Wildlife Forensic Sciences

On World Oceans Day, we’re thinking about ghost fishing gear, the abandoned, lost or discarded nets, lines and traps that continue moving through marine environments long after people are gone.

For whales, seals, turtles, birds and other sea life, that gear can become a trap. Entanglement can lead to wounds, infection, starvation and prolonged suffering, making ghost gear one of the most devastating threats facing ocean animals.

If you’re on the water, don’t leave gear behind. A forgotten line or net may not look like much, but for wildlife, human negligence can turn into a fatal trap.

Before wildlife crime can be understood, investigators often have to answer a major question first: where did it happen?

In GIS Fundamentals, students learn how to work with spatial data, maps and analysis tools that help connect information across real-world landscapes. 🗺️

For wildlife forensic sciences and conservation, those skills can help professionals better understand habitat patterns, environmental conditions, movement and case details that may not be obvious at first glance.

A map can do more than show a location. It can help reveal the bigger picture.

Learn more about GIS Fundamentals at the link below.

➡️ https://bit.ly/4wYpi5r

Fall applications are due July 15, but May is a good time to start asking the bigger question: what do you want your next season to look like? 🤔

Whether you’re looking to build new skills, shift your career direction or take the next step toward work that supports wildlife and conservation, starting now gives you time to explore the program, gather your materials and make a decision without rushing.

Future you might be really glad you looked into this now.

💻 Learn more about how our 100% online program can help you move your career forward at the link below.

https://bit.ly/49t5ahp

Have you ever thought of sea turtle eggs as a delicacy? What about an aphrodisiac?

While patrolling beaches in Costa Rica, our online master’s student Kristy Cannon saw how quickly endangered sea turtle eggs can become targets for black market theft.

That experience opened her eyes to a side of conservation many people never hear about, including poaching, trafficking, illegal hunting, poisoning and the evidence needed to understand what happened.

Now, through our online Wildlife Forensic Sciences and Conservation program, Kristy is using what she’s learned to help educate the public about the hidden threats facing wildlife.

Kristy’s full story gets into the black market behind wildlife crime, her work with birds of prey and why these threats are bigger than most people realize. 🐢🦅

➡️ https://bit.ly/4x6mItW

What in the hellbender? No, really. 🦎

For Endangered Species Day, the National Wildlife Federation is spotlighting one of the most unusual amphibians in North America: the hellbender!

Also known as the “snot otter,” “devil dog,” “ground puppy” and, somehow, “lasagna lizard,” the hellbender is the largest salamander in the Americas. It can grow up to 30 inches long, live entirely underwater and breathe through its wrinkly skin!

As strange as they may look, hellbenders play an important role in freshwater ecosystems. They depend on cold, clean, fast-moving streams, which means their decline can point to bigger problems in water quality and habitat health.

Learn more about Hellbenders and how you can help this endangered species from the National Wildlife Federation:

Have you ever seen a hellbender in the wild? Or is this your first time meeting the “snot otter”? 👀

https://blog.nwf.org/2026/04/what-in-the-hellbender/

Not every career move has to start with a full degree.🌱

If you’re looking to build specific skills, explore a new area of wildlife forensics or conservation, or strengthen the work you’re already doing, our non-degree courses are a flexible way to get started.

From wildlife crime to conservation techniques, you can take focused courses designed to help you grow your expertise without committing to a full program. 🔍

Explore your options today: https://bit.ly/48Lzzrd

Congratulations to all of our Spring 2026 Wildlife Forensic Sciences & Conservation graduates!🎓 Your efforts and expertise are already shaping the future of wildlife conservation.

We can’t wait to see the difference you make!! 🌍✨

When your program graduate gets first author on a paper in Medical and Veterinary Entomology journal about the research she did while a student...! ❤️
https://resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mve.70073

When you embark on research, you can do everything possible to design it well, but you can’t know how it will go. Otherwise, why do it at all? 🤷‍♀️

And yet, there’s still a stigma around things not going to plan. Results that don’t look the way we expected, including smaller than desired sample sizes, are often labeled as “failures,” when in reality, they’re still findings.

For example, these dogs are trained to detect dyer’s woad, an invasive plant species. In this kind of work, even a single find, or not detecting it at all, can be significant!

Non-detection is a finding, and confirming the null hypothesis is a finding too. Sometimes, these findings turn out to be the most important ones!

In WIS6565: Negative and Suboptimal Research Findings, Dr. Richards challenges that mindset. This course makes space for the results people tend to question, small sample sizes, unexpected outcomes and everything in between.🔍

The goal isn’t to make your research look perfect. It’s to understand what actually happened and report it with clarity and confidence.

If you’re doing research or even reflecting on work you’ve already done, this course will change the way you see your results.

Take a closer look at Dr. Richards’ class at the link below!

➡️ https://bit.ly/4ciG07i