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Return of the wolves: How deer escape tactics help save their lives

A pair of wolves run across the landscape in eastern Washington in 2016.

Washington’s deer populations have begun to change their behavior to evade ever-increasing numbers of their most cunning predator, the gray wolf. Intriguingly, the escape tactics used by the two more common species – the mule deer and the white-tailed deer – vary greatly. Researchers from UW College of the Environment and other institutions found that when in areas populated by gray wolves, mule deer are spending more time away from roads, at higher elevations and in rockier landscapes than previously observed. 

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Sockeye carcasses tossed on shore over two decades spur tree growth

UW researchers walk along Hansen Creek in 2015.

For 20 years, dozens of University of Washington researchers have walked Hansen Creek — home to one of the densest sockeye salmon runs in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region — every day during spawning season, counting live salmon and recording information about the fish that died. After counting a dead fish — an inevitability here, either after spawning or in the paws of a brown bear — researchers throw it on shore to remove the carcass and not double-count it the next day. 

Read more at UW Today »

High-res data offer most detailed look yet at trawl fishing footprint around the world

A vessel known as a beam trawler sits at the dock in Milford Haven, Wales, United Kingdom.

About a quarter of the world’s seafood caught in the ocean comes from bottom trawling, a method that involves dragging a net along the ocean’s shelves and slopes to scoop up shrimp, cod, rockfish, sole and other kinds of bottom-dwelling fishes and shellfish. The technique impacts these seafloor ecosystems, because other marine life and habitats can be killed or disturbed unintentionally as nets sweep across the seafloor. 

Read more at UW Today »