article about the program.

Craighead Beringia South is thankful to be among the 18 and have support for our Integrated Wildlife Research Education program. The funds granted will go towards the purchase of trail cameras, hardware and download data software that will be used for the Teton Cougar Project. Students will be involved in setting trail cameras to document travel routes for cougars and to contribute to agency estimations for current cougar populations.

Click here for more on the Youth Philanthropy Grant Program.

Click here for more on our Integrated Wildlife Research Education Program. 

Enjoy!

Link to Manuscript.

Here is a life-history study of the Andean condor in modern terms.  The investigation employs contemporary techniques in the analyses of behavior and ecology.  Specific objectives are:  to describe simple behavior patterns and postures and determine their functions; to describe the formation and maintenance of pair bonds and the organization of reproductive activities among parents and young; to isolate characteristic social relations among condors of different sex-and-age classes, migratory status, and populations and to isolate basic principles of social structure; to describe interspecific relations, relating variation for different species and localities to ecological factors; to describe feeding behavior of condors and other avian scavengers and determine food relations among competing species; to gain an understanding of how condors fly; to describe mortality factors; and, finally, to survey how condors have influenced various South American cultures.

Click here for a link to the Wyoming Game & Fish Department Mountain Lion Management Plan referenced in the letter.

In addition to this letter here are links to the Jackson Hole News & Guide articles following the story. 

• Mountain lions spotted near Cache Creek trails JH News&Guide January 23, 2012
• Lion kittens evasive on day 3 of trapping JH News&Guide January 25, 2012

* Update: Friday, February 3rd the mother mountain lion and what turned out to be 3 kittens were released in an undisclosed location between Lander and Rawlins according to an article in the Billings Gazette. 

The 2012 Sage Grouse Winter Census has been scheduled for Saturday, February 18th 9am - noon. Craighead Beringia South conducts an annual sage grouse count in Jackson to census the health and size of our local sage grouse population. Volunteers are needed to cross-country ski and snowshoe across the southern half of the valley. 

If interested in volunteering, please send an email to beringia@beringiasouth.org with the following information:

   - Names of people in your party

   - Skiing or snowshoeing?

   - What level of activity you are comfortable with (low = .5-1      mile, medium = 1-2 miles, high = > 2miles)

Sage Grouse populations in our valley and nationwide have been declining for some time and there is a need to census these populations accurately. In order to accomplish this, Craighead Beringia South biologists have devised a new census technique that has proven very effective in the past few years. With the help of people like you, we have skied and snowshoed all of the areas in which sage grouse reside during the winter and counted all of the grouse seen. And its that time again!

Groups and individuals are encouraged to participate.

For more information or questions call 307.734.0581 or email beringia@beringiasouth.org

The film is now available for purchase from National Geographic To order click here or call 800.627.5162. 

Learn more about cougars 12:30 pm Wednesday, January 11th at the Jackson Hole & Greater Yellowstone Visitor Center.  Marilyn Cuthill Teton Cougar Project coordinator will be giving a special hour long presentation to share information about cougars and the Teton Cougar Project. Please join us! Thanks to the National Elk Refuge for hosting. For more information please click here. 

The article covers Craighead Beringia South's research of lead levels in eagles and other scavenger birds along with the hunter education voluntary non-lead ammo program. Lead ammunition used for big game hunting is left in gut piles and has been linked to elevated blood lead levels in bald eagles and other scavenger birds.

With the support of the Wyoming Game & Fish Department, Bridger-Teton National Forest, Grand Teton National Park, the National Elk Refuge, Cabela's and the David & Lucile Packard Foundation Craighead Beringia South completed a third season of distributing non-lead ammunition to area hunters. The voluntary use of non-lead ammunition allows hunters a unique opportunity to maintain support for hunting programs by demonstrating a commitment to safe, quality hunting practices that will benefit the long-term conservation of wildlife.