Conservation News

Following is a selected project highlight from the Share with Wildlife mission to assist all New Mexico wildlife in need, no matter what species. The Tale of (Potentially) Two Species of Bell’s Vireos Bell’s Vireo habitat on the Mimbres River. (Andy Johnson) One bird you may have heard, if not seen, if you spend time in dense thickets along the Rio Grande or the Pecos or Gila rivers is the Bell’s Vireo. There is an interesting question associated with this threatened songbird: are there one or two species of Bell’s Vireo? Previous assessments have shown that eastern and western populations are distinct genetically and morphologically, but samples from New Mexico were not included in that analysis. Andy Johnson and others at the University of New Mexico in the Museum of Southwestern Biology, using funds from the Share with Wildlife program at New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, [...]

Following is a selected project highlight from the Share with Wildlife mission to assist all New Mexico wildlife in need, no matter what species. Gathering Data on Young Vireos Juniper savanna at the Sevilleta. (Silas Fischer) Have you ever looked at the pinyon-juniper forests that grace much of northern and central New Mexico and wondered what kind of birds live in them? Have you ever thought about how biologists determine what kind of habitat features are most important to birds when they are selecting a site to build their nest or when young birds have just left the nest? Using funding from the Share with Wildlife program, Dr. Henry Streby and his graduate student, Silas Fischer, from the University of Toledo are helping biologists at New Mexico Department of Game and Fish answer these questions for one inhabitant of the sometimes underappreciated pinyon-juniper woodlands of New Mexico; the [...]