The WyoBio Minute - Barneby's Clover with Joy Handley

The WyoBio Minute - Insects and Wind Facilities with Michelle Weschler

The WyoBio Minute - Pollination of a Rare Plant with Madison Crawford

Welcome to the First Episode of Wyoming Wild - Exploring the science of ecology and biodiversity at the University of Wyoming. 
In this episode, we interview Professor Jake Goheen, instructor of the "Ecology and Conservation of African Savannas" field course, and three students from the program, Ema Lujan, Angela Zhu, and Dill Scherer. The course was organized by personnel from the UW Department of Zoology & Physiology, and took place from May 19 to June 7 at the Ewaso Ng’iro campsite on the grounds of Mpala Research Centre in Laikipia County, Kenya.

Episode 1. Exploring Savanna Ecology on UW's Kenya Field Course at the Mpala Research Center

WYOMING WINTERS CAN BE HARSH. ALTHOUGH MANY ANIMALS ARE HIBERNATING OR HAVE LEFT FOR WARMER PLACES, EACH YEAR AN ENTIRELY NEW WORLD IS BORN BENEATH THE SNOW. SPECIFICALLY IN THE SUBNIVEAN, AN AREA IN AND UNDERNEATH THE SNOWPACK. SNOW PROVIDES INSULATION AND COVER FROM PREDATORS. THE SPACE BETWEEN THE SNOW AND GROUND STAYS CLOSE TO 32 DEGREES FARIENHEIT EVEN ON DAYS WHEN THE TEMPERATURE DROPS WELL BELOW ZERO. SHREWS AND VOLES AND OTHER SMALL ANIMALS MOVE WITHIN THE SUBNIVEAN THROUGHOUT THE WINTER AS DO SPIDERS THEIR PRIMARY PREY. THEY WILL ALSO DIG UP INACTIVE HIBERNATING INSECTS SUCH AS BEETLES AND WASP. FOR THESE SMALL WINTER-ACTIVE MAMMALS, A CONSTANT FOOD SUPPLY IS CRITICAL TO MAINTAIN THEIR METABOLIC FURNANCE DURING COLD WINTER DAYS. UNDERNEATH THE SEEMINGLY LIFELESS BLANKET OF LIES A LIVING WORLD THAT DISAPEARS EACH SPRING AS IF IT WERE NEVER THERE. WITH YOUR WYOBIO MINUTE I AM KENNAN OYEN WYOBIO MINUTE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING BIODIVERSITY INSTITUTE, FOSTERING APPRECIATION OF OUR NATURAL WORLD THROUGH SCIENCE AND EDUCATION.

The Subnivean

One of Wyoming’s most showy wildflowers was lost for 140 years. A striking plant, blowout penstemon has large, scented, pink flowers, and turquoise-y green leaves. Its most unusual feature is its proclivity for sand—it grows only in active sand dunes, hence the name “blowout.” It was collected in Wyoming in 1857 by the geologist Ferdinand Hayden, during an expedition for the US government. Though he labeled the plant as being found in Wyoming, the location was vague. By the early 20th century, blowout penstemon was known only from the sandhills of Nebraska, where it was quite common. But it soon became uncommon, and was even thought to be extinct for a while. Because it was so rare, it was listed as an Endangered species in 1987. Then, in 1990, blowout penstemon was rediscovered in a remote corner of the Great Divide Basin of Wyoming. There, 1000s of blowout penstemon plants occupy several active dunes in rugged country between the Platte River and the mountains.

The Blowout Penstemon

The American Pika is an alpine member of the rabbit family. It has a small round body with peppery fur, rounded ears and a stubby tail. They live at elevations between 6,000 and 13,000 feet and prefer environments with large rocks. They use these rocks to protect their haystacks of food. Pikas spend most of the summer collecting forage to create these large stores of food. If they eat through their pile of food over the winter they will tunnel under the snow to feed on lichen or cushion plants. The Pika is a vocal animal their distinctive call announces their territory and warns other Pika of predators. So the next time you head up to the mountains listen for the Pika’s call.

The Pika

Wyoming is home to one of the largest waterfowl in North America the Trumpeter Swan. Trumpeters can measure 6 feet long and weigh up to 25 pounds. They are easily identified by their long neck, snowy-white plumage and black bill. They live along wetlands in Alaska, Canada and the Northwestern US. Trumpeters forage by using their long necks to reach aquatic vegetation. Trumpeter Swans will mate for life and each breeding season a female can lay between three to eight eggs. In the winter they migrate to ice-free lakes and rivers. By the early 1900s the Trumpeter Swan was thought to be extinct in the U.S. but one of the last remaining populations was discovered in Yellowstone National Park. Their numbers are now growing and they appear to be on the road to recovery.

Trumpeter Swans

It’s spring in Wyoming, and you’re walking home on a chilly, rainy night. To your surprise, on the sidewalk in front of you is a squirming black and yellow creature. What is going on here? Well, you almost stepped on a tiger salamander, Wyoming’s only native salamander species. The tiger salamander is a mole salamander, so named because they burrow into the soil with their thick legs and strong feet to hibernate underground during the winter. On rainy evenings in late winter or early spring, tiger salamanders emerge from their winter burrows and attempt to make it to nearby bodies of water where they breed and lay eggs. This can be a dangerous trip because often roads lie between hibernation sites and breeding habitat. So during nighttime rain showers in early spring, you can go to a nearby pond and look for salamanders to save from cars. If you find one, carefully pick it up and walk it across busy streets and place it closer to the body of water. Make sure you don’t have any lotions or chemicals on your hands, and wash your hands when you’re finished. With your WyoBio minute, this is Doug Eddy.

TIGER SALAMANDER

Vampires evoke dreams of cool nights and warm blood. For the vampire bat these dreams are reality. These nocturnal denizens of the tropics acquire their liquid nourishment from other mammals and birds. But vampires have a behavior that is far more charming. They engage in an I-will-scratch-your-back-if-you-scratch-mine form of cooperation. This cooperation takes place in their colony. If one bat had little to no success at finding food a neighbor might share his bounty by regurgitating blood from his stomach. Research has shown that the receiver will remember this kind act and might return the favor in the future. Cooperation is very common in the natural world. Lionesses, Japanese Macaques, Leaf Cutter Ants and even groups of cells exhibit cooperation. In fact scientists think that cooperation played an equal if not greater role in the typical dog-eat-dog view of the life’s evolutionary history. With your WyoBio Minute I am Zoe Nelson.

Vampire Bats

Wyoming is home to one of the world’s rarest plants, the desert yellowhead. This unusual plant defies all expectations—its shiny, dark green leaves contrast with the rough and rugged leaves of its neighbors on the wind-swept slopes of central Wyoming. At a foot or so tall, it towers over the diminutive, pincushion-sized plants that are adapted to dry, windy sites—the so-called cushion plant communities. It favors infertile, nearly white soils, where vegetation is sparse. In fact, it distains nearby habitats with better soil and larger and more abundant plant cover. A member of the sunflower family, desert yellowhead is unusual in its flowers, too. Petals are so small as to be nearly microscopic, but each group of a few flowers is surrounded by yellow-green, petal-like bracts, looking rather like tiny bright lanterns on the dusty landscape. Desert yellowhead was unknown to science until 1990, when it was discovered during a survey. The discoverer gave it a scientific name, Yermo xanthocephala, which, translated to English, means desert yellowhead. Desert yellowhead is found nowhere else in the world, and seems to have no near relatives in the mountain west, so its origin and history in the Wyoming desert remain mysteries.

Desert Yellowheads

Questions from the Interview with Matt Carling, Director of the University of Wyoming Museum of Vertebrates, on the importance and role of natural history collections and museums in the scientific project. 

Developed by the Biodiversity Institute for the University of Wyoming Natural History Collections and Museums Coalition

Why Are Natural History Collections Important?

Questions from the Interview with Matt Carling, Director of the University of Wyoming Museum of Vertebrates, on the importance and role of natural history collections and museums in the scientific project.

Developed by the Biodiversity Institute for the University of Wyoming Natural History Collections and Museums Coalition

How Are Natural History Collections Used By Scientists And Researchers?

How Do Natural History Collections Help Us Understand The World We Live In?

Are There Different Types of Specimens in the Collection?

Questions from the Interview with Matt Carling, Director of the University of Wyoming Museum of Vertebrates, on the importance and role of natural history collections and museums in the scientific project.

Developed by the Biodiversity Institute for the University of Wyoming Natural History Collections and Museums Coalition.

When Was The Museum First Established and By Whom?

Where Do New Museum Specimens Come From?

What is the Process of Adding a Specimen to the Collection?

What is the Oldest Specimen in the Collection?

How Has Technology Changed The Way We Use Natural History Collections?

How Many Publications Have Been Generated By The Collection?

The Biodiversity Institute interviews Dr. Matt Carling - Associate Professor of Zoology and Physiology at the University of Wyoming, and Curator of the University of Wyoming Museum of Vertebrates. We talk about the function of and importance of natural science collections to science and culture.

Part of the University of Wyoming | Natural History Collections interview series of podcasts produced and directed by the University of Wyoming Biodiversity Institute.

Thumbnail image By Katrina Van Grouw - from "The Unfeathered Bird".
Used by Permission.

Interview with Dr. Matt Carling - Curator of the University of Wyoming Museum of Vertebrates

An excerpt from the Interview with Matt Carling, Curator of the University of Wyoming Museum of Vertebrates

The Biodiversity Institute

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