Major Discoveries in Migration Research (2010-2020)

2011 – Hiding in plain sight
Researchers discovered a mule deer migration spanning 150 miles, making it the longest known land-mammal migration within the continuous United States. The discovery made it onto the national stage, with coverage in National Geographic and the New York Times. The deer cross a patchwork of public and private land, traverse natural and man-made obstacles, and highlight the need for a new era of conservation strategies that protect wildlife corridors and connectivity at expansive scales. In 2012, Canadian researchers found pronghorn antelope that ducked fences, crossed railways, and traversed reservoirs to travel up to 260 miles from northern Montana across the border and into Saskatchewan and Alberta.

2011 – It’s about the journey, not the destination
Until recently, migrations were thought of as a means to an end, or an investment animals make to get from point A to point B. “Stopover ecology” is a research field that is turning this idea on its head. First documented in bird populations, the concept is simple: at key areas along a migration route, animals take a pit-stop to fuel up and save energy. In 2011, researchers showed that mule deer rely heavily on stopovers as a strategy to load up on nutrient-rich plants needed to make their long journeys. This new information identifies stopover sites as a significant consideration for conservation efforts.

2014 – If you feed them, they will come
For more than a century, federal and state governments have fed elk during the winter to prevent animals from starving and to keep them out of ranchers’ haystacks. These feedgrounds have changed when and how elk migrate. On average, fed elk leave their winter grounds later, spend more time at stopover sites, migrate further, and leave for their winter range sooner than their unfed counterparts. This study shows that a management decision made during one season can influence an animal’s behavior in another. 

2016 – Surf’s up! Riding the “green wave”  
The herbivorous, charismatic megafauna of the Rocky Mountain West are excellent surfers of what scientists are calling the “green wave.” As large herbivores (including moose, bighorn sheep, bison, and mule deer) migrate from their winter to summer grounds, they are “riding the green wave” of new sprouts, which have the highest nutritional value. 

2016 – To underpass, or to overpass? That is the question
Wildlife underpasses and overpasses are designed to allow animals to cross roads safely. But not all animals like the same structures. When presented with an option, the vast majority of pronghorn prefer to take the high road, whereas mule deer prefer underpasses. This study highlights that vehicle-wildlife collisions and wildlife connectivity issues require a multi-faceted and strategic approach, incorporating strategies that will work for as many species as possible. 

2018 – Bighorn sheep migration: nature vs. nurture?
Bighorn sheep aren’t born as migration experts – they learn through a process scientists call “cultural transmission.” By studying a population of newly introduced bighorn sheep, scientists were able to show that sheep learned when to leave and where to go, and shared that knowledge with other sheep over time. This research has implications for re-introducing species to areas where they have been extirpated, and it also has implications for conservation of sub-populations that take different migration routes. 

2019 – Why wait for the wave when you can build it? 
It turns out bison don’t ride the “green wave,” they engineer it. Intensive grazing by a herd of bison stimulates new sprouts to grow continuously throughout the growing season. In areas where bison graze, a sustained green wave provides nutrient-rich forage for an animal that needs to eat 24 pounds of vegetation per day. 

2020 – Wildlife Corridor Construction Goes Green 
Wildlife crossing structures have shown great success in reducing vehicle-wildlife collisions, but they are often constructed with energy-intensive materials such as steel and concrete, which are major contributors to greenhouse emissions. To avoid creating a problem while solving another, researchers have shown that fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites can be a sustainable alternative, while still meeting the performance requirements and qualities of a steel and concrete crossing structure. 

Want more cool animal migration facts? Check out the University of Wyoming’s Migration Initiative. Or check out this 2019 New York Times article about the longest land mammal migrations in world, including the incredible nearly 840-mile journey undertaken by caribou in the Yukon and Alaska.

What's the next discovery? Help collect data to find out.

Adventure Scientists is looking for volunteer cyclists for a scientific research project that can help save wildlife and human lives. Volunteers will cycle sections of Montana roads at set periods throughout the summer and fall, using a simple phone app to record data on wildlife sightings and roadkill along their route. This information, collected across more than 11,000 miles of Montana roads, will help highway and wildlife officials understand where wildlife are crossing roads and identify wildlife-vehicle collision hotspots. Ultimately, this will inform state-wide efforts to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions – an issue that results in more than 365 million animals killed, 29,000 humans injured, and $8.4 billion in damages incurred annually in the United States alone.

With some states easing COVID-related travel restrictions and closures, many outdoor enthusiasts are gearing up to get back outdoors with friends. The pandemic is far from over, of course, and social distancing presents a real challenge on narrow, often crowded trails. One sport that requires that protective bubble of space? Road cycling. Starting June 18, Adventure Scientists is offering a way for cyclists in Montana to get an outdoor cycling fix while simultaneously helping their communities and contributing to science.

Adventure Scientists is looking for volunteer cyclists for a scientific research project that can help save wildlife and human lives. Volunteers will cycle sections of Montana roads at set periods throughout the summer and fall, using a simple phone app to record data on wildlife sightings and roadkill along their route. This information, collected across more than 11,000 miles of Montana roads, will help highway and wildlife officials understand where wildlife are crossing roads and identify wildlife-vehicle collision hotspots. Ultimately, this will inform state-wide efforts to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions – an issue that results in more than 365 million animals killed, 29,000 humans injured, and $8.4 billion in damages incurred annually in the United States alone. 

Relying on road cyclists is not only a unique way to address the wildlife-vehicle collision problem; it’s also far more effective than car-based data collection. By traveling more slowly and quietly than vehicles, cyclists are more likely to see both roadkill and live animals. “[Cyclists] have a unique perspective… that allows us to see things that other people are not noticing,” says Tim Marchant, describing his experience volunteering during the fall 2019 season. “I highly recommend it to folks. It’s a nice way to use the bicycle for productive purposes.” ​

A real-time dashboard lets volunteers and others track observations made by project cyclists.

For Dylan Malloy, volunteering changed his perspective when he’s behind the wheel as well as on his bike. “Even driving, I’m paying attention to… the [crossings] that wildlife are around,” explains Malloy, a cyclist who volunteered in Fall 2019. “Montana is this huge expanse of area, and there’s really not a ton of those crossings designated for animals.”

Routes shown in green on this map are available for volunteers to select. Red indicates already-claimed routes. 

At a time when field research around the world has largely been brought to a standstill due to travel restrictions and social distancing requirements, cycling Montana roads gives volunteers a chance to help advance science that not only benefits their communities but can be scaled up to help reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions worldwide. The project also provides cyclists with new ways to keep up with fellow cyclists who share an interest in making Montana a safer place for people and wildlife. Throughout the duration of the three-year study, volunteers can track data in real-time as it is submitted, chat with cyclists across the state via an online forum, and engage in socially-distant opportunities to connect with fellow volunteers on the project. 

Learn more about the project, check out our FAQs, or read our Q&A post to find out about the surprise wildlife sightings and other experiences of two of our 2019 volunteer cyclists. ​

Tim:  We rode the first 20 miles, and didn’t see a single dead thing, which was very odd. If somebody told me, ‘Oh, I bicycled highway 200 today, 20 miles, and didn’t see any roadkill,’ I would have thought they were lost or something. Then we turned around, coming back to the east, and [the road] was just lined with roadkill. Sometimes every couple hundred yards we were stopping to photograph and get a GPS location for something. We ran across virtually everything. We saw deer in various states of decay, birds, birds of prey, rabbits, pheasants. We saw a bear. It was quite the experience.

Q. Any other stories to share? 

Tim: I was riding my bike the other day, out by Charlo, Montana. There’s a vehicle coming toward me, and as I got within a few yards, a deer stepped out in front of [the vehicle]. I thought – I’m going to get cleaned by this deer after he hits it. You could just see the angle, and it was like setting up a pool shot – I was going down. He managed to slow down and miss it, but I’ve had a couple experiences like that – where I’ve nearly been hit by deer while on my bike, or almost hit by deer that have been hit by other vehicles. So, I’m anxious to see if we can come up with data that can mitigate that. 

Q: What would you say to someone who is thinking about applying to volunteer?

Dylan: I’d tell them to go all in. I’d tell them my stories – being outside, feeling connected with the process of being outside and just having a fun purpose to get outside and ride. You can make a day out of it, pack a lunch, go out for a nice cruise, you get to see the hills, the mountains, the wildlife, and then at the same time you’re helping provide information to improve on what we do now. It’s just a super fun way to do the things that you already love to do, and also have some more meaningful impact. 

Tim Marchant’s volunteer work was also featured on Montana Public Radio. Listen or read here. 

About the Wildlife Connectivity Study: 

Wildlife-vehicle collisions kill more than 365 million animals, injure 29,000 people, and cause $8.4 billion in damages each year in the United States alone. Montana has the second-highest incidence of collisions in the nation. From 2019-2022, Adventure Scientists volunteers will cycle 11,000+ miles of Montana's roads, recording all roadkill they encounter as well as detailed environmental observations. Learn more.

Call for volunteers: Adventure Scientists is seeking volunteer cyclists to apply to participate starting June 18. ​

More than 200 volunteers contributed over several years to our Pika project, recording habitat data on these energetic denizens of the high mountains. Our data was part of a decades-long global research effort which has been uncovering important lessons for the conservation of these and other animals.
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We're honored to be among the 70 co-authors on a new paper published in Nature Climate Change and reported on by PBS. This study reveals that when it comes to surviving climate change, the key to a pika population's survival is less a matter of genetics and more a matter of the ecological conditions they've encountered throughout life.

Dylan Jones collected data for the Pika project while summiting Teewinot and the Grand Teton, two of the highest peaks in the Teton range. His photos give a taste of the spectacular landscapes and views that are home to the pika, and that beckon adventurers and scientists year after year with the promise of discovery. Click each photo below to expand and see the caption.

Early snow storms, record-breaking low temperatures––these events may cut autumn festivities short, but they won't slow down data collection for our Timber Tracking project!

You can collect samples of leaves, cones, and wood for three different species this year, and since they're all evergreens, you're just as well off in winter as in summer.

In the video below, get a taste for what's in store when sampling western redcedar, and learn more about the bigger picture of the project and our organization as a whole. Then continue on to our Timber Tracking site, get to know all three species we're focusing on, and apply to join us this winter, whatever the weather may bring. 

After decades of only a few rare sightings on the Olympic Peninsula, Pacific martens have now been detected at camera trap sites by our partners at the U.S. Forest Service. Having located these survivors, the team can actively pursue their goal to have healthy, sustaining populations of martens in the Olympics.

​Adventure Scientists' data collection in 2013 and 2014 “was crucial in conducting the Olympic National Forest’s winter marten surveys," said our project partner, Betsy Howell, "and [the subsequent seasons] would not have been such a success without your efforts."

We caught up with Betsy to hear more about the project's past, present, and future.

How did the project with Adventure Scientists contribute to or relate to the subsequent seasons' work?
The surveys AS did in 2013 and 2014 helped support our theory that we still needed to get higher in elevation if we were going to find martens. With funds obtained after these two winters we were able to hire crews that then focused at higher elevations in the national park and forest. These stations, however, were only out for a few weeks, so the next steps after those were to install the overwinter cameras with long-acting lure dispensers that stayed on the landscape for a year. These then resulted in a number of detections during the 2018-2019 survey season. The work AS did was part of the ongoing evolution of our understanding of current marten occurrence in the Olympic Mountains.

Do you have a favorite memory from working with Adventure Scientists? 
The night before our first survey day in 2013 I couldn’t sleep! I was nervous and excited and NPR was showing up that day too, so there was a lot going on. Our marten survey efforts up to this point had been more ad hoc, so this felt amazing to me, that we suddenly had so many people so interested in the work and capable of doing the work also. It was pretty thrilling!

How did you feel at the end of our seasons when no martens had been spotted?
I didn’t feel that surprised honestly, but of course I had been hopeful that we’d get lucky. I also felt good however. The second best thing to actually documenting martens was to have a good program, with camera stations that were functional on the landscape because this would show that the effort was solid. And because the effort was solid and the data were of good quality, then we could be fairly sure we just weren’t looking in the right areas, ie. high enough in elevation.  Negative results are important too as long as the surveys are done well.

How did you feel when the first one was spotted subsequently?
Great, of course! In June 2015, we got two photographs, one from a remote camera set out for fisher monitoring and one from a rock climber. These were the first records since 2008 and we were all super excited.

What do you love most about martens after all this time?
It’s hard (impossible, I might say) to not be enchanted by martens and their adorable faces and scrappy natures. But they’re more than just pretty faces in the forest. They’re also critical to the health of forests, as well as indicators of the great changes that are taking place currently in the forest environment.

What are your hopes for the future of martens on the Olympic Peninsula? 
The hope is that we will be able to take the investigations to a higher level with more intense surveys in the areas we’ve found martens to better understand their population distribution and connection, as well as population status (by looking at genetics). Understanding these aspects will inform future management actions. The goal, of course, is to have healthy, sustaining populations of martens in the Olympics.

Want to learn more about martens? Check out our project film and more.

Be a part of the next great update by joining one of our current projects today!