The shortest possible migratory route for birds is not always the best route to travel. Substantial research effort has established that birds in captivity are capable of orienting toward the direction of an intended goal, but efforts to examine how free-living birds use navigational information under conditions that potentially make direct flight toward that goal [...]
The first Oklahoma Biodiversity Forum on March 5, 2016 attracted 67 attendees representing 7 universities and colleges, 4 state agencies, 3 federal agencies, 3 consulting firms, several non-profits, 1 high school, and an rural electric cooperative. The expertise at the Forum covered mammals to lichens, climate change to citizen science, and land managers to homeschool [...]
During the 1980's and 1990's, under the leadership of Dr. Gary D. Schnell (Director from 1978 - 1999), the Biological Survey grew in personnel, research funding, research output, and public service. In 1987 the state legislature designated the Oklahoma Biological Survey a state agency under the University of Oklahoma Board of Regents. The legislation also [...]
In the 1970's the Biological Survey began new inventories and surveys, benefiting from increased environmental consciousness in the U.S and the energetic activities of the new Director, Dr. Paul Risser (Director from 1971-1978). Dr. Risser brought the Oklahoma Natural Heritage Program to the Survey with grants from the State Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan in the [...]
The 1950s were an amazing time.
Following World War II the Biological Survey received modest funding that allowed further ecological surveys by biologists such as Drs. George Goodman, Arthur N. Bragg, A.O. Weese, William T. Penfound, Umaldy T. Waterfall, George M. Sutton, and Carl D. Riggs (Director from 1949-1970). During the 1940's the Biological Survey began a cooperative agreement with the [...]
University of Oklahoma biologists carried out active field expeditions from 1924 - 1936. These expeditions typically were joint ventures between the Biological Survey and the then Museum of Zoology. Animal specimens were deposited in the museum and plants in the Bebb Herbarium (see Bebb Herbarium background). The results of many of these expeditions were published [...]
In the 1920's, Dr. Arthur Ortenburger, an early Professor of Zoology at the University of Oklahoma, began a series of expeditions to survey the fauna and flora of Oklahoma. In April 1926, the Oklahoma Wildlife Institute passed a resolution requesting that the Oklahoma legislature establish a state Biological Survey. The Oklahoma Biological Survey was officially [...]
