Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
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Tracking birds and bats under new grant
A new $500,000 grant will help Nebraska Game and Parks and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources
improve its understanding of at-risk species along the Missouri River corridor by expanding the Motus
Wildlife Tracking System network in both states.
The network, a series of automated radio telemetry receiving stations, enables researchers to track animal
movements. The imperiled wood thrush, northern long-eared bats, little brown bats and tricolored bats
will be tracked to help identify critical stopover areas and understand the species' migratory behaviors and
migratory connectivity.
The northern long-eared bat was listed federally as endangered in 2023. All four are Tier I species in
Nebraska, meaning they are most at-risk of extinction and conservation.
Western massasauga rattlesnake research leads to recommendations
The Western massasauga rattlesnake is threatened in Nebraska, occupying less than 0.01% of the state.
Recent research by Nebraska Game and Parks biologists has shown how the snake is using its habitat, leading
to recommendations that can protect them.
In 2023 and 2024, staff captured rattlesnakes in southeastern Nebraska and attached external transmitters
that recorded a location by GPS every three hours. Staff would then locate the snakes every two to three
days. Researchers found the snakes utilized wet ditches during active season, occasionally entering adjacent
agriculture fi elds, and would overwinter in crayfi sh burrows.
With a full year of data, biologists were able to recommend avoiding parking, driving or compacting soil in
the highway rights-of-way where the snake lives. They also recommend using prescribed fi re to control cedar
encroachment to help preserve their habitat.
Researchers tag a northern long-eared bat
captured in a mist net at the entrance of an
abandoned underground gravel mine near
Louisville in Cass County.
