Author: hechmura

Creature Feature: Wolverine

If you’re planning on dressing up as Wolverine for Halloween this year, folks here at the Ethogram suggest you start looking for a caribou leg and not retractable nails for your costume. Yep- that’s right- wolverines are not just a Marvel comic book character- they’re one of the most elusive and aggressive mammalian predators of…

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Creature Feature: Cuttlefish

You’ve most likely heard of squid and octopii, but have you ever seen their close relative, the Cuttlefish (Order: Sepiidae)?!  There are about 120 species of cuttlefish around the world, exhibiting an amazing array of behaviors and fascinating physiological adaptations. Like other cephalopods, cuttlefish are marine animals with at least 8

Field Notes: Frozen then fried…wacky weather on the tundra

Whew!  A lot has happened on the tundra in the past two weeks!  Since my last post the weather has gone from one extreme to another with multiple snow-storms and now blistering heat.  While I’ve been coping with the weather by switching between my parka and sunhat depending upon the day,  how do birds fare…

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Field Notes: Arctic Spring

Greetings from Alaska!  For the next few months, I’ll be sharing occasional photos and updates from my field work at Toolik Lake Field Station studying a small migratory songbird- the Gambel’s White-crowned sparrow.

Scholar Holler: Ellen Ketterson, Ph.D.

Ellen Ketterson is a Distinguished Professor of Biology and Gender Studies at Indiana University.  Selected by students at UC Davis to give a Storer Lecture, she talked with Ethogram writer Helen Chmura about her life studying the evolution, behavior, and physiology of juncos. The Ethogram: When you were a kid, what did you want to be?…

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Supercool: Surviving Winter in the Arctic

When it’s cold and snowy during the winter, many of us respond by staying inside and hiding underneath a pile of blankets. But how do animals cope with the cold? It turns out that…