To be a wildlife biologist, it helps to have skills: to climb 30 feet up a tree to reach an eagle’s nest, to monitor a tranquilized wolf before it wakes or to track a wolverine in the high country. And in years past, it would have helped to be a man.
Fender’s blue butterfly is an endangered subspecies found only in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. It depends on a particular plant species, Kincaid’s lupine, most of which has been lost to agriculture and urbanization.
What do the following Oregon animals have in common: the northern red-legged frog, the chestnut-backed chickadee, the western pond turtle and the river otter? All fall into the traditional wildlife designation “non-game.”