This summer, Wyoming Game and Fish biologists continued their joint effort with the Idaho Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit to capture and mark Wyoming burrowing owls. The project aims to learn more about the owl's wintering areas and their migration routes used to get there and back to Wyoming. The Wyoming effort is part of a larger project involving several western states and Candian provinces doing the same. Any adult burrowing owls captured are fitted with a solar-powered satellite transmitter to track their year-round movements. Juvenile burrowing owls only receive a leg band.

In July, researchers captured 25 burrowing owls, including 13 adults. A total of 12 adult owls (6 males and 6 females) were fitted with the GPS satellite transmitters. Researchers believe many of Wyoming's burrowing owls spend the winter months in Mexico. As of October 22, the female owl transmittered on the Pinedale Mesa was spending time in Arizona. The map below shows where all of the Wyoming GPS-marked owls are currently traveling for winter.

 

Additional project cooperators include University of Wyoming Chalfoun Lab, U.S. Forest Service Thunder Basin National Grasslands, Great Plains Wildlife Consulting and The Nature Conservancy with funding from Arch Coal/Black Thunder Coal and several generous private landowners. 

Check out additional photos from the 2018 captures near Pinedale below.