WARNING: The following story contains graphic content. On a Sunday evening in June, camo-clad men chat and laugh by pickups next to a restaurant near Billings, Montana. There is a faint but unmistakable odor of decay coming from a large trash bin across the parking lot—the just-weighed bodies of 29...

Grizzly bears began arriving in northwestern Montana’s Blackfoot Valley in the late 1990s. Their population in surrounding mountains multiplied and gradually spread out, coming down from higher elevations into the green pastures of cattle country to search for food, returning to habitat bears had...

The woman on the phone was anxious but determined. She was calling City Wildlife, a rescue and rehabilitation center in Washington, D.C., because her dog had dug up a rabbit nest and killed three of the babies. There was one survivor. “I’m going to get some kitten formula and start feeding it...

As monarch butterflies and hummingbirds headed south this fall, I dreamt of following my favorite snowbirds to Mexico and Central America. But I stayed home instead, where I have a window onto the spectacular world of winter wildlife: northern flickers tossing maple leaves with their beaks in search...

Leading a summer camp class about beavers, Tabby Fique hoped for a glimpse of her favorite furry hydrologists. But another wildlife sighting offered an even better teachable moment. “We were looking at the pool created by the beavers, and a muskrat swam by!” recalls Fique, the land manager for the...

Decaying logs and miniature bogs, hollowed stalks and piled rocks, nutritious pollen and leaves fallen: They’re not the stuff of traditional nursery rhymes and baby showers. But if wild mothers-to-be had gift registries, these natural supplies would top the list. Though the basic elements for...