Does an animal's personality play a role on whether it will survive in the wild? Researchers are using a surprising clue to find out: poop.

Specialized technologies offer a new perspective into the lives of endangered black-footed ferrets and their prairie dog prey.

The Fort Belknap Indian Community commemorated three years of its swift fox recovery program with the release of three swift foxes on Tribal lands, bringing the total to 103 recovered back to these prairie grasslands. 

A study published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution found that widespread restoration of bison to Tribal lands throughout the Northern Great Plains can help restore the prairie ecosystem while improving the long-running issue of food insecurity and food sovereignty for Native Nations and may...

Each spring, the Northern Great Plains erupts with life as migratory birds return to build nests and raise their young. Smithsonian researchers are studying these grassland birds that nets in areas inhabited by prairie dogs.

Find out how Smithsonian researchers are using camera traps to study bobcats on the Northern Great Plains.

Sometimes, science stinks — literally! In Montana, researchers are setting up “scat traps" to attract swift foxes, so they can learn from the droppings the foxes leave behind.

Modern technology is helping unravel the mystery of how migratory birds achieve their amazing flights. Researchers are already finding that many birds fly farther, faster and higher than they thought.

The Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute invites the public to help name three black-footed ferret kits—one female and two males—born May 19 at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) in Front Royal, Virginia. Voting for the names starts Tuesday, July 20, at 10...

Cuckoos are extremely secretive birds and difficult to spot. Researchers are developing a tool, using remote sound recorders and artificial intelligence, to help detect them.

In the midst of the pandemic, as the story goes, a team set out to bring swift foxes back to a land they had disappeared from more than 50 years ago. Learn more in this update from landscape ecologist Hila Shamon.

Spending your days with a herd of bison is an idyllic way to pass a summer. I would know, because most of my days from May to August were spent observing the behaviors of a herd of about 300 bison in Montana.

After an absence of more than 50 years, the swift fox has returned to the grasslands of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana.

Ecologist Andy Boyce discovered a lobster fossil near his field site in Montana, evidence that long ago this area of the Northern Great Plains was once the floor of a shallow sea.

The Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute has welcomed “Lucy” and “Gally,” two juvenile female American bison.

At their field site in north-central Montana, ecologist Andy Boyce and intern Andrew Dreelin are learning more about how black-tailed prairie dogs change the landscape and support the many species that call the prairie home.

Landscape ecologist Hila Shamon lives and works in Montana, where she studies the prairie and its wildlife. Over the last year and a half, she has been working with Fort Belknap Indian Reservation and other collaborators to develop a swift fox reintroduction program.

Smithsonian ecologists worked with American Prairie Reserve staff to fit bison with GPS ear tags. Their movement study will help researchers understand how bison move and use the landscape at the Reserve in Montana.

Long-billed curlew are shorebirds that spend their summers breeding in the grasslands of Montana. Smithsonian ecologists are equipping them with GPS trackers to learn more about their movements.

How can you begin to study something as vast and diverse as the American prairie? Find out in the latest blog from landscape ecologist Hila Shamon who is stationed at American Prairie Reserve in Montana.

All seasons on the prairie are special. But spring is just a little more special than the rest, as every day birds return for summer breeding season.

Landscape ecologist Hila Shamon spent the first two weeks of April working with American Prairie Reserve to place GPS collars on plains bison.

Conservation ecologist Andy Boyce lives on the American Prairie Reserve in Phillips County, Montana. It's rugged, it's wild and it's one of the only places left on Earth where scientists have the chance to preserve a complete prairie ecosystem.

Ecologist Bill McShea shares how the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s collaboration with American Prairie Reserve will help scientists better understand how changes to the grasslands affect the wildlife that call it home.