Iowa Department of Natural Resources

Iowa DNR Tiny Mic Wildlife Trivia: Leadership Edition

The category is...Iowa wildlife 🐦🦅🐍 Video description: Iowa DNR Leadership Team members answer trivia questions at the statewide Wildlife meeting

A bee is a bee, right? Not quite. Last year, Iowa volunteers recorded almost 1,200 bumble bees representing 10 species! These organized efforts have been made possible thanks to funding from the Chickadee Checkoff - which you can easily donate to on your State of Iowa tax form - helping collect data for the inaugural year of the Bumble Bee Atlas, a national effort to track and conserve bumblebees. Last year, about 5,300 taxpayers donated around $134,000 to the Fish/Wildlife Trust Fund via the Checkoff - but that’s an almost $14,000 decrease from the year before. If each Iowa taxpayer donated just $1, it would mean $1.6 million for wildlife! http://iowadnr.gov/checkoff

Amazing Discoveries: Shed Antlers

HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU? If only finding shed antlers was *this* easy…but these tips will make it easier! Video description: a DNR Wildlife Biologist helps an aspiring shed antler hunter in the style of a 1990s infomercial

Will bird nerd Tyler tell us more great horned owl facts than fierce competitor Anna? Nerd out with us on the DNR Nerd Off 🤓🦉 Video description: Two DNR Wildlife staff trade facts about great horned owls.

We recently released these turkeys with GPS transmitters to better understand current turkey ecology in Iowa! 🦃 📡 We’ll track these females as part of our 10-year study to learn more about their movements, habitat use, nesting success and poult (chick) survival and how disease and predation affect adult survival. We’ll also look at if eggs were fertilized and whether they are evenly split between males and females or skewed towards one of the sexes. We know predation is a factor, but we also know it's not the only one. Through this study, we hope to learn more about how other factors (like habitat change and habitat loss, disease, weather and more) may work together with predation to affect the turkey population. Video description: biologists opening cardboard boxes to release turkeys back to the wild

15 Seconds of Trout Stocking

PSST: We stocked 3 ponds in the DSM metro this week. More statewide location info: iowadnr.gov/trout Description: underwater footage of trout coming through a hole into the ice and swimming. Text reads "just 15 seconds of rainbow trout getting stocked into a pond" and "this is your sign to go ice fishing."

So satisfying. Ice fishing info at the link in bio 🧊 Description: close up of an auger drilling a hole in lake ice for fishing

Not pushin' it - it's our top reel of 2024! From February: If you’ve never seen a woodcock strut to ‘80s hip hop, TODAY IS YOUR DAY. These birds know how to take their time- they only fly 5 miles per hour but still migrate several hundred miles a year. While it’s still early, they’re starting to be spotted again in Iowa! Original video courtesy @usfws #IowaBirds Video description: a woodcock, a small bird, rhythmically struts as if it's dancing to old school hip hop.

Turkey Transmitter Trot

This stylish hen is our # 2 post of 2024! 🦃 From May: Why yes, I am wearing a backpack, thanks for noticing! 🦃🎒 Here's why 👇 The backpack transmitter helps tracks this hen's movements, survival, nesting and habitat use. We fitted her with it as a juvenile in February 2023 in southern Iowa, and this footage from Scott Keith this April spotted her about 7 miles from that original spot. Typically, juveniles don't nest - but of 15 juveniles marked in 2023, she was one of three to incubate a nest and the only one to successfully hatch a brood! Our current 10-year study is aimed at answering questions regarding turkey population declines in eastern North America. Turkey population declines are not specific to Iowa - recent research has estimated that populations across eastern North America have experienced a 9 percent annual decline over the past few decades. While we do know there are many potential causes for this decline, such as predators and habitat loss, this information will help us better understand how these different factors contribute to population declines. Our research is focused on hens to better understand hen survival, nesting rates, and factors driving nest success or hatch. This also gives us critical updated data, as the last major turkey research project in Iowa took place more than 25 years ago. Video description: two wild turkeys walking through a field; the first is wearing a small transmitter on its back. The original static landscape/horizontal trail camera footage has been slightly edited to fit the vertical video format that Facebook and many viewers prefer.

Peace out for a while to start your new year 🥾✌️ First Day Hikes in Iowa State Parks: iowadnr.gov/FirstDayHikes Video: clips of walking through the woods in winter with light music and a narrator saying "does anyone else feel like they need to just walk for like 6 days in the woods?"

Our # 3 reel of 2024, from the June floods: Here for you, Iowa 💛 In the last few days, Iowa DNR conservation officers assisted in rescuing more than 250 people by boat from rising flood waters in several northwest Iowa communities, including Spencer and Rock Valley. #IowaDNR #IowaWx #IowaWeather #IowaFlood Video description: Iowa DNR Conservation Officers assisting and rescuing people from flooded areas in northwest Iowa in a series of still photographs

Only you can prevent bad gifts. 🎁 Thanks to our friends at @u.s.forestservice and @bassproshops for letting @smokeybear check out the National Christmas Tree on its way to DC earlier this month! Description: Smokey Bear checking out the National Christmas Tree at a stop at Bass Pro Shops in Altoona, Iowa as the tree made its way across the country.