The Big World of Wildlife Conservation A young woman crouches behind a fern deep in the rainforest She holds a clipboard as she quietly observes a group of orangutans She counts the animals and records their behavior A man stands in front of a classroom He points at a slide that shows how much of the world’s forests have been destroyed Students take notes as he lectures STEAM Spotlight Wildlife Biology Goes to College At the University of Montana wildlife biology professors teach classes about Rocky Mountain flora biology and management of fishes and ornithology or the study of birds among other topics During classes professors might teach students how to estimate wildlife populations using dried beans instead of actual animals They might also give students radio tracking devices and teach them to track each other around campus 4
STEAM Spotlight Studying Primates at Kibale National Park Researchers working for the Kibale Chimpanzee Project in the Kibale National Park in Uganda spend hours each day observing chimpanzees how they eat hunt and socialize They write down what certain chimps do at certain times each day With this information they can draw conclusions about chimp behavior They can also study how humans evolved from primates 5
A scientist stares at a computer He has created a model of climate change He is tracking what will happen to seabirds if ocean levels rise Soon he will write a paper about his findings black-footed albatross STEAM Spotlight Studying Seabirds In 2015 scientists working with the United States Geological Survey the University of Hawaii and the Geological Survey the University of Hawaii and the United States Fish and Wildlife Services published a research paper in a journal called PLOS One Public Library of Science The title of their paper was How Will the Effects of Sea-Level Rise Create Ecological Traps for Pacific Island Seabirds The scientists studied what would happen to colonies of scientists studied what would happen to colonies of birds if ocean levels rose due to climate change They found birds if ocean levels rose due to climate change They found that if sea levels rise to a certain degree the places where the seabirds live would become uninhabitable to an extent The scientists suggested that their findings show that people will need to make habitats for these birds in higher places where they will be safe from rising waters 6
whooping crane A woman leans over the edge of a motor boat She lifts a thrashing water bird from the water and clips a band to its leg Her assistant weighs the bird and notes its features Then they let the bird go These people all work in the field of wildlife conservation Wildlife conservationists have various jobs But they all have a common goal to protect Earth’s plants animals and insects and educate the public about their importance STEAM Fast Fact Why Band Birds Bird banding is an important tool for wildlife biologists Scientists can use bands to track birds migration patterns Then if a flock changes its migration pattern scientists can try to figure out why The data collected from bird banding can also indicate how many birds are safe to hunt each year If researchers find through studying banded birds that a species is at risk of becoming endangered scientists can recommend ways to protect it Or if a bird species habitat has changed due to logging or construction scientists can study the effects of the change 7
