wildlife science experiments

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61 Wet and Wild Outdoor Science Experiments and Activities

The whole world is one big science classroom.

The only thing more fun than hands-on science is taking it outside! These outdoor science experiments and activities are perfect for taking advantage of sunny days. Fly kites, dissect flowers, experiment with sound and water, and so much more! There is something on our list for everyone from adults all the way down to toddlers.

You’ll only need simple supplies for most of these, so any teacher or family can head out to learn about chemistry, biology, physics, and more. To make it even easier to find the right outdoor science activities, we’ve rated each one for difficulty:

• Easy: Simple, short activities you can do with little or no prep needed.
• Medium: These activities take a little longer or require a few extra supplies but are still fairly simple.
• Advanced: Activities that require more unusual supplies or complex skills.

Outdoor Science Experiments That Get a Little Messy

Nature and wildlife outdoor activities, weather and climate outdoor science experiments, more outdoor science experiments and activities.

1. Wrap a watermelon in rubber bands

You’ve probably seen videos of this making the rounds online, so why not try it out yourself? This is one of those outdoor science experiments that’s easy to do, but make sure you wear safety equipment like goggles. (Medium)

2. Send a geyser sky-high

This is one of those outdoor science activities that simply can’t be done anywhere other than outdoors. Kids will marvel at the chemical reaction that sends diet soda shooting high in the air when Mentos are added. (Medium)

Learn more: Mentos and Coke Experiment (Plus Free Worksheet!)

3. Construct a LEGO waterwheel course

Explore the power of water with a cool homemade LEGO water course that includes a dam and a water wheel. This engineering project is fun to play with when you’re done. (Medium)

Learn more: LEGO Course

4. Find the best soap bubble solution

It’s easy to mix your own soap bubble solution with just a few ingredients. Let kids tweak the recipe to find the best proportion of ingredients to blow the longest-lasting bubbles with this fun outdoor science experiment. (Medium)

Learn more: How To Make a Homemade Bubbles Mixture at The Spruce Crafts

5. Blow giant bubbles

Bubbles are part of many fun outdoor science experiments. Once you’ve blown the longest-lasting bubbles, move on to creating the largest bubbles you’ve ever seen! Learn how in the video. (Medium)

6. Brew some elephant toothpaste

This experiment is popular with kids and adults alike! Don your safety goggles, mix a few ingredients, and watch the “elephant toothpaste” fly! (Medium)

Learn more: Elephant Toothpaste Experiment Plus Free Worksheet

7. Explode plastic baggies

Vinegar and baking soda experiments are always a big hit with kids, and this one is no exception. They’ll love seeing the bags pop from the chemical reaction, and you’ll be glad the mess is outside. Plus, learn how to make a DIY volcano here! (Easy)

Learn more: Exploding Baggies

8. Conduct an egg drop

Here’s another classic outdoor science project you won’t want to move inside—the egg drop. Challenge kids to engineer a container that will protect an egg from a long fall (this is especially fun to do from upper-story windows). (Medium)

9. See water pollution in action

Learn about the challenges of cleaning up polluted water sources like rivers and lakes with this interesting outdoor science activity. Pair it with a visit to a local water-treatment plant to expand the lesson. (Medium)

Learn more: Water Pollution Experiment

10. Set up a musical science pool

This project is equally fun as a sensory experience and as a science experiment. Fill a kiddie pool with water, then place metal mixing bowls of different sizes inside. Finally, let kids experiment with different combos of waters, bowls, and drumsticks (i.e., wooden spoons). (Medium)

Learn more: Musical Science Pool

11. Paint a shadow with homemade chalk paint

Head outside and have kids trace the outlines of their shadows. Then mix up some homemade chalk paint and let kids get creative painting their shadows. (Medium)

Learn more: Shadow Sidewalk Chalk Art

12. Make and melt frozen oobleck

Oobleck is a strange non-Newtonian fluid that’s both fun and fascinating to play around with. For a new twist on this classic experiment, freeze some oobleck, then take it out into the sun and see what happens when it melts. (Medium)

Learn more: Frozen Oobleck

13. Assemble a nest

Birds build intricate nests, and they make it look easy. Can you do the same? Gather some materials outdoors, and try to make your own nest. (Easy)

Learn more: Build a Nest

14. Explore 1 square foot

There’s an amazing amount of life in every square foot of nature. Grab your magnifying glasses or microscope, and take a closer look at the ground you walk on every day. (Easy)

Learn more: Square Foot Outdoor STEM Project

15. Explode a DIY seed pod

Find out how some plants spread their seeds far and wide with this cool balloon experiment. Fill it with seeds and air, then pop it outside on a breezy day and watch the seeds fly! (Medium)

Learn more: Seed Dispersal Activity

16. Forecast the weather with pine cones

Fun fact: Pine cones open and close according to the weather in order to protect or disperse the seeds inside. Use that fact to your advantage and create a pine cone weather station in your backyard. (Easy)

Learn more: Pine Cone Weather Station

17. Put together a simple microscope

This DIY microscope isn’t very powerful, but it does magnify small objects so you can see details. It’s also really simple to make. Looking for a stronger microscope you can take on the go? Try this portable model that hooks up to your cell phone. (Easy)

Learn more: Mini Microscope

18. Create nature discovery bottles

Stroll through the great outdoors and have kids collect interesting natural objects. Use recycled soda or water bottles to display their specimens. (Easy)

Learn more: Nature Sensory Bottles

19. Play a game of Nature Bingo

Give your nature walk more direction by giving students specific items to seek out. You can make your own boards, or hit the link below for free printables for every season. (Easy)

Learn more: Nature Bingo

20. Start a nature journal

Nature journals are a great way to partner writing and outdoor science while building kids’ observational skills. You can use any sturdy notebook or check out the link below for free printable journal pages and a fun DIY carry-along journal project. (Easy)

Learn more: Nature Journal

21. Make and plant DIY seed bombs

Use recycled materials to create “seed bombs.” Then plant them in the schoolyard or send kids home to use them in their own gardens. Students learn about ecology, recycling, and plant life cycles. (Medium)

22. Experiment with limestone rocks

Kids  love to pick up rocks, and there are plenty of great science experiments you can do with them. In this one, you pour vinegar over a rock to see if it bubbles. If it does, you’ve found limestone! (Easy)

Learn more: Vinegar and Limestone Test

23. Contribute to citizen science

Use a cell phone to snap pictures of everything you find on a nature walk, then report those sightings to Project Noah. This citizen science project is dedicated to documenting every living thing on Earth! (Easy)

Learn more: Project Noah

24. Learn about plant transpiration

This simple project demonstrates how plants get rid of excess water they don’t need, a process known as transpiration. The supplies and method are simple enough for anyone to try it. (Easy)

Learn more: Transpiration

25. Learn to identify trees

Give trees a closer look and learn to identify them by their leaves and seeds. These jars preserve the leaves and seeds for future study too. (Medium)

Learn more: Tree ID Scavenger Hung

26. Go on a nature scavenger hunt

Take kids outdoors to use their five senses with this free printable scavenger hunt activity. They’ll hone their observation skills and learn so much about the world around them. (Easy)

Learn more: Nature Scavenger Hunt

27. Help monarch butterflies

You may have heard that monarch butterflies are struggling to keep their populations alive. Join the fight to save these beautiful insects by planting your own butterfly garden, monitoring monarch populations, and more. Get all the info you need at the link. (Advanced)

Learn more: Monarch Watch

28. Count tree rings to explore dendrochronology

Your students might know you can count tree rings to find out how old a tree is, but do they know why that’s true? Students will undoubtedly get a kick out of exploring dendrochronology. (Medium)

Learn more: Tree Rings and Dendrochronology

29. Seek out signs of birds

Have you ever noticed that birds can be difficult to spot, even though signs of them are all around? This free printable scavenger hunt helps you find evidence that birds live nearby. Just look for nests and food sources and listen for their sounds. (Medium)

Learn more: All About Birds Scavenger Hunt

30. Attract birds with a DIY bird feeder

Bring all the birds to the yard with this easy recycled bird feeder project. Kids can learn to identify common backyard birds in your area. Visit The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s educators resource page for more ideas. (Easy)

31. Identify birds with an app

Some birds are easy to identify, but others stump even longtime bird-watchers. If you’re looking for outdoor science activities for kids who love feathered friends, check out the free Merlin Bird ID app. It listens to bird calls and identifies them in a snap! It works with photos too. (Easy)

Learn more: Merlin Bird ID

32. Estimate the height of a tree

Kids work in pairs to estimate the height of a tree in this project that puts the M in STEM. Get a free printable at the link below to walk you through the process. (Medium)

Learn more: Outdoor STEM: Measuring Tree Height

33. Dissect a flower

Take a plant apart to look at the various parts, like the roots, flower, bud, and more. (Medium)

Learn more: Investigating a Plant

34. Craft tree bark rubbings

Each tree has its type of bark, and making crayon rubbings is an easy and fun way to take a closer look. Put together a whole portfolio and label each with the kind of tree it comes from. (Easy)

35. Pit hydroponics against soil

Grow veggies using soil and hydroponics. Then, conduct your own taste test to see if one is better than the other. (Advanced)

36. Cast animal tracks

Explore wildlife biology by becoming an expert tracker! Learn to identify tracks and take casts. Turn this into an experiment by trying different methods to take casts, or use it as a method of identifying wildlife in the woods. (Advanced)

Learn more:  How to Find & Collect Animal Tracks

37. Gaze at the clouds

Look up and take some time to admire the clouds. Craft this cute “cloud viewer” and find a cloud in the sky. Then, identify what type it is, and learn more about how clouds form. (Easy)

Learn more: Make Your Own Cloud Viewer

38. See the greenhouse effect in action

Climate change can be a contentious topic, so start by teaching kids about the greenhouse effect, which is easy to see and understand using this simple experiment. Then, urge them to explore data collected by scientists so they can learn to make informed decisions about topics like global warming. (Easy)

Learn more:  Teaching About the Greenhouse Effect

39. Assemble an anemometer

Scientists use anemometers to measure wind speed. Build this DIY version and do some outdoor science experiments about weather science with your kids. (Medium)

Learn more: Anemometer

40. Turn a bottle into a rain gauge

All you need is a plastic bottle, a ruler, and a permanent marker to make your own rain gauge. Monitor your measurements and see how they stack up against meteorology reports in your area. (Medium)

Learn more: How To Make a Rain Gauge

41. Harness the power of the wind

Wind turbines have become common sights in some parts of the country as we explore alternative energy sources. Build your own to learn how they work with this outdoor science experiment. (Medium)

Learn more: Build a Wind Turbine

42. Fly a kite

You can learn a lot about physics when you make and fly your own kite. Experiment with different designs to see whose kite flies the highest or the longest. (Easy)

Learn more: How To Make a Simple Kite

43. Compost food scraps in a bottle

Food waste is a big problem, contributing to much of the material that winds up in landfills. Teach kids how to compost with kitchen scraps in a plastic bottle, and use the compost to feed your plants. (Medium)

Learn more: Soda Bottle Compost

44. Grow a carbon sugar snake

If you’re looking for outdoor science experiments that are sure to excite your students, try this eye-popping chemical reaction demonstration. You only need simple supplies like sugar, baking soda, and sand, but the element of fire makes this experiment best done outdoors. (Medium)

Learn more: Carbon Sugar Snake

45. Construct a dirt battery

This outdoor science project is similar to building a battery from a lemon, but you also get to dig in the dirt! Kids learn about electric currents and conductivity. (Medium)

Learn more: Dirt Battery

46. Test the power of sunscreen

We slather kids in sunscreen when they’re playing outside, but do they understand why? Try this fun little experiment, which demonstrates how sunscreen protects from the sun’s harmful rays. (Easy)

Learn more: STEM Sunscreen Experiment

47. Build a solar oven

Explore the power of the sun when you build your own solar ovens and use them to cook some yummy treats. (Medium)

Learn more: Solar Oven

48. Blast off with bottle rockets

Just a few simple supplies let you use the power of air pressure to send a homemade bottle rock soaring to the heavens! Get full instructions in the video. (Medium)

49. Make sun prints

You’ll need to buy special paper for this outdoor science project, but it’s easy to find. Kids will love creating their own patterns and experimenting to find which objects work best. (Medium)

Learn more: Sun Prints

50. Launch Ping-Pong balls with a catapult

Young kids will simply adore building this basic catapult and watching Ping-Pong balls soar! Older kids can experiment by changing the position of the fulcrum, the length of the board, and the objects being flung. (Easy)

Learn more: DIY Catapult

51. Test out parachutes

Gather a variety of materials (try tissues, handkerchiefs, plastic bags, etc.) and see which ones make the best parachutes. You can also find out how they’re affected on windy days or find out which ones work in the rain. (Easy)

Learn more: How To Make a Parachute

52. Swing a glass of water to learn about centripetal force

When you do this experiment right, you won’t make a mess at all. But while kids are still getting the hang of swinging glasses of water around their heads, you’ll probably want to make this an outdoor science activity. (Medium)

53. Become a human sundial

Choose a sunny day and grab some sidewalk chalk—your students are about to become sundials! They’ll practice measuring skills and learn about the movement of the sun across the sky. (Easy)

Learn more: Human Sundial

54. Build a light box

Kids can entertain themselves for hours with a big empty cardboard box. Channel that energy by turning a box into a place to learn about light refraction and reflection, using colored water in plastic bottles. (Medium)

Learn more: Light Box

55. Float a baking soda–powered boat

Here’s another experiment using the classic baking powder and vinegar reaction. This one uses it to power these cute little DIY boats! A kiddie pool is the perfect spot for this outdoor science project. (Medium)

Learn more:  Baking Soda Boat

56. Slide into friction science

Head out to the playground, gather up a variety of objects, and hold races to see which ones make it down the slide first. This is a fun introduction to friction and inclined planes. (Easy)

Learn more: Exploring Ramps and Friction on a Slide

57. Test your local water quality

Once you’ve “cleaned up” your water, try testing it to see how clean it really is. Then head out to test other types of water. Kids will be fascinated to discover what’s in the water in their local streams, ponds, and puddles. Water-testing kits are readily available online— try this set available on Amazon . (Advanced)

Learn more: Water Quality Experiment

58. Make a rainbow

Spotting a rainbow in the sky is always a magical experience. Let kids experiment with different methods to learn how they can create rainbows of their own, anytime they like! (Easy)

59. Send a tea bag flying

Hot air rises, and this experiment can prove it! You’ll want to supervise kids with fire, of course, but this is a really cool concept to see in action. (Medium)

Learn more: Flying Tea Bag Experiment

60. Find your way with a DIY compass

Here’s an old classic that never fails to impress. Magnetize a needle, float it on the water’s surface, and it will always point north. (Easy)

Learn more: Simple Magnetic Compass

61. Make a solar desalinator

Clean freshwater is a valuable commodity. Construct solar-powered desalination devices with readily available materials, and find the most effective desalination methods. (Advanced)

Outdoor science experiments don’t have to be limited to spring or summer! Bookmark the Coolest Winter Science Experiments and Activities .

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Citizen science projects

Matt Slater / Cornwall Wildlife Trust

Many conservation organisations rely on data collected by members of the public to help them monitor and protect wildlife. Discover how you can become a citizen scientist with The Wildlife Trusts.

What is citizen science?

It's very hard to protect wildlife if you don't know much about it. To understand what a species needs, we have to gather a lot of information about things such as its population, habitat choices and behaviour. Even more importantly, we have to monitor how these things change over time, in order to spot worrying trends and identify issues. The more information we have, the better.

But that's a lot of data to gather and scientists alone would struggle to collect as much as they need. That's where citizen science projects come in. By working together with volunteers, scientists and conservationists can collect much more information about the species they are studying. Sometimes specialist knowledge is required, but often a basic grasp of wildlife is all you need to get involved - some projects offer training or identification guides to help you, too.

Citizen science projects are a great way to learn more about our wonderful wildlife, at the same time as helping to protect it. Here are some of the citizen science projects you could get involved in with The Wildlife Trusts.

National projects

Ulster Wildlife

Shoresearch

Become an amateur marine biologist by joining Shoresearch, our national citizen science survey of the intertidal shore. Learn to identify shoreline plants and wildlife and help us monitor this special habitat. 

Regional projects

Grass snake ©Jamie Hall

Reptile reporting

Can you help us find the reptiles in Cheshire? Send in your sightings (photos are the most useful)

Tom Marshall

iSpy a Hedgehog

Hedgehogs are disappearing from our towns and countryside and we need your help to track them down. Help reveal more about hedgehogs in Cumbria by reporting your sightings.

Grey seal ©Alexander Mustard/2020VISION

Secrets of the Solent

Help reveal the Secrets of the Solent by taking part in intertidal surveys, or sharing sightings of marine mammals or seagrass in the region.

February 7, 2014

Climate Change Proves a Survival Experiment for Wildlife

The rapid, unplanned experiment of global warming is pushing some animals to the brink

By Elizabeth Harball & ClimateWire

In the 1993 blockbuster movie "Jurassic Park," a sleazy scientist played by Jeff Goldblum quips that "life finds a way." For real biologists, climate change is like a massive, unplanned experiment, one that may be too fast and strange for some species to survive it.

Some animals are already in the middle of it. As Arctic ice shelves melt, polar bears are ransacking seabird nests to sustain themselves. Migrating geese are exploring valuable but previously unseen real estate, due to melting permafrost.

But whether these adaptation attempts will succeed remains a big question, researchers say. As temperatures rise, entirely new environments are forming, changing how species interact with each other and their surroundings in often unexpected ways.

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"We're likely to see different habitats form than what we see now," said T. Douglas Beard Jr., who heads the U.S. Geological Survey's National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center. "What we don't understand is how these new communities will be assembled. So if you get a whole new type of flora, a whole new type of forest that no one's ever seen before ... it's pretty unknown which species are going to be able to flourish and those that will struggle."

Polar bears turn from seals to eggs One of the most swiftly shifting environmental regimes is the polar north, where habitats are heating up faster than other parts of the Earth. The changing behavior of a top predator, the polar bear, is having a big impact on other species.

As sea ice slowly, steadily declines in the Canadian Arctic, polar bears are less able to walk out onto the frozen ocean and prey on seals, their favorite winter food source.

"For most bears, over 95 percent of their energetic needs are met by ringed seals and bearded seals," polar bear expert Andrew Derocher, of the University of Alberta's Department of Biological Sciences, said in an email. According to Derocher, hundreds of bears that once spent most of their lives on ice are now confined to land during the summer, forcing them to seek out new food sources.

A study published this week found bears have increasingly turned to bird eggs in a last-ditch effort to fatten up. Since the 1980s, researchers concluded, bear raids on colonies of two different bird species in northern Quebec have increased sevenfold.

Unlike foxes, the birds' usual predators in the region, polar bears swim to islands that host large colonies of nesting birds and proceed to tromp through and eat massive quantities of eggs, said Sam Iverson, lead author of the study and a Ph.D. candidate at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario.

"When bears came on, we generally saw a total reproductive failure on colonies," Iverson said. "With less ice, more frequent visits by bears is an increasing problem."

Iverson doubts this shift in bear diets will threaten the species he studied with extinction -- other colonies exist in Maine and Europe -- but he does expect significant local population declines. However, species with more limited habitat, like some seabirds, may not be so lucky, he said.

Even unluckier are the polar bears, as bird eggs are unlikely to make up for the species's inability to access seals.

"Our energetics modeling suggest that birds cannot make a meaningful contribution to a polar bear population," Derocher said. "To the individual bear, the energy return might be meaningful, but you can't feed [more than] 2,000 bears on bird eggs."

Geese have a new home, but for how long? But there are some winners as the climate shifts -- at least for now. In the northern regions of Alaska, a habitat newly created by climate change is driving a game of musical chairs among visiting geese.

What is likely a combination of rising temperatures, more powerful storm surges, sea-level rise and land subsidence has transformed portions of Alaska's Arctic Coastal Plain. Thawing permafrost near the ocean shore has given way to expanses of short-leafed, salt-tolerant plant species. They are forming salt marshes that more closely resemble a golf green than the Arctic tundra -- habitat that happens to be perfect for black brant geese.

Black brant geese migrate into this region in mid-July to molt, a period when they are unable to fly for about three weeks. In the 1970s, most of these geese -- close to 70 percent -- would settle down by Teshekpuk Lake, near Barrow, Alaska, where there was plentiful forage and a place to swim to safety. Then, only about 30 percent of the geese spent this time near the coast.

But today, the numbers have switched: About 70 percent of the black brants now molt along the coast, having discovered the recent expansion of a new rich food source along the Beaufort Sea.

"There's no evidence that the birds are having difficulty on those inland lakes, it's just that the coast is probably even better," said Paul Flint, a research wildlife biologist with the USGS based in Anchorage, Alaska, who has authored three studies on the geese. "You get on the ground out there and you realize, holy cow, there is a lot of good forage."

But sea-level rise and storm surges, the very forces that are helping drive the establishment of this new habitat, could destroy it in the coming years, Flint said.

"It's a bit of an arms race," Flint said. "We don't have enough data, we don't have enough time series to know which process is going to win out -- are [fertile salt marshes] going to keep advancing inland, or will coastal erosion take over and wipe it all out?"

How much hope for moss-eating pikas? Because climate change is spurring such quick yet complex shifts, it vital for researchers to understand the hows and whys of animals' reaction to climate change, said USGS ecologist Erik Beever.

"Climate is a spatially and temporally complex phenomenon," Beever said. "It's really incumbent upon scientists to try to understand the mechanisms by which climate is acting upon species and communities and ecosystems, because if we don't understand how and why species are being affected, we don't know what to try to do with climate [adaptation] management or conservation."

For this reason, Beever has been studying the habitats and behavior of the American pika for more than two decades. Today, uncertainty surrounds the fate of these small mammals that depend on cool, high-elevation habitats in the mountainous western U.S. In 2003, a study found that six out of 25 pika populations historically located in the Great Basin had disappeared. Between 2003 and 2008, Beever, the lead author of the earlier study, returned to find that an additional four populations had died out.

But scientists recently discovered that one pika population in Oregon and Washington's Columbia River Gorge is surviving in hotter weather and lower altitudes than its counterparts. They think the pikas are coping by eating moss, which grows year-round and doesn't require the pikas to leave the cool, safe comfort of rock slides.

The researchers were surprised because moss is far from an ideal food source: "Very few mammals are able to eat moss," said Johanna Varner, a biologist at the University of Utah and lead author of the study. "It's basically the nutritional equivalent of eating a cereal box."

Varner and her colleagues discovered that the pikas have been eating the moss twice to compensate -- first fresh, then again as feces. To be clear, climate change is not driving pikas to eat more of their own poop -- it's common behavior, Varner said, and this population may have been doing this since before the era of fossil fuels.

But how much hope does this apparent flexibility give us for the future of pikas? As with black brant geese and polar bears, perhaps not enough.

"What I think we can safely say from my study is that they seem quite adaptable in terms of what they're able to eat," Varner said. "The jury is still out whether or not this means anything for pika populations that are dying off."

At best, scientists can say that the way species react to climate change will be nuanced, but learning how to manage unpredictable animal shifts in the face of climate change is a tall order. For millions of years, species have been subjected to weather extremes and shifts in climate, but the rapid onset of global warming today is a novelty -- and, likely, a huge challenge. One recent study predicted that about a third of animals could lose more than half their present range by the 2080s ( ClimateWire , May 13, 2013).

"There's no doubt there's going to be winners and losers," said Beard of the USGS. "Sitting here trying to divine the winners and losers is not the easiest thing."

Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net , 202-628-6500

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Wildlife Conservation Project Ideas for Kids

How to Protect Wildlife

If you love animals and care about protecting their natural habitats, wildlife conservation organizations would welcome your help. Protecting endangered species and restoring their living environment to healthy conditions is a big job. But it gets smaller if people, young and old, pitch in and show their commitment to protecting wildlife for future generations by participating in wildlife conservation projects. Take a look at the many project ideas for kids and get started making a difference today.

Habitat Restoration

Floods, disease and invasive species can destroy the balance of life in a habitat by wiping out the local flora and fauna, affecting the native wildlife's food supply. You can help by replanting the area with native plant species. Check with local environmental organizations to identify the areas of need and schedule a habitat restoration project or join one in progress.

Wildlife Survey

In order to know how to best focus their conservation efforts, wildlife organizations need to keep an eye on the comings and goings of an area's creatures. The more they know about the animals' habits, behavior and population, the better they can identify the areas of greatest need on which to concentrate their resources. While you are hiking in wildlife areas, keep a record of the type, number, location and behavior of the animals you observe, large and small. Share the results with a wildlife officer in charge of the area to help him plan future conservation projects.

Litter Cleanup

Litter introduces toxins and physical dangers into wildlife habitats that put animals at risk of entanglement, poisoning or injury. Picking up that trash is one of the simplest ways to protect wildlife from unnecessary harm due to human activity. Anywhere you go -- parks, beaches, wilderness areas, hiking trails or your own neighborhood -- make a habit of picking up trash. Clean up your own trash when you go camping and don't leave it behind to pollute the animals' home turf. Ask local environmental organizations for dates and places of scheduled cleanup days.

Storm Drain Stencils

Everyday activities such as gardening, washing cars and walking pets leave chemicals and waste products on lawns and streets that get washed into storm drains. Some people mistake storm drains for sewers and dump lawn clippings, chemicals, motor oil and other wastes into the water supply. Unlike sewer drains, storm drains run directly into rivers and streams without passing through a treatment plant. This means any added waste pollutes the water supply downstream and endangers animals that depend on this water. Storm drain stencils warn others of the dangers and remind them not to dump their waste in the drain. Ask the water department or clean-water agency about organizing a stenciling project with your family and friends.

Backyard Habitat

Wildlife conservation can start at home, in your own backyard. Research the type of trees, bushes and flowers that attract the birds, butterflies, insects and other animals native to the area. Set out a bird bath, bird feeders and shallow ponds. Fallen logs and rocks provide shelter and a resting place for the wildlife that use the habitat as a sanctuary from the noise and overcrowding caused by human activity that is destroying their natural habitats.

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• University of Tennessee Extension: 4H Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries Project
• National Wildlife Federation; Wildlife Activities; 2011
• Texas Parks and Wildlife: Be on the Outdoor Kids Helper Team; 2007

About the Author

Tamara Christine has written more than 900 articles for a variety of clients since 2010. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in applied linguistics and an elementary teaching license. Additionally, she completed a course in digital journalism in 2014. She has more than 10 years experience teaching and gardening.

Photo Credits

somchaij/iStock/Getty Images

Find Your Next Great Science Fair Project! GO

• Citizen Science Projects for Wildlife Lovers
• March 3, 2017

You can contribute to global research and conservation efforts in as little as 30 minutes

By Maria Ter-Mikaelian, Ph.D.

Did you ever dream about being a scientist as a kid? Or perhaps recent movies, like Hidden Figures , have inspired you to ponder a career path you never thought possible? Well, the good news is – you don’t have to go back to school for a Ph.D. to engage in citizen science. No lab coat is needed – all you need is a subject you are passionate about and a willingness to donate your time and effort, from as little as 30 minutes to an ongoing commitment of one or more hours a week. If you are reading this blog, then you are probably already passionate about wildlife conservation. So how can you contribute?

As a citizen scientist, you partner with a team of established scientists – often at a university, but sometimes at a government agency or a non-profit organization – who are conducting a study requiring a vast number of independent observations. Because the researchers have limited manpower and can only be in one place at any given time, they rely on volunteer citizen scientists from all over the world to supply them with data. This can be in the form of photos, videos, written observations, or recorded numbers, which you usually submit to the scientists via a website. The researchers then combine all the data they receive to analyze and draw conclusions, which are typically published in scientific journals, but also shared through their website and other media outlets. Some projects provide individual feedback to each citizen scientist or give the opportunity to engage on a continuing basis.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of ongoing citizen science projects around the world, many involving wildlife. Below are five of the most exciting and diverse, which you can become involved in immediately, if you wish.  

If you own a property that is occasionally visited by wildlife, you can volunteer to set up camera traps on it and submit the images to eMammal , a global repository of camera trap data managed by the Smithsonian. Even if not a single image of a mammal is ever captured by your camera, the data may be valuable to researchers in learning what areas animals of a particular species avoid, or where the numbers of a certain species have dwindled. eMammal is used by many groups of scientists around the world, so use their website to determine whether there is a project you could contribute to in your area. For example, the NY Metro Wildlife Network is currently recruiting volunteers in the greater NY Metropolitan area to help them study how several species, including coyotes, red foxes, and black bears, make a living in this semi-urban environment. Perks: in addition to the inner sense of satisfaction at having contributed to a scientific effort which can ultimately help us better preserve wildlife, many of these projects publish rankings of top citizen scientists on their websites!

An American Black Bear captured by an eMammal camera trap; source  

However, you don’t need to recognize bird species or have extensive property in the woods to participate in citizen science.

Do you have 30 minutes to go for a walk in your neighborhood? If so, you can contribute to the study of evolution at work! SquirrelMapper is a project aiming to understand the evolution of color in Gray Squirrels, which, in spite of their name, are not all gray and, in fact, used to be mostly black a few centuries ago.

If you live anywhere where these squirrels are found (much of the U.S. and Canada), simply print out the instructions from the website , bring a pen on your walk, and count how many gray and black squirrels you see.

Then enter the data into the website, and voila – you’ve entered the ranks of evolutionary scientists! Perk: the website has a section for teachers with suggestions for how to use the project for fun evolution-centered activities with their students.

  Photo by Eric Bégin/Flickr, source  

Are you a bird-watcher? If so, eBird , an online program created by the National Audubon Society and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, may be just for you.

The website provides a user-friendly interface where you can enter when and where you went bird-watching and fill out a checklist of birds seen and heard on your walk.  

The data are shared by many scientist groups, some studying only specific species in a particular region, others looking at global trends. Perks: the eBird website hosts regular challenges and contests with prizes for avid birders. Additionally, the site publishes frequent updates about scientific discoveries made thanks to the eBird data, and features a profile of a star citizen scientist every month.

Do you like to cycle, walk, or run along roads or highways? Few things can ruin your mood like seeing the carcass of a dead animal on the road. The next time this happens, you can turn this upsetting experience to good effect by submitting the information to Adventure Scientists’ Roadkill Survey .

All you need to do is to snap a photo with your smartphone and submit the picture, along with the GPS coordinates from your phone, to the website .

Researchers at the University of California-Davis are using roadkill data submitted by citizen scientists to study animal movement patterns, with the ultimate goal of influencing transportation policy to reduce vehicle-caused animal deaths.

Do you ever go whale-watching and take pictures? You can submit your photos to HappyWhale , which will then use sophisticated image processing to match the picture with others in its database and identify the species and particular individual you saw. You will then be informed about the movements of your whale around the globe – how cool is that?

The founders of HappyWhale aim not only to provide data about whale behavior to their partnering researchers, but to foster a sense of stewardship in people by creating personal connections to these marine mammals.

Perk: the website posts rankings of top citizen scientists, and the project boasts a lively Facebook community as well. HappyWhale’s software uses tail and other body markings to identify individual whales.

Photo: Isaac Kohane/Flickr, source

  Now that you’ve had a glimpse of some exciting citizen science initiatives, you may be curious to find others. Whatever your interests, location, and time constraints, you can find the perfect project on SciStarter . The website has a very convenient search form, where you can even focus on activities that can be done entirely indoors, for example, or find projects in which the whole family can participate. Many of the projects also have accompanying classroom materials, so if you are a teacher, you can engage your students in citizen science and incorporate it into the curriculum. Additionally, the National Geographic Society has an extensive list of citizen science projects, many of which focus on animals. So don’t wait – try your hand at citizen science!

Maria teaches Animal Behavior and also writes at https://medium.com/@maria.ter

To be notified when she posts a new article, join her mailing list here .

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Animal testing and experiments FAQ

How many animals are used in experiments each year?

Which animals are used in experiments, what kinds of experiments are animals used in, what kinds of institutions use animals in experiments, where do laboratories get the animals they use in experiments, what is life like for animals in laboratories, what happens to the animals once an experiment is over, aren’t there laws to protect animals used in experiments, why are animals still used in experiments, what are the alternatives to experiments on animals, what are the advantages of using non-animal alternatives instead of animals in experiments.

• What are you doing to end experiments on animals?

What can I do to help animals in laboratories?

Stand with us to demand that the federal government, state governments, companies and universities stop relying on outdated animal experiments.

It is estimated that more than 50 million animals are used in experiments each year in the United States. Unfortunately, no accurate figures are available to determine precisely how many animals are used in experiments in the U.S. or worldwide.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) does compile annual statistics on some animals used in experiments, including cats , dogs , guinea pigs , hamsters , pigs , primates , rabbits and  sheep .

However, the animals most commonly used in experiments—“purpose-bred” mice and rats  (mice and rats bred specifically to be used in experiments)—are not counted in annual USDA statistics and are not afforded the minimal protections provided by the Animal Welfare Act. The Animal Welfare Act is a federal law that sets minimal standards for the treatment of certain warm-blooded animals used in experiments. The law also requires that unannounced inspections of all regulated animal testing facilities are carried out annually, although some facilities only receive partial inspections . In addition to purpose-bred mice and rats, animals such as crabs, fish , frogs, octopuses and turtles , as well as purpose-bred birds , are not covered by the Animal Welfare Act. The failure to protect these animals under the law means that there is no oversight or scrutiny of their treatment in the laboratory or the experiments performed on them. And, because these animals are not counted, no one knows how many of them are suffering in laboratories. It also means that facilities using unprotected species in experiments are not required to search for alternative, non-animal methods that could be used to replace or reduce harmful experiments that use animals.

View Animals Used in Experiments by State

View Dogs Used in Experiments by State

Read Dogs Used in Experiments FAQ

Use our Animal Laboratory Search Tool  to find information about universities, hospitals, companies and other organizations that use certain animals in experiments

View a list of U.S. laboratories that use certain animals in experiments ; click on “License Type” and select “Class R – Research Facilities." Note that numbers only include animals covered by the Animal Welfare Act.

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Animals used in experiments include baboons, cats , cows , dogs , ferrets,  fish , frogs, guinea pigs , hamsters , horses , llamas, mice , monkeys (such as marmosets and macaques), owls, pigs , quail, rabbits , rats and  sheep .

Chimpanzees have thankfully not been subjected to invasive experiments in the U.S. since 2015, when federal decisions were made to prevent their use. Despite this, hundreds of chimpanzees are still languishing in laboratories while they wait to be moved to sanctuaries.

Animals are used in many different kinds of experiments. These are just a few examples:

• Dogs have their hearts, lungs or kidneys deliberately damaged or removed to study how experimental substances might affect human organ function.  
• Monkeys are taken from their mothers as infants to study how extreme stress might affect human behavior.
• Mice are force-fed daily doses of a chemical for two years to see if it might cause cancer in humans.
• Cats have their spinal cords damaged and are forced to run on treadmills to study how nerve activity might affect human limb movement.
• Ferrets are deliberately infected with extremely painful, potentially fatal diseases (such as RSV, COVID-19 or Ebola) and not given pain relief or treatment before their death to study how humans might be affected by the same disease.  
• Pigs are implanted with various devices (such as pacemakers and dental implants) to study how human bodies might respond to such devices.  
• Pregnant rabbits are force-fed toxic pesticides every day for several weeks to study how human mothers and babies might be affected if they were exposed to the pesticides.
• Sheep are subjected to high pressures (such as those experienced deep underwater) for hours at a time and then returned to normal pressure so that their response can be observed.
• Rats are placed in small tubes and are forced to inhale cigarette smoke for hours at a time to study how humans might respond to cigarette smoke.   
• Baboons are injected with endometrial tissue to induce painful symptoms of endometriosis and study how humans might be affected by the disorder.
• Horses are infected with a potentially fatal virus (such as hepatitis) and their symptoms monitored to study how humans might be affected by the same virus.

Experiments are often excruciatingly painful for the animals used and can vary in duration from days to months to years. The experiment can cause vomiting, diarrhea, irritation, rashes, bleeding, loss of appetite, weight loss, convulsions, respiratory distress, salivation, paralysis, lethargy, bleeding, organ abnormalities, tumors, heart failure, liver disease, cancer and death.

There is no limit to the extent of pain and suffering that can be inflicted on animals during experiments. In some instances, animals are not given any kind of pain medication to help relieve their suffering or distress during or after the experiment on the basis that it could affect the experiment.

Animals are typically killed once an experiment is over so that their tissues and organs can be examined, although it is not unusual for animals to be used in multiple experiments over many years. There are no accurate statistics available on how many animals are killed in laboratories every year.

Read Cosmetics Animal Testing FAQ

• Read about our 2022 undercover investigation at Indiana laboratory Inotiv, one of America’s largest animal testing labs. We documented hundreds of dogs, monkeys, rats and pigs undergoing experiments, including terrified beagle puppies being force-fed a potentially toxic drug in cruel and ineffective months-long tests paid for by Crinetics, a pharmaceutical company in San Diego.
• Read about our 2019 undercover investigation at a Michigan laboratory where thousands of dogs are killed every year. After weeks of pressure from the public, the pesticide company that had commissioned a year-long fungicide test on 32 dogs agreed that the test was unnecessary and released the dogs to one of our shelter partners to be adopted.

Chemical, pesticide and drug companies (as well as contract laboratories that carry out tests for those companies), public and private universities, community and technical schools, government facilities, Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities and hospitals all use animals in experiments.

View USDA List of Organizations that Use Dogs in Experiments

View Chart of Institutions That Use Dogs in Experiments

The majority of animals in laboratories are “purpose-bred” meaning that they are bred specifically to be used in experiments. People who breed and sell certain purpose-bred animals are called Class A dealers and are licensed and inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Facilities that only sell purpose-bred mice, rats, birds or cold-blooded animals such as crabs, fish, frogs, octopuses and turtles to laboratories are excluded and are not licensed or inspected by the USDA.

Some animals used in experiments are taken from the wild—including birds and  monkeys . 

Historically, some cats and dogs  were sold to laboratories by brokers known as random source Class B dealers, who acquired animals at auctions, from newspaper ads and various other sources, including animal shelters. Random source Class B dealers have not been allowed to operate since 2015 when Congress first passed legislation to prevent them from being licensed.  

Some cats and dogs in laboratories are still obtained directly from animal shelters, a practice known as “pound seizure.” Pound seizure laws vary from state to state with one state (Oklahoma) requiring shelters to give cats and dogs to laboratories, rather than euthanizing them, and others allowing or prohibiting laboratories from taking animals from animal shelters. Some states have no laws at all, leaving it up to the individual shelter or locality.

View Pound Seizure Laws by State

Animals in laboratories suffer immensely. In addition to the painful experiments that the vast majority of animals in laboratories experience over days, months, years or even decades, life in a laboratory is typically a miserable and terrifying experience.

Typically kept alone in barren steel cages with little room to move around and few, if any, comforts, such as toys or soft bedding, animals often become excruciatingly lonelyand anxious, often devoid of the companionship of other animals or the loving touch of a human. Animals in laboratories can associate humans with painful situations and, with no way to hide or get away, they panic whenever a person approaches their cage or freeze with fear when they are taken into treatment rooms. Despite this, dogswill often still seek out human attention.

Animals in laboratories typically also have to watch (or hear) other animals suffering, including their own parents, siblings or babies. High levels of constant stress can cause animals to exhibit unnatural behaviors. For example, it is not uncommon for monkeys to mutilate themselves or to rock or vocalize constantly as a way to help relieve their anxiety, mice to overgroom each other until they are completely bald, and dogs to continually pace.  

Very often the experiments themselves lead to suffering and death. In our 2022 undercover investigation we documented monkeys in “restraint chairs”—devices that are used to hold monkeys in place while the experiments are carried out—who accidentally hanged themselves while unattended. We also documented a dog named Riley used to test a substance so toxic that it brought him near death after only two days of forced dosing. He was hypersalivating, trembling, vomiting, and moaning, yet was dosed yet again with this highly toxic substance. Later, he lay on the floor, unable to stand. Our undercover investigator tried to comfort him while he was dying, but Riley was left to suffer in excruciating pain overnight because the laboratory’s veterinarian was unavailable on a weekend

Animals in laboratories are also subject to mistreatment by inexperienced or careless staff. Although there are penalties for laboratories when animals are injured or killed due to negligence or when they fail to meet minimum standards of animal care, in reality, the fines are typically either very small or waived entirely.

In some cases, animals die as a deliberate result of the experiment. For example, the LD50 (lethal dose 50%) test, which is typically performed on mice, rats, pigeons, quail and fish, involves determining the dose of a substance (such as a pesticide) that kills (or would lead to the death of) 50% of the animals tested.

It is extremely rare that animals are either adopted out or placed into a sanctuary after research is conducted on them. However, more and more states are passing laws that require laboratories, when possible, to offer dogs and cats to shelters and other rescue organizations so they can be adopted into loving homes after the experiments they were used in have ended. As of December 2023, 16 states have such laws.

The Animal Welfare Act was designed to protect certain animals, like dogs and monkeys, used in experiments, but the law only offers minimal standards for housing, food and exercise. The Animal Welfare Act also stipulates that the proposed experiments be reviewed by an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, whose members are appointed by the laboratory itself and largely made up of employees of the institution. A 2014 audit report reviewing Animal Welfare Act oversight of laboratories found that “animals are not always receiving basic humane care and treatment and, in some cases, pain and distress are not minimized during and after experimental procedures.”

The animals most commonly used in experiments—“purpose-bred” mice and rats  (mice and rats bred specifically to be used in experiments)—are not counted in annual USDA statistics and are not afforded the minimal protections provided under the Animal Welfare Act. The Animal Welfare Act is a federal law that sets minimal standards for the treatment of certain warm-blooded animals used in experiments. The law also requires that unannounced inspections of all regulated research facilities are carried out annually. In addition to purpose-bred mice and rats, animals such as crabs, fish , frogs, octopuses and turtles as well as purpose-bred birds are not covered by the Animal Welfare Act. The failure to protect these animals under the law means that there is no oversight or scrutiny of their treatment and use in the laboratory. And, because these animals are not counted, no one knows how many of them are suffering in laboratories. It also means that facilities using unprotected species in experiments are not required to search for alternative, non-animal methods that could be used to replace or reduce harmful experiments that use animals.

The vast majority of experiments on animals are not required by government law or regulations. Despite that, government agencies often seem to prefer that companies carry out animal tests to assess the toxicity or efficacy of products such as industrial chemicals, pesticides, medical devices and medicines.

For example, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires that a new pesticide be fed to dogs for 90 days as part of its evaluation and approval process. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which regulates various products such as drugs, medical devices, food, fragrances and color additives, will not approve potential drugs unless they are first tested on animals, which usually includes dogs. In addition to tests on  dogs ,  mice and rats ,  rabbits ,  birds  and primates are also used to test pesticides and drugs. These types of tests have been performed for years, regardless of whether they provide valuable information. While some regulatory agencies, like the EPA, are now taking a critical look at these animal tests to determine if they provide information necessary for assessing how safe a product or substance is for humans, and if better approaches are available, others have done little. More efforts can be made by agencies to invest in and encourage the development of non-animal methods.

Swapping animal experiments for non-animal alternative methods seems like a straightforward process, given that using animals has so many limitations and sophisticated new technologies offer countless possibilities for creating methods that are more humane and that more accurately mimic how the human body will respond to drugs, chemicals or treatments. Unfortunately, developing these alternatives is a complex process facing many obstacles, including inadequate funding. In most cases, a non-animal alternative must be formally validated—historically an expensive and lengthy process—in order to be accepted by government regulatory agencies, both in the U.S. and globally, although new, faster approaches to approving these methods are being developed. In contrast, animal experiments have never been subjected to the same level of scrutiny and validation. Despite these challenges, many scientists are increasingly committed to developing and using non-animal methods.

The world is continuously moving toward a future dominated by sophisticated methods that use human cells, tissues and organs, 3D printing, robotics, computer models and other technologies to create experiments that do not rely on animals.

While many animal experiments have not changed since they were developed decades ago and will always have severe limitations, advanced non-animal methods represent the very latest techniques that science has to offer, provide countless possibilities to improve our understanding and treatment of human diseases and will only continue to improve over time. Non-animal methods also have several advantages over outdated animal experiments: they more closely mimic how the human body responds to drugs, chemicals and treatments; they are more efficient and often less expensive; and they are more humane. Ultimately, moving away from animal experiments is better for both humans and animals.

We advocate for the immediate replacement of animal experiments with available non-animal methods and for more funding to develop new non-animal methods. A concerted effort to shift funding and technological development toward more non-animal alternatives will lead us to a future where animal experiments are a thing of the past.

Examples of non-animal alternative methods

• “Organs-on-chips” are tiny 3D chips created from human cells that look and function like miniature human organs. Organs-on-chips are used to determine how human systems respond to different drugs or chemicals and to find out exactly what happens during infection or disease. Several organs, representing heart, liver, lungs or kidneys, for example, can be linked together through a “microfluidic” circulatory system to create an integrated “human-on-a-chip” model that lets researchers assess multi-organ responses.
• Sophisticated computer models use existing information (instead of carrying out more animal tests) to predict how a medicine or chemical, such as drain cleaner or lawn fertilizer, might affect a human.
• Cells from a cancer patient’s tumor are used to test different drugs and dosages to get exactly the right treatment for that specific individual, rather than testing the drugs on animals.
• Specialized computers use human cells to print 3D tissues that are used to test drugs.
• Skin cells from patients, such as those with Alzheimer’s disease, are turned into other types of cells (brain, heart, lung, etc.) in the laboratory and used to test new treatments.
• Sophisticated computer programming, combined with 3D imaging, is used to develop highly accurate 3D models of human organs, such as the heart. Researchers then input real-world data from healthy people and those with heart disease to make the model hearts “beat” and test how they might respond to new drugs.

Human cells or synthetic alternatives can replace horseshoe crab blood in tests to determine whether bacterial contaminants are present in vaccines or injectable drugs.

• Animal experiments are time-consuming and expensive.
• Animal experiments don’t accurately mimic how the human body and human diseases respond to drugs, chemicals or treatments.
• Animals are very different from humans and, therefore, react differently.
• Increasing numbers of people find animal testing unethical.
• There are many diseases that humans get that animals do not.

What are you doing to end experiments on animals?

We advocate for replacing animals with non-animal alternative methods when they are available and more funding for the development of new alternative methods to quickly replace antiquated and unreliable animal tests and experiments. Our two main areas of focus are ending cosmetics animal testing  and ending experiments on dogs .

Cosmetics testing on animals

We—along with our partner, Humane Society International —are committed to ending cosmetics animal testing forever. Through our  Be Cruelty-Free campaign, we are working in the United States and around the globe to create a world where animals no longer have to suffer to produce lipstick and shampoo. 

• In the United States, we are working to pass the Humane Cosmetics Act , federal legislation that would prohibit animal testing for cosmetics, as well as the sale of animal-tested cosmetics.
• We are also working in several U.S. states to pass legislation that would end cosmetics animal testing. As of March 2024, 12 states (California, Hawai'i, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Virginia and Washington) have passed laws banning the sale of animal-tested cosmetics.
• Internationally, as of December 2023, 45 countries have passed laws or regulations to ban cosmetics animal testing, including every country in the European Union, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Iceland, India, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Kingdom.
• We work with scientists from universities, private companies and government agencies around the globe to promote the development, use and regulatory acceptance of non-animal test methods that will reach beyond cosmetics.
• We educate consumers about animals used in cruel and unnecessary cosmetics tests and how to shop for cruelty-free cosmetics and personal care products.

Experiments on dogs

There is no place for harmful experiments on dogs in the U.S. We are committed to ending this practice.

• In the summer of 2022, we led the removal of 3,776 beagles from Envigo, a facility in Virginia that bred dogs to sell to animal laboratories. This historic mission was the result of a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice that described shocking violations of the Animal Welfare Act at the facility. Instead of continuing to suffer, the dogs were removed from Envigo and headed to loving homes , a process facilitated by our shelter and rescue partners around the country.
• In April 2022, we released the results of our undercover investigation at Inotiv, an Indiana laboratory where thousands of dogs, monkeys, pigs and rats are used in experiments and killed.
• In 2021, we released a report examining the U.S. government’s role in using dogs in experiments. We found that the government uses millions of taxpayer dollars to fund harmful experiments on dogs each year—and also seems to prefer that companies carry out dog tests. Our researchers scrutinized public records and found that between 2015 and 2019, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded more than $200 million to 200 institutions for 303 projects that used dogs in harmful experiments. Dogs were subjected to multiple surgeries, fitted with equipment to impair their heart function and implanted with devices to alter normal bodily functions. Following the conclusion of an experiment, dogs are typically killed instead of being adopted into loving homes.
• In 2019, we released the results of our undercover investigation at a Michigan laboratory where thousands of dogs are killed every year. After weeks of pressure from the public, the pesticide company that had commissioned a test year-long fungicide test on 32 dogs, agreed that the test was unnecessary and released the dogs to one of our shelter partners so they could be adopted.
• After a recent analysis we performed that showed the 90-day dog test for pesticide registration was rarely used by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to assess the risk that pesticides pose to humans, we are urging the agency to eliminate or significantly limit this test in the near future. We also want the agency to reaffirm their previously stated commitment to end their reliance on using mammals to test pesticides and chemicals by 2035.
• We are asking the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to support the development of alternative methods that replace dogs in experiments. 
• We want the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to adopt the recommendations of an independent panel review released in 2020 that analyzed VA experiments using dogs, identified several areas where dogs are not needed and urged the agency to develop a strategy to replace all animal use. 
• We are recommending that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) scrutinize grant proposals for projects using dogs, by applying strict criteria that must be met before dogs can be used and that they ban the use of dogs in experiments that cause unrelieved pain. We are also requesting that the NIH define a date when they will no longer fund or support experiments on dogs.
• prohibit or limit the use of dogs in experiments not required by federal law, similar to laws passed in California and Illinois .
• ensure an opportunity for  dogs and cats to be adopted into loving homes after the experiment ends.
• strengthen regulatory oversight of facilities that breed dogs destined for laboratories and increase penalties for animal welfare violations.
• Direct state funding to support the research and development of modern non-animal technologies, similar to the law passed in Maryland .

One easy way to help animals suffering in cosmetics tests is to swap out your personal care and household products for cruelty-free versions! Cosmetics (such as shampoo, deodorant and lipstick) and household products (such as dish soap, laundry detergent and glass cleaner) are typically tested on guinea pigs , rabbits ,  mice and rats .

Help us demand better for animals used in experiments through the following actions:

• Tell the FDA to stop encouraging companies to test on animals and instead switch to sophisticated non-animal alternatives.
• Stand with us to end research and tests on dogs by signing our petition.
• Urge the USDA to do their job and help protect animals in laboratories.
• Ask your federal legislators in Congress to ban cosmetic tests on animals.
• Support efforts to replace animal experiments with advanced non-animal alternatives that are better for both human health and animal welfare.

Follow us on Facebook to learn the latest news and actions related to animals in laboratories!

Alternatives to horseshoe crab blood

The Humane Society of the United States urges that horseshoe crab blood be replaced with non-animal methods when conducting endotoxin tests for medical products.

Vaccine, injectable drug and medical device manufacturers must test for endotoxins, a type of bacterial contaminant that, if present, can cause patients to develop symptoms that can include fever, chills, headache and nausea. Blood from horseshoe crabs is used to conduct the Limulus amebocyte lysate (or LAL) test for endotoxins.

The problem

To create this test, horseshoe crabs are captured from the wild and up to 30% of their blood is removed by medical supply companies. The crabs are later returned to the wild; however, it is estimated that 10-15% or more of them die as a result of this process.

In addition to being collected for their blood, horseshoe crabs are gathered up by fisheries, which use them as bait. These practices have led to a rapid decrease in the horseshoe crab population, putting them at risk of extinction. The decrease in wild horseshoe crab populations also impacts other species, including migratory shorebirds like the red knot, a threatened species that depends on horseshoe crab eggs for food.

THE solution

Scientists have developed recombinant Factor C (rFC), a synthetic alternative to the protein in horseshoe crab blood that can detect bacterial endotoxins. Repeated studies have demonstrated that rFC is equivalent or superior to the LAL test. A second method—the monocyte activation test—uses human cells and can not only detect bacterial endotoxins, but also pyrogenic (fever-causing) non-endotoxins.

what should be done

As a member of the Horseshoe Crab Recovery Coalition, the Humane Society of the United States is advocating for the replacement of the Limulus amebocyte lysate test with recombinant Factor C (rFC) or the monocyte activation test (MAT).

We urge the U.S. Pharmacopoeia—which sets quality, purity, strength and identity standards for medicines, food ingredients and dietary supplements—to encourage manufacturers to use rFC or MAT rather than LAL.

We also urge the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to update its guidance for vaccine, injectable drug and device manufacturers to indicate that these non-animal tests are now the preferred methods for endotoxin and pyrogenicity testing.

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• Conservation
• Wildlife Management

What Does it Mean to ‘Follow the Science’ with Wildlife Management?

For better or worse, the coronavirus pandemic has brought science to the forefront of our political discourse. Phrases such as “follow the science” have become mainstream terms to describe someone’s commitment, or perceived lack thereof, to science-based decision making. These recent debates beg the question: what is science-based decision making and how can it help shape public policy?

Pandemic aside, MeatEater is an outspoken advocate of science-based fisheries and wildlife management , often reporting on research findings that are of interest to hunters and anglers. In fact, science-based policy is a core-tenant of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, the most successful conservation model ever. While it’s easy to voice support for science-based fisheries and wildlife management, the implementation is complex, and the term itself can be ambiguous at best and dubious at worst. In this article we’ll explore the utility and limitations of “science-based management,” exploring what it means and how it’s used.

How can Science Help? Arguably, the primary way that science can aid in fisheries and wildlife management is by providing long-term monitoring of fish and wildlife populations. Most of the time, state fish and wildlife agencies are responsible for maintaining long-term data about fish and wildlife abundance. Monitoring programs that span decades, or in some cases centuries, can help to detect trends in population abundance, overall habitat quality, or even the spread of invasive species.

For example, long-term trends in abundance show the rise and fall of famous fish stocks such as Atlantic Cod . By contrast, conservation success stories can also be seen through long-term monitoring programs. In Georgia, the Breeding Bird Survey highlights the success of wild turkey conservation efforts , with the survey index of abundance rising nearly 40-fold from the early 1980s to 2015. Without monitoring data, managers would have no way to identify increasing or decreasing trends in our most valued fish and wildlife populations, and be able to act accordingly.

Typically, monitoring programs collect the same information, in the same way, with the same equipment, year after year. This consistency allows scientists to attribute any changes through time to actual changes in the population, rather than to the way in which the information was collected. As an analogy, if I got skunked at a bass lake this year that bass-extraordinaire Oliver Ngy cleaned up on last year, I wouldn’t claim the largemouth population isn’t what it used to be (or if I did, I’d be full of shit). In the same way, good monitoring programs stick with their methods through time to ensure they are measuring what they intend to measure.

While the success of monitoring programs relies on collecting the same data year after year, another way science can assist in fisheries and wildlife management is by answering research questions that are of interest to fisheries and wildlife managers—and by extension, hunters and anglers. These are the studies you hear Miles Nolte discuss in the Fish News segment of the Bent Podcast and read about in Pat Durkin’s MeatEater articles. Through a combination of laboratory and field-based experiments, genetic analyses, and computer modeling, scientists can help answer the pressing questions that impact fisheries and wildlife management.

A classic example is antler size in whitetail bucks. We’ve all heard the claim that certain areas of the country just have “good genetics” and that’s why they grow big bucks. Although genetics is a factor in antler growth, scientific experiments repeatedly demonstrate the importance of access to high-quality food, which can have generational effects on antler size. Studies like these have obvious management implications—if you want big bucks, make sure they have access to good food.

In the fisheries world, scientific research can help answer questions like “ do fish learn to avoid certain lures ” or “how many fish die after they are caught and released ,” which can help inform specific regulations or reduce release mortality during the local bass tournament. Collectively, scientific research is responsible for a great number of discoveries that have certainly benefited fisheries and wildlife management.

Limitations to Science-Based Management Until now, the ways that we’ve discussed science as being useful to fisheries and wildlife management have been relatively objective and pretty straightforward. Questions like “how many” and “why are there that many” generally avoid human-created value systems and judgements. However, there are ways that science can help inform fisheries and wildlife management that also require some subjective human decision making to answer questions like “how much risk is too much” or “what are our goals and how do we set rules and regulations to achieve them.”

At the intersection of science and policy are population assessments. For example, stock assessments (a stock is a fish population or subpopulation that occupies a particular region), are the foundation for the management of many fish species. In addition to determining the number of fish there are in a population (often from monitoring data), stock assessments also determine whether a fish population is above or below some pre-defined level (often called a target, benchmark, or reference point). These determinations involve answering objective questions (e.g., are we removing fish from a population faster than they can be replaced), but also rely on human-defined criteria too.

This is a nuanced distinction, but one that is worth making. After all, MeatEater is pro-nuance and anti-bullshit. Although scientists can compute the amount of fishing that results in achieving the highest harvest possible without causing a population to decline (fancy term: maximum sustainable yield), science alone can’t determine whether that amount ought to be the target or benchmark we seek to achieve. That is a question of risk tolerance, stakeholder values, and management goals.

There are many considerations that go into defining a benchmark or reference point in fisheries and wildlife management. For example, fishing at the level that results in maximum sustainable yield is often risky because there is no margin for error in the estimated size of a population or for changes in the population size due to environmental factors. In other words, fishing at the level of maximum sustainable yield leaves little “wiggle room” if there are less fish than we think there are or if some factor besides fishing causes a population to decline.

Besides determining an acceptable level of risk (a question science alone cannot answer), there are other considerations when setting target levels of fish harvest. In a fishery that is primarily catch-and-release, managing for maximum sustainable yield might not make sense because fish aren’t being kept. Similarly, in commercial fisheries that harvest forage fish like menhaden , fisheries managers also need to consider the role these fish play as a food source for other species, and take this into account when they set catch quotas .

Questions of risk tolerance and competing stakeholder values aren’t unique to fisheries—just ask anyone who has real skin in the game when it comes to wolf management . The question of how to balance the issues of livestock predation, game species predation, human-wildlife conflict, and restoring species that were extirpated from parts of their range isn’t a wholly scientific one.

But that doesn’t mean science can’t be useful. Information about a species’ biology and ecology can help to identify a range of possible outcomes, which can be used to inform management decisions and generate compromises among competing interest groups. However, balancing the priorities of stakeholder groups (hunters and anglers, commercial fisheries, ranchers, farmers, wildlife viewers, etc.) inevitably means that fisheries and wildlife managers need to assign value to competing goals and objectives, which is not a scientific endeavor.

Science-based management involves integrating scientific information to help achieve the goals and objectives set by our fish and game agencies (hopefully with our input). Through monitoring, science can help set the baseline by recording the abundance of fish and game through time. Where aspects of a species’ biology or ecology are unknown, the scientific method is the undisputed champion in discovering the way the natural word operates.

Science can also help set the boundaries by determining the number of individuals that can be harvested without causing the overall population to decline. However, below this upper threshold, there’s a gray area where determining acceptable levels of harvest depends on human-prescribed values (e.g., managing for trophy potential versus opportunity), and therefore science cannot determine what managers “ought” to do without some pre-prescribed goal or objective. However, science can certainly help explore tradeoffs between competing goals and objectives and help identify actions that optimize desirable outcomes. And, once those targets are set, science can identify ways to achieve them as well as evaluate progress towards or away from them along the way.

So, “following the science” doesn’t really mean anything, because science alone cannot generate a set of orienting values. However, science, in conjunction with a responsible and ethical value orientation is certainly the best way to achieve sustainable fisheries and wildlife populations now and in the future.

Moving Forward So, as a hard-core hunter or angler, next time you read a scientific article or get into a heated social media debate about your local fishery or deer population, take a moment and ask yourself some questions.

First, if you find others “attacking the science,” do they really take issue with the way the science was conducted, or just the conclusion that was reached based on the results of a particular study? For better or worse, hunters and anglers, scientific researchers, and agency biologists can have competing values that may lead to differences in the way scientific information is interpreted and applied to specific management decisions. Scientific information can be valid and reliable, even if you disagree with the way management agencies are applying it to specific situations.

Second, ask yourself what are your own goals and values and do they align with those of the state fish and game agency? If you are a big buck hunter living in a state that manages for opportunity, it may be the case that your state game agency is not actually mismanaging the deer herd, it’s just managing it based on a different set of values. In this case, make your voice and opinion heard—most state fish and game agencies have regular meetings where the public is encouraged to attend and provide their input.

Finally, if you still find yourself with questions about the actual science, reach out to a fisheries or wildlife biologist. Many of us chose this profession because we love to hunt and fish and are happy to help answer any questions you might have. Science-based fisheries and wildlife management isn’t perfect—it’s a human endeavor—but it beats the hell out of some bureaucrat or legislator making decisions about our fish and wildlife resources.

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Why blue animals are so rare in nature

By Laura Baisas

Posted on Jun 25, 2024 8:00 AM EDT

4 minute read

Deposit Photos

The color blue is a very common favorite color for humans , but it is not seen in plants and animals very often. According to scientists from the University of Adelaide in Australia , this is partially because a true blue color or pigment doesn’t really exist in nature. Organisms that appear blue must absorb very small amounts of energy, while reflecting high-energy blue light. Since penetrating the molecules that are capable of absorbing this energy is a complex process, the color blue is less common than other colors in the natural world. 

Less common does not mean completely absent, since plants and animals can perform various “tricks” to appear blue. Here are some cool blue flora and fauna and how they sport this unique appearance.

Electric blue tarantula

In 2023, a team of scientists in Thailand discovered Chilobrachys natanicharum aka the electric blue tarantula. The spiders live in a variety of habitats, including trees and the hollows of mangrove forests or burrows on the ground. 

This arachnid’s wild color comes from the unique structure of their hair , not from a presence of blue pigment. Their hair features nanostructures that manipulate the light that shines on them that simulates their signature blue look. These hairs can also display a more violet hue depending on the amount of light present, which creates an iridescent effect. 

Previously, this species was found on the commercial tarantula market, but this was one of the first scientific studies describing its natural habitat or unique features.

A lapis lobster

Blue lobsters look more like sweet cotton candy than the red shell of a succulent and buttery delicacy we usually see. According to the New England Aquarium , only about 1 in 2 million lobsters are blue. 

In May , a fisherman in southern England found an azure-hued lobster in one of its traps. Rather than risk the lobster ending up on a dinner plate, the specimen was donated to a local aquarium. Blue lobsters have also been spotted in Marblehead, Massachusetts and France .

[Related: ‘Barbie’ reminds us that pink is a power color for everyone .]

Andrew Hebda, former curator of zoology at the Museum of Natural History,  likens the lobster to a painting. 

“You’re doing some water colors and you take a bit of blue, you take a bit of yellow, you take a bit of red and you take a bit of green and poof, mix them all together and what do you have? Mud. Which is what your normal lobster is,” Hebda told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation . “What happened here is that we don’t seem to have those other three pigments in there… you’re looking at a genetic mutation that has suppressed those colors.”

The Frank Sinatra of cicadas

In May , a family outside of Chicago spotted something special among this year’s already exceedingly rare double-brood “cicadapocalypse.” Instead of the bright red distinctive eyeballs that dot most cicadas, this female Magicicada cassin sported a pair of blue peepers. This special eye color is the result of a one in a million genetic mutation . 

Just like their more rosy-eyed counterparts, blue-eyed cicadas are short lived. It has already died and has been added to The Field Museum’s behind-the-scenes collections of insects . This “library of life on earth” allows scientists to study various specimens. Since blue-eyed cicadas are very rare, a team at the Field will try to sequence its DNA to learn more about the genes giving it its distinctive eyes.

Big blue bees

Despite looking a bit like an illustration from a Dr. Seuss book, blue carpenter bees ( Xylocopa caerulea ) live throughout Southeast Asia, India, and Southern China. They’re close to one inch long, making them look particularly hefty, but they are not particularly aggressive. Unlike other bees, they prefer to live alone and not in busy hives. 

Bees come in a rainbow of colors beyond yellow, including green , violet , white , and black , but the cerulean hue of these bees makes them popular among bug specimen collectors. 

What about flowers and leaves?

Fewer than 1 in 10 plant species are blue and even blueberries themselves aren’t technically blue . Plants achieve this color on their flowers by mixing naturally occurring pigments. Anthocyanins–or red pigments–are the most common pigments that plants use. Their appearance can be altered by varying acidity. When combined with reflected light, these changes create the bright and cheery flowers like hydrangeas, bluebells, and morning glories. 

Only a handful of plants that live on the floor of tropical rainforests have blue leaves . The primary reason for a lack of blue leaves is the physics of light. Pigments appear the same color as the light they reflect. Since the most common plant pigment is green chlorophyll , plants look green because chlorophyll reflects–rather than absorb green light. Blue light has more energy than any other color light on the visible spectrum. Blue leaves mean that the plant is reflecting high energy light and using poorer quality light that limits growth. 

It’s not entirely clear why plants may go to this growth-impeding trouble to be so blue, but a unique color may help them attract pollinators like bees .

Latest in Wildlife

Giant lizards could keep flesh-eating maggots off australia’s sheep giant lizards could keep flesh-eating maggots off australia’s sheep, mating, murder, and parenting: the complex lives of birds on display in 2024 audubon photography awards mating, murder, and parenting: the complex lives of birds on display in 2024 audubon photography awards.

By Popular Science Team

Watch CBS News

Team of female Colorado STEM students invents wildlife detection device

By Olivia Young

Updated on: June 24, 2024 / 7:52 AM MDT / CBS Colorado

An all-female team of teens from STEM School Highlands Ranch has invented a device they say will save both human and animal lives.

Every year, the Colorado Department of Transportation reports nearly 4,000 collisions between drivers and wildlife. By their estimates, it costs Colorado drivers $80 million annually.

"That's our ultimate goal, to engineer something that anyone and everyone can put on their cars," said Siddhi Singh, a rising junior at STEM School Highlands Ranch.

Singh is often one of the only girls in her classes.

"I felt kind of isolated," said Singh.

So when the opportunity came to lead a team for the "Samsung Solve for Tomorrow" contest, Singh chose fellow students Dhriti Sinha, Robyn Ballheim, and Bri Scoville.

"Working together as a group of girls makes us feel more powerful, like, come on, we're girls, how cool is that," said Singh.

The team named themselves "The Rubber Duckies," after a debugging method used by programmers. They chose "animal-car collisions" as the problem they wanted to solve for the contest.

"Generally, what Samsung asks you to do is to find a problem in your community that's affecting your community and then try to use technology to solve the problem," said team sponsor Tylor Chacon, who teaches computer science at STEM School Highlands Ranch.

The girls worked for months to invent a wildlife detection device.

"The current plan is to utilize an infrared camera to image the surroundings in front to detect animals and warn the driver when animals are in the environment so they can pay more attention, slow down, and be much more likely to avoid a collision," said Scoville, rising junior and Rubber Duckies member. 

The infrared camera can detect body heat, even in the dark or poor weather conditions.

"The use of infrared is definitely new and something that hasn't been done before," said Singh.

An algorithm tracks heat and motion, and AI machine learning classifies the data and recognizes it as an animal.

"When a detection is made, we have a signal sent to a smaller device inside the car that will warn the driver with a combination of light and sound," said Ballheim, a rising sophomore and Rubber Duckies member.

The team consulted with experts in the auto industry and at CDOT. 

Singh says CDOT has stationary wildlife sensing devices that don't work as well as the agency would like. The team hopes their device will be portable and more effective.

"We spoke with someone at Audi, they said that there are huge hopes for this device if we're able to get this to work," said Singh.

The Rubber Duckies even tested their prototype on their school's therapy dog. The device successfully recognized the animal and made a sound.

Their invention won the competition for Colorado and advanced to nationals. As a prize, they received thousands of dollars in equipment to assist with furthering their prototype.

The team lost at nationals, but it's not stopping the girls from continuing their work, even during summer break.

"Right now, we're currently working on redeveloping our prototype and really trying to involve more machine learning into our prototype," said Singh.

"We're currently planning our next prototype to be similar to a dash cam where it's mounted on the windshield," said Scoville.

"I've been looking into Bluetooth systems to see if we can get the device to emit Bluetooth signals and have it connect to the car," said Sinha, a rising junior and Rubber Duckies member.

The team plans to enter the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition again next year and refine the same device. But their goals go beyond winning.

"There's really no limit to how far the project could go, I think it's within sight to fix this problem," said Chacon.

The Rubber Duckies hope the technology will one day be incorporated into car manufacturing.

"We also hope that we can encourage other girls to innovate like us," said Scoville.

Teenage girls who are too young to drive, are now paving the way for safer roads and more women in STEM.

"These girls are laying the groundwork for somebody to look up to them later on and say, 'I wanna do that, I wanna be that, look what they did, I can do that too,'" said Chacon

Olivia Young is a reporter at CBS News Colorado. Read her latest reports or check out her bio and send her an email .

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Shhh! Chatty hikers cause wildlife to panic even more than the racket of off-road vehicles

Let the best of Anthropocene come to you.

It’s nice to hike through the woods with a few friends, feeling a little closer to the natural world. Perhaps you even entertain the idea of being in harmony with your surroundings.

It turns out, you might be more like a chainsaw at a chamber music concert.

The noise of a group of chatty hikers, it turns out, can set off panic among nearby animals. Their response is even more intense than if you drove a 4-wheeled offroad vehicle. And the effects can echo through the wilderness a week later, as wildlife avoid the site of even a small number of noisy human intrusions, according to new research.

“Noise from recreation can carry far beyond a trail system, so understanding how noise alone can affect wildlife is important for management,” said Mark Ditmer, an ecologist at the U.S. Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station who helped lead the study.

The woods are likely becoming a noisier place, as more people head outside to play. Last year a record 168 million Americans took part in outdoor recreation, according to the Outdoor Industry Association, a trade group. The pandemic lockdowns that closed many indoor venues is credited for boosting a trend that had already taken hold years earlier .

Outdoor recreation is often portrayed as leaving a light imprint on the natural world than. Sporting goods companies such as Patagonia tout their environmental credentials. The backcountry motto of “Leave No Trace” suggests humans can pass through a place without a mark.

But there is a growing realization that even the most low-impact activities can still affect wildlife. Increased human presence near wildlife is associated with a spike in stress hormones , abandonment of some habitat and drops in reproduction , among other things.

But how much of an effect comes just from the

? And do different kinds of activities have different effects? A group of Forest Service researchers teamed up with colleagues from several universities to find out.

The scientists set up a series of experiments in the forests of western Wyoming, which draws thousands of visitors to nearby places like Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks. They set up video cameras, audio speakers and motion detectors along trails created by wild animals, at least 650 meters from any place regularly traveled by people. When a creature passed a point on the trail, a video camera would start recording and a speaker located 20 meters away would begin broadcasting an audio recording of people engaged in an outdoor activity. That included hikers, mountain bikers, runners, and people riding offroad vehicles. In some cases, the audio was of a small group of relatively quite people. In others, it was groups of more than four talking a lot. The recordings lasted for up to 90 seconds.  All told, the speakers were triggered more than 1,000 times, with video capturing the reactions of mule deer, elk, moose, red fox, black bears, pronghorn antelope, cougars, coyotes and wolves.

When the scientists reviewed the images, it became clear that the sounds of outdoor recreation had a major effect. Wildlife was between 3.1 and 4.7 times more likely to flee when hearing those recordings than when they heard recordings of nature or nothing at all. They also showed signs of being more guarded and vigilant for 2.2 to 3 times longer after hearing recreation-related noises, the scientists reported last week in Current Biology .

The intensity of the reaction appears to have been influence both by how loud the sounds were and the type of sounds. Surprisingly, the effect of human voices outranked combustion engines. Recordings of talkative groups of more than four hikers or more than four mountain bikers triggered the strongest reactions, with animals 8 times more likely to run away. By comparison, animals were 3 times more likely to flee at the sound of offroad vehicles.

The effect was greatest among herbivores that are often prey animals, including elk, deer and antelope, as well as black bears. By contrast, large carnivores such as mountain lions showed little reaction.

The effect persisted. The week after speakers were shut off, the amount of wildlife showing up in videos was 1.5 times lower. This happened even though the amount of noise was low. Sound recordings were triggered no more than 21 times over the course of two weeks.

It’s not clear if these kind of behavior shifts would last, or if the animals would get accustomed to the sounds of humans. But public land managers need to pay attention to the potential effects, the scientists note. For instance, the study’s findings could help inform decisions about what limits to set on the size of groups allowed into certain areas, or efforts to educate people to reduce their noise. “Our findings highlight the need for thoughtful planning, with potential consideration of noise mitigation measures to minimize the impact on wildlife,” said Ditmer.

For those who aspire to leave wildlife less troubled, there is also some good news from the study. Small, quiet hiking groups or solo runners had little or no effect compared to the recordings of nature sounds.

Zeller, et. al. “ Experimental recreationist noise alters behavior and space use of wildlife .” Current Biology . June 13, 2024.

Image: ©Anthropocene Magazine

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• MyU : For Students, Faculty, and Staff

hUMNs of Chemistry #16

She/her/hers Associate Professor

Tell us about your journey to the University of Minnesota.

I first came to the U in the fall of 2006 as a chemistry graduate student, worked in Christy Haynes' group, and received my PhD in 2011. After a postdoc, I joined the chemistry department at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) as an assistant professor in 2014. During my time at VMI I realized I really enjoyed teaching and running teaching labs. My partner and I also missed living in the Twin Cities. I came back to the U in the Fall of 2017 as the term assistant professor for analytical chemistry.

What courses do you teach? What can students expect to get out of your course?

I teach introductory analytical chemistry lecture and lab, modern methods of instrumental chemistry lab, general chemistry I and general chemistry II. In all of the courses I teach students work on their critical thinking skills and how errors effect the accuracy and precision of their experiments.

Tell us about an important mentor in your academic life?

I can't choose just one, but the chemistry professors at my undergrad, Cornell College, were amazing. They had high expectations, but were always supportive and kind. They made learning tough topics approachable and were amazing role models. I try to be as good of a professor as they were and are each day.

What do you do outside of the classroom/lab/office for fun?

I enjoy being outdoors as much as possible. I like walking with my spouse and dogs, running with my running group, biking, and cross-country skiing. I read cozy mystery novels and travel during breaks in the academic year.

What’s your favorite piece of chemistry/science pop culture media? Why do you love it?

I still love the cheesy 1980's movie Real Genius. The idea of blowing up a giant jiffy pop popcorn bag with a military grade laser to destroy the evil professor's house is still hilarious. 

What was your very first job?

I worked as a fry cook at my undergraduate college's snack cafe. I worked the flat top, fryer, and made milkshakes.

Where is your favorite spot in the Twin Cities?

I love the trailhead @ Theodore Wirth Park. I spend most of my winter skiing there and I love how you can be out in nature and be able to see the city skyline.

Tell us about who makes up your household (including pets).

I live with my husband and two golden retrievers, Pepper(11) and Grey(2).

Arceus Pogany

They/Them/Theirs Senior Laboratory Technician

Please give a brief description of your role within the UMN Chemistry department.

I work with Patrick Schildt and Laura Kundel in the stockroom to support various teaching labs. Getting/creating materials, cleaning spaces and equipment, helping with safety and more to have successful classes.

I graduated from Macalester college and found it to be the best time of my life. Working in academia was a career goal, since an environment of learning is exactly what I like the best. I had a couple roles in commercial laboratories before ending up at the East Bank. I hope this is the start of a long career at the U!

Do you have a background in or like chemistry? Tell us about it!

My background is in biology, but that's because it was the most broad science major to pick. I have the problem of liking too many different things to pick just one, so that's why I majored in biology. I've always been interested in organic chemistry, since my father was an avid gardener and he had his compost heap down to a science to ensure the right ratio of nitrogen and carbon to get rich soil for his vegetables.

What professional successes are most important to you?

Improving myself every day. Be it with learning a new skill, mastering an old one, or staying informed about scientific discoveries, I like to feel like I go to bed a better person than when I woke up.

What do you hope to contribute to the chemistry community at the University?

Enthusiasm, accuracy, and a cheerful greeting everyday.

The Magic School Bus. I refused to play with dolls, but Ms. Frizzle was my one exception when mom bought a Ms. Frizzle doll from a Scholastic book fair when I was in elementary school. I loved her so much I almost tore her head off, and mom had to meticulously match the thread color with the fabric and stitch it back together. Someday I'll probably buy the whole series on disc if I can find it.

I worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department at the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge in Bloomington as a Youth Conservation Corps member. I did all sorts of things, like painting park buildings, catching and banding birds, clearing trails, cutting down invasive species, educating visitors, and wildlife surveys to name just some of the fun things I was able to do. I really loved the job!

I like to go hiking in the state parks with my DSLR camera. I will usually have quite a few pictures of fungus, moss, birds, and interesting tree bark by the time I'm finished.

What non-chemistry interest or activity of yours might surprise department members?

I started foraging for mushrooms a few years ago and it's been very fun! A giant puffball even popped up in the front yard that I was able to harvest for stir fry. It really is just like tofu for cooking.

Lake of the Isles. Mom and I love to walk, bike, or kayak around it. I keep a keen eye out for the birds, as we've seen kingfishers, egrets, loons, herons, and all sorts of migrating songbirds around it.

I live with my mom, Gillian and one-and-a-half year old cat, Matey. I also have numerous houseplants and a bioluminescent dinoflagellate (Pyrocystis fusiformis) colony!

Are there any family or cultural traditions you want to share with our community?

I have native white sage growing in the boulevard that we harvest and put into campfires to make wishes and share gratitude for what we have.

Daneasha Zackery

She/her/hers Graduate Student, Douglas Group

One day, as an undergraduate, one of my professors approached me about a great opportunity. She had told me about the Chemnext program hosted by the University of Minnesota. She said if I was interested in graduate school, then I should apply immediately (as the deadline was only two days away). I applied, and luckily, I was chosen to come and experience this community that I have come to appreciate dearly. It was during the Chemnext experience that I realized UofM was somewhere I wanted to be.

Are you involved in any student groups? What inspired you to get involved?

I am a member of NoBCChE. I was inspired to connect with other Black scientists along this journey in higher education to extend my sense of community.

What advice do you have for incoming chemistry students?

This journey is not linear, and will most likely be quite difficult at points, but always remember to celebrate your achievements. No matter how small they may seem in comparison to the overarching goal you have in graduate school, they are the things that will compel you to keep going and keep pursuing your dreams.

Dr. Eric Crumpler was my first chemistry professor and mentor. He is the person who made me realize that I could pursue chemistry as a career, and his teaching and mentorship taught me the value of "people first" as a way to approach being a scientist. We hold a social obligation to use our knowledge and findings to better the lives of the whole.

I am a big foodie and a snack enthusiast!

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40 Facts About Elektrostal

Written by Lanette Mayes

Modified & Updated: 01 Jun 2024

Reviewed by Jessica Corbett

Elektrostal is a vibrant city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia. With a rich history, stunning architecture, and a thriving community, Elektrostal is a city that has much to offer. Whether you are a history buff, nature enthusiast, or simply curious about different cultures, Elektrostal is sure to captivate you.

This article will provide you with 40 fascinating facts about Elektrostal, giving you a better understanding of why this city is worth exploring. From its origins as an industrial hub to its modern-day charm, we will delve into the various aspects that make Elektrostal a unique and must-visit destination.

So, join us as we uncover the hidden treasures of Elektrostal and discover what makes this city a true gem in the heart of Russia.

Key Takeaways:

• Elektrostal, known as the “Motor City of Russia,” is a vibrant and growing city with a rich industrial history, offering diverse cultural experiences and a strong commitment to environmental sustainability.
• With its convenient location near Moscow, Elektrostal provides a picturesque landscape, vibrant nightlife, and a range of recreational activities, making it an ideal destination for residents and visitors alike.

Known as the “Motor City of Russia.”

Elektrostal, a city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia, earned the nickname “Motor City” due to its significant involvement in the automotive industry.

Home to the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Elektrostal is renowned for its metallurgical plant, which has been producing high-quality steel and alloys since its establishment in 1916.

Boasts a rich industrial heritage.

Elektrostal has a long history of industrial development, contributing to the growth and progress of the region.

Founded in 1916.

The city of Elektrostal was founded in 1916 as a result of the construction of the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Located approximately 50 kilometers east of Moscow.

Elektrostal is situated in close proximity to the Russian capital, making it easily accessible for both residents and visitors.

Known for its vibrant cultural scene.

Elektrostal is home to several cultural institutions, including museums, theaters, and art galleries that showcase the city’s rich artistic heritage.

A popular destination for nature lovers.

Surrounded by picturesque landscapes and forests, Elektrostal offers ample opportunities for outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, and birdwatching.

Hosts the annual Elektrostal City Day celebrations.

Every year, Elektrostal organizes festive events and activities to celebrate its founding, bringing together residents and visitors in a spirit of unity and joy.

Has a population of approximately 160,000 people.

Elektrostal is home to a diverse and vibrant community of around 160,000 residents, contributing to its dynamic atmosphere.

Boasts excellent education facilities.

The city is known for its well-established educational institutions, providing quality education to students of all ages.

A center for scientific research and innovation.

Elektrostal serves as an important hub for scientific research, particularly in the fields of metallurgy , materials science, and engineering.

Surrounded by picturesque lakes.

The city is blessed with numerous beautiful lakes , offering scenic views and recreational opportunities for locals and visitors alike.

Well-connected transportation system.

Elektrostal benefits from an efficient transportation network, including highways, railways, and public transportation options, ensuring convenient travel within and beyond the city.

Famous for its traditional Russian cuisine.

Food enthusiasts can indulge in authentic Russian dishes at numerous restaurants and cafes scattered throughout Elektrostal.

Home to notable architectural landmarks.

Elektrostal boasts impressive architecture, including the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord and the Elektrostal Palace of Culture.

Offers a wide range of recreational facilities.

Residents and visitors can enjoy various recreational activities, such as sports complexes, swimming pools, and fitness centers, enhancing the overall quality of life.

Provides a high standard of healthcare.

Elektrostal is equipped with modern medical facilities, ensuring residents have access to quality healthcare services.

Home to the Elektrostal History Museum.

The Elektrostal History Museum showcases the city’s fascinating past through exhibitions and displays.

A hub for sports enthusiasts.

Elektrostal is passionate about sports, with numerous stadiums, arenas, and sports clubs offering opportunities for athletes and spectators.

Celebrates diverse cultural festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal hosts a variety of cultural festivals, celebrating different ethnicities, traditions, and art forms.

Electric power played a significant role in its early development.

Elektrostal owes its name and initial growth to the establishment of electric power stations and the utilization of electricity in the industrial sector.

Boasts a thriving economy.

The city’s strong industrial base, coupled with its strategic location near Moscow, has contributed to Elektrostal’s prosperous economic status.

Houses the Elektrostal Drama Theater.

The Elektrostal Drama Theater is a cultural centerpiece, attracting theater enthusiasts from far and wide.

Popular destination for winter sports.

Elektrostal’s proximity to ski resorts and winter sport facilities makes it a favorite destination for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter activities.

Promotes environmental sustainability.

Elektrostal prioritizes environmental protection and sustainability, implementing initiatives to reduce pollution and preserve natural resources.

Home to renowned educational institutions.

Elektrostal is known for its prestigious schools and universities, offering a wide range of academic programs to students.

Committed to cultural preservation.

The city values its cultural heritage and takes active steps to preserve and promote traditional customs, crafts, and arts.

Hosts an annual International Film Festival.

The Elektrostal International Film Festival attracts filmmakers and cinema enthusiasts from around the world, showcasing a diverse range of films.

Encourages entrepreneurship and innovation.

Elektrostal supports aspiring entrepreneurs and fosters a culture of innovation, providing opportunities for startups and business development .

Offers a range of housing options.

Elektrostal provides diverse housing options, including apartments, houses, and residential complexes, catering to different lifestyles and budgets.

Home to notable sports teams.

Elektrostal is proud of its sports legacy , with several successful sports teams competing at regional and national levels.

Boasts a vibrant nightlife scene.

Residents and visitors can enjoy a lively nightlife in Elektrostal, with numerous bars, clubs, and entertainment venues.

Promotes cultural exchange and international relations.

Elektrostal actively engages in international partnerships, cultural exchanges, and diplomatic collaborations to foster global connections.

Surrounded by beautiful nature reserves.

Nearby nature reserves, such as the Barybino Forest and Luchinskoye Lake, offer opportunities for nature enthusiasts to explore and appreciate the region’s biodiversity.

Commemorates historical events.

The city pays tribute to significant historical events through memorials, monuments, and exhibitions, ensuring the preservation of collective memory.

Promotes sports and youth development.

Elektrostal invests in sports infrastructure and programs to encourage youth participation, health, and physical fitness.

Hosts annual cultural and artistic festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal celebrates its cultural diversity through festivals dedicated to music, dance, art, and theater.

Provides a picturesque landscape for photography enthusiasts.

The city’s scenic beauty, architectural landmarks, and natural surroundings make it a paradise for photographers.

Connects to Moscow via a direct train line.

The convenient train connection between Elektrostal and Moscow makes commuting between the two cities effortless.

A city with a bright future.

Elektrostal continues to grow and develop, aiming to become a model city in terms of infrastructure, sustainability, and quality of life for its residents.

In conclusion, Elektrostal is a fascinating city with a rich history and a vibrant present. From its origins as a center of steel production to its modern-day status as a hub for education and industry, Elektrostal has plenty to offer both residents and visitors. With its beautiful parks, cultural attractions, and proximity to Moscow, there is no shortage of things to see and do in this dynamic city. Whether you’re interested in exploring its historical landmarks, enjoying outdoor activities, or immersing yourself in the local culture, Elektrostal has something for everyone. So, next time you find yourself in the Moscow region, don’t miss the opportunity to discover the hidden gems of Elektrostal.

Q: What is the population of Elektrostal?

A: As of the latest data, the population of Elektrostal is approximately XXXX.

Q: How far is Elektrostal from Moscow?

A: Elektrostal is located approximately XX kilometers away from Moscow.

Q: Are there any famous landmarks in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to several notable landmarks, including XXXX and XXXX.

Q: What industries are prominent in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal is known for its steel production industry and is also a center for engineering and manufacturing.

Q: Are there any universities or educational institutions in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to XXXX University and several other educational institutions.

Q: What are some popular outdoor activities in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal offers several outdoor activities, such as hiking, cycling, and picnicking in its beautiful parks.

Q: Is Elektrostal well-connected in terms of transportation?

A: Yes, Elektrostal has good transportation links, including trains and buses, making it easily accessible from nearby cities.

Q: Are there any annual events or festivals in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal hosts various events and festivals throughout the year, including XXXX and XXXX.

Elektrostal's fascinating history, vibrant culture, and promising future make it a city worth exploring. For more captivating facts about cities around the world, discover the unique characteristics that define each city . Uncover the hidden gems of Moscow Oblast through our in-depth look at Kolomna. Lastly, dive into the rich industrial heritage of Teesside, a thriving industrial center with its own story to tell.

The Unique Burial of a Child of Early Scythian Time at the Cemetery of Saryg-Bulun (Tuva)

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Pages:  379-406

In 1988, the Tuvan Archaeological Expedition (led by M. E. Kilunovskaya and V. A. Semenov) discovered a unique burial of the early Iron Age at Saryg-Bulun in Central Tuva. There are two burial mounds of the Aldy-Bel culture dated by 7th century BC. Within the barrows, which adjoined one another, forming a figure-of-eight, there were discovered 7 burials, from which a representative collection of artifacts was recovered. Burial 5 was the most unique, it was found in a coffin made of a larch trunk, with a tightly closed lid. Due to the preservative properties of larch and lack of air access, the coffin contained a well-preserved mummy of a child with an accompanying set of grave goods. The interred individual retained the skin on his face and had a leather headdress painted with red pigment and a coat, sewn from jerboa fur. The coat was belted with a leather belt with bronze ornaments and buckles. Besides that, a leather quiver with arrows with the shafts decorated with painted ornaments, fully preserved battle pick and a bow were buried in the coffin. Unexpectedly, the full-genomic analysis, showed that the individual was female. This fact opens a new aspect in the study of the social history of the Scythian society and perhaps brings us back to the myth of the Amazons, discussed by Herodotus. Of course, this discovery is unique in its preservation for the Scythian culture of Tuva and requires careful study and conservation.

Keywords: Tuva, Early Iron Age, early Scythian period, Aldy-Bel culture, barrow, burial in the coffin, mummy, full genome sequencing, aDNA

Information about authors: Marina Kilunovskaya (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dvortsovaya Emb., 18, Saint Petersburg, 191186, Russian Federation E-mail: [email protected] Vladimir Semenov (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dvortsovaya Emb., 18, Saint Petersburg, 191186, Russian Federation E-mail: [email protected] Varvara Busova  (Moscow, Russian Federation).  (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation). Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences.  Dvortsovaya Emb., 18, Saint Petersburg, 191186, Russian Federation E-mail:  [email protected] Kharis Mustafin  (Moscow, Russian Federation). Candidate of Technical Sciences. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.  Institutsky Lane, 9, Dolgoprudny, 141701, Moscow Oblast, Russian Federation E-mail:  [email protected] Irina Alborova  (Moscow, Russian Federation). Candidate of Biological Sciences. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.  Institutsky Lane, 9, Dolgoprudny, 141701, Moscow Oblast, Russian Federation E-mail:  [email protected] Alina Matzvai  (Moscow, Russian Federation). Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.  Institutsky Lane, 9, Dolgoprudny, 141701, Moscow Oblast, Russian Federation E-mail:  [email protected]

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Out of the Centre

Savvino-storozhevsky monastery and museum.

Zvenigorod's most famous sight is the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery, which was founded in 1398 by the monk Savva from the Troitse-Sergieva Lavra, at the invitation and with the support of Prince Yury Dmitrievich of Zvenigorod. Savva was later canonised as St Sabbas (Savva) of Storozhev. The monastery late flourished under the reign of Tsar Alexis, who chose the monastery as his family church and often went on pilgrimage there and made lots of donations to it. Most of the monastery’s buildings date from this time. The monastery is heavily fortified with thick walls and six towers, the most impressive of which is the Krasny Tower which also serves as the eastern entrance. The monastery was closed in 1918 and only reopened in 1995. In 1998 Patriarch Alexius II took part in a service to return the relics of St Sabbas to the monastery. Today the monastery has the status of a stauropegic monastery, which is second in status to a lavra. In addition to being a working monastery, it also holds the Zvenigorod Historical, Architectural and Art Museum.

Belfry and Neighbouring Churches

Located near the main entrance is the monastery's belfry which is perhaps the calling card of the monastery due to its uniqueness. It was built in the 1650s and the St Sergius of Radonezh’s Church was opened on the middle tier in the mid-17th century, although it was originally dedicated to the Trinity. The belfry's 35-tonne Great Bladgovestny Bell fell in 1941 and was only restored and returned in 2003. Attached to the belfry is a large refectory and the Transfiguration Church, both of which were built on the orders of Tsar Alexis in the 1650s.  

To the left of the belfry is another, smaller, refectory which is attached to the Trinity Gate-Church, which was also constructed in the 1650s on the orders of Tsar Alexis who made it his own family church. The church is elaborately decorated with colourful trims and underneath the archway is a beautiful 19th century fresco.

Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral

The Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral is the oldest building in the monastery and among the oldest buildings in the Moscow Region. It was built between 1404 and 1405 during the lifetime of St Sabbas and using the funds of Prince Yury of Zvenigorod. The white-stone cathedral is a standard four-pillar design with a single golden dome. After the death of St Sabbas he was interred in the cathedral and a new altar dedicated to him was added.

Under the reign of Tsar Alexis the cathedral was decorated with frescoes by Stepan Ryazanets, some of which remain today. Tsar Alexis also presented the cathedral with a five-tier iconostasis, the top row of icons have been preserved.

Tsaritsa's Chambers

The Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral is located between the Tsaritsa's Chambers of the left and the Palace of Tsar Alexis on the right. The Tsaritsa's Chambers were built in the mid-17th century for the wife of Tsar Alexey - Tsaritsa Maria Ilinichna Miloskavskaya. The design of the building is influenced by the ancient Russian architectural style. Is prettier than the Tsar's chambers opposite, being red in colour with elaborately decorated window frames and entrance.

At present the Tsaritsa's Chambers houses the Zvenigorod Historical, Architectural and Art Museum. Among its displays is an accurate recreation of the interior of a noble lady's chambers including furniture, decorations and a decorated tiled oven, and an exhibition on the history of Zvenigorod and the monastery.

Palace of Tsar Alexis

The Palace of Tsar Alexis was built in the 1650s and is now one of the best surviving examples of non-religious architecture of that era. It was built especially for Tsar Alexis who often visited the monastery on religious pilgrimages. Its most striking feature is its pretty row of nine chimney spouts which resemble towers.

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