This week, on Kentucky Afield.

We went live on social media and YouTube to answer all of your questions about Kentucky species that are not hunted, fished or trapped.

And we're bringing you those answers right now.

It is time for the Kentucky Wild question and answer show!

Hello and welcome to Kentucky Afield.

I'm your host, Chad Miles.

Tonight, you tuned in to our annual question and answer show.

Brought to you by Kentucky Wild.

Tonight we answer all your questions about birds, bad snakes, insects and everything else.

Joining me tonight, I have a panel of experts.

First up I have John MacGregor who's our our state herpetologis Seated right next to him is Michaela Rogers, who is a wildlife biologist.

And tell me what you specialize in.

I handle our Bat program.

I also work with our monarch and Pollinator conservation program, and then end up dabbling in a variety of other at risk species as the name comes up.

All right.

Very nice.

And then on the end here we have Michael Patton, who's also a wildlife biologist.

What do you work with?

I work with Kentucky█s raptors, song birds and nightjars.

Oh okay.

All right.

Well, you guys are all wearing your new Kentucky Wild shirts.

You look great here.

And we've already got a host of questions that have been coming through.

We did run a contest.

We have a couple of giveaways.

Our first four questions are going to receive one of these Kentucky Wild hats.

And if you're in the market for a Kentucky Wild hat, you can, either go to the website and purchase a membership, or you can, come see us at the state Fair coming up this week.

So there's one of our new Kentucky Wild hats.

All right, first up, we have a list of questions that have come through.

This is one of our first question.

Winners of this hat and that, the question is I've seen a significant decline in the number of insects that I've noticed around streetlights in urban and rural areas.

Is there a decline?

And is there anything we can do to help recover these species?

First off, is that actually happening?

That is actually happening.

It's happening almost worldwide.

And it's, scientists call it the insect apocalypse.

We are losing numbers, we are losing species and all over the country, all over the world.

And what do you think is causing that?

Well, probably two major problems in the U.S. anyway.

It's it's too much light.

Where there are security lights everywhere, street lights.

And it's deawing night flying insects in and messing up their mating systems.

And they are not going to the right spots to lay eggs.

The other big problem with pesticides being used.

We are using super effective pesticides on crops and is impacting insect populations, not only in crop fields, but also in the open fields of food waste areas where the insect populations would be doing okay..

So the best way if you're an individual, you want to kind of help out with this.

What's the best thing you can do?

Boy.

Turn your street, turn your turn your lights off outside.

Turn your yard into a pollinator garden.

Plant as many native species as possible.

Yeah, that'll provide food for nectar.

Food for insects and their larve.

You know, it's interesting because every time I talk to biologists, regardless of if you're trying to what type of, animal species you're trying to attract, the number one thing they usually say is reduce the footprint that you mow.

If, if you just have fescue and you're mowing it every single week, man, it really does have a negative impact on wildlife and sounds like insects as well.

Insects are wildlife.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

Six-legged wildlife.

All right.

Next question here is, does Kentucky have a hellbender population and if so, what is their status?

This is interesting.

We've actually done a segment, with you, Michaela, out on hellbenders.

Here's an example of, what a hellbender is, is obviously not a real hellbender.

It's a model, of what a hellbender looks like.

Tell me a little bit about Hellbenders.

And do we have hellbenders in Kentucky?

We do have hellbenders in Kentucky.

So that model is a life size adult.

It's one of the largest kind of that they can get.

Is that model.

and really, Hellbenders should be found pretty much statewide in, creeks, streams and rivers that have good water quality.

as far as their status goes, they are appearing to experience some declines, due to sedimentation, pollution in the water, just general habitat fragmentation.

and that's something that biologists here are actively trying to study.

Now, the thing with these creatures is they like to live under the bottom of large rock.

So you can imagine how challenging it is to actually find hellbenders.

and so that's why one of the things that we asked the public to do is actually submit records of if they see a hellbender, if they're, you know, an angler and they catch a hellbender out fishing, making sure that they submit that record to us because we're really interested in where these hellbenders are located.

And take a photo of it.

Take a picture.

Yeah.

Because there's another species is slightly smaller than a hellbender.

But if you were to, a person might be like, oh my gosh, look at this.

What what have I caught here?

If you were to catch one.

Probably a common reaction.

Yeah, it would be your first reaction is what is this?

To try to take a hook out of one of these mouths as far as grabbing, grabbing this like you would, you know, any any other fish species and try to get a hook out.

Is it is it pretty easy to do?

They're really slippery.

If you will hand it to me I can kind of show you a little bit of a grip, but you can try to hold it with, which this one's a bit.

Yeah, it's a model, so it's a bit harder.

You can actually put your hands like this and try to support both sides of its body.

If you can have somebody else hold it for you while you do that, that's probably going to be the easiest way.

Do you have any concerns with being bitten?

Any of that type of thing, right?

They do have, they do have teeth.

but you know, they're like little rows of teeth.

So if you can just kind of get it to where you're holding it, and, you know, try to have somebody else hold it so you can get that hook out.

they do have teeth so they can bite, but it's not going to be anything, you know, intense.

Yeah, yeah.

Have you ever been bitten by hellbender?

I have not, okay.

I haven't either, but but have you ever seen someone be bit?

I mean is it's not going to be like a snapping turtle or anything.

They're much.

Yeah.

They're much more frightened of you and wanting to get away from you.

So as quickly as you can get that out.

Yeah.

And so we're doing a lot of work on Hellbenders, and it's a really cool species.

So if you if you have an opportunity to save one, definitely not save one.

Take it home, but save one.

Meaning take the hook out and remove it and get it back into the water as quickly as possible.

Then that would be great.

Yes.

Especially our, you know, these adults that we're hoping are out there breeding.

we definitely want to try to preserve the population as much as possible.

All right.

Next question.

what is the best way to get our kids interested in the outdoors?

Wow.

Now, this is an interesting question because more and more people are kids are wanting to spend time on, you know, iPhones and computers and TV.

What do you recommend Michael as a good way to get a kid interested in the outdoors?

I think the best way to get a course is to go out the front door.

Right?

You don't have to go out to some remote wilderness tracks that's hard to get to.

Go to your backyard, go down the street, go to your neighborhood park, go see what you can see.

Look at the plants, look at the animals.

Start a little, you know, little pollinator patch in your backyard if you can.

I mean it█s a little plot full of flowers, see what you're attracting.

when you start seeing all these different animals, kids can get really hooked on it.

They can try to figure out all these different species and get really excited about it.

And that's going to, you know, essentially trigger more and more enthusiasm for the outdoors.

You know our department offers things like summer camps that expose kids to the outside.

Things like those programs, Kentukcy Wild is a great program where they can learn all about the native animals in Kentucky.

They can go out with biologist potentially and help kind of implement some of that conservation throughout the state.

You know, it's interesting.

I love how you say walk out the front door because if you want to get a kid interested in the outdoors, if they don't have to be dependent on transportation, someone else to recreate that outdoor experience, it's right there, literally in their backyard.

It's always going to be the easiest and best.

We're so lucky in the state of Kentucky.

We've got so many small streams, creeks, and you just get into Creek Stream, you know, ankle deep start, flip it over rocks.

I'll never forget that as a kid.

It's fascinating.

I'm sure that all of us who got into either wildlife biology or me, spent a life in the outdoors, remember being a kid and flip it over rocks and creeks.

So it's a great way to get out there and introduce a young kid to the outdoors.

Next question here.

what can we do to help monarch butterflies?

We hear this quite often.

And what plants or habitat can we plant to attract and benefit them?

Everyone loves monarch butterflies.

They really do.

tell me a little bit about monarch butterflies, what the status of them are, and then what we can do to help see, attract and protect monarch butterflies.

Yeah.

So monarch butterflies, their population has been in decline over the past 20 or so years.

it's been really striking over the past 5 or 10 years, this past year, you know, the monarchs that we're normally seeing right now, they had a really, really low overwintering population.

So they're all counted in the winter when they're, have actually overwintered and migrated to Mexico.

So that's when they're most dormant.

So that's when their count is done.

And we were down 59% this year from the previous count.

So the way that they're counted is by hectares.

And so however many monarch butterflies that are just covering these trees are in a single hectare, they add all of those up.

It's kind of like puzzling them together.

we did not even reach one hectare this year for the overwintering population.

So if you are not seeing a lot of monarch butterflies in your backyard in your neighborhood, that is why, we've started to see a couple of them.

There's a few records coming in, but we are definitely having a low year for monarchs.

Okay.

And so really, the best thing you can do specifically for monarch butterflies is to plant milkweed.

And so milkweed is their host plant for their caterpillars.

So the caterpillars have to have that specific plant.

I mean there's a variety of species of milkweed.

You've got your butterfly, milkweed, swamp, common, you know, all kinds of different types of milkweed, but they have to have something in the milkweed family in order to eat that plant and grow into a butterfly.

Okay.

Yeah.

So that's the biggest thing.

If you want to see more butterflies, you need to have milkweed.

Yes.

And then like John was saying, you know, creating as much habitat in your yard as possible for pollinators in general.

So planting both the milkweed that the caterpillars need to grow to adulthood, but also planting things like, you know, blooming plants for the adults to feed on.

So you kind of have both sides of the equation.

Okay.

All right.

Fantastic.

Are armadillos starting to, they are starting to be spotted here in eastern Kentucky more frequently.

Are they here to stay?

Armadillos are here to stay.

Yeah.

They started in Kentucky sometime in the 1980s.

By about 2000, we had them just in the land between the lakes area, and west of there.

Since then, they have spread across to the Elizabethtown area, all through the bluegrass, across southern Kentucky.

we've also had to show up in Pike County in Knott County.

Those armadillos probably came from Virginia.

Okay.

we're getting them from two sides.

They█ve come across in Indiana.

probably because our winters are getting milder and armadillos are really sensitive to cold, and they're just not being knocked back.

Interesting, we ran into an armadillo out at land between the lakes filming a segment this year, and and, you know, a lot of times you have a certain, impression of, of an animal species that when you encounter them is totally different than what you thought.

That's an athletic animal.

Armadillos can they can get going pretty fast.

Jump, jump higher than what you would think they were jumping over, lay down logs.

And I was like, that was not what I was expecting.

You know, they can't see very well.

Yeah.

This kind of bumbling along and dig for grubs and stuff.. You can walk right up to one and surprise it.

Oh yeah.

When you do it█ll jump straight up in the air.

Yes.

Three or four feet in the air.

I was shocked.

I wasn't expecting to be able to see this thing bound up in the air like that.

That's why they get hit on the road so much.

Yeah.

People tried to straddle an armadillo and it gets startled and jumps straight up, bashes itself on the undercarriage.

You know, it's interesting you talk about seeing them on the road.

If you if you look in the, you know, in the spring, we take trips down to western Kentucky quite a bit.

They're there on that side of the road very frequently.

You get on the WK Parkway.

You're going to see a couple of, they're there quite often.

So they're the population must be pretty, pretty, growing pretty fast I'm assuming.

They are doing very well.

All right.

Next question.

are there Copperheads in Campbell County or are any, known northern Kentucky area that biologists have confirmed?

Copperheads are most counties in the state.

There are a few bluegrass counties where we have no records.

Okay.

Scott County is one, Spencer County, Washington, Bourbon.

Northern Kentucky, we do have Copperheads in all three northern Kentucky counties.

They're not common., they're mostly in the hills.

Right along the Ohio river.

And right along where the Licking River flows northward to the Ohio.

I'm assuming that, you know, normally we get these type of questions because there's a debate going on that someone thought they saw a Copperhead.

maybe it was a copperhead.

Maybe wasn't.

But what other species in that area could potentially be thought of, I think I saw a copperhead, but it█s not?

People see a snake, if It's in the water, It's water moccasin.

It's got a pattern it█s a copperhead.

So.

So that covers about everything.

Yeah.

So take a picture of it and confirm it for you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You love getting, pictures of animals like that.

You really like to.

Yeah.

So, so we're gonna we're going to get through a lot of questions today that many of our biologists, they may not be able to answer your call immediately, but, they can be reached throughout the normal work schedules.

So reach out to them, leave them a message if you have a question.

But pictures are always the best aren█t they?

A real good, high quality photo can tell you guys.

You guys can tell them exactly what they're looking at, right?

So, if you got a snake or species and you want to know what it is, get a good photo and get get Ahold of John, you'll be glad to confirm.

Even a mediocre photo.

Oh, yeah.

All right, we'll take it.

We don't have any promise.

Okay, next.

Next question.

have there been any updates, from the MOTUS that track birds or, towers that track birds around the state?

I don't I'm not sure what that is.

you're talking about the MOTUS stations throughout Kentucky.

Okay.

So, Motus is an international network of automated telemetry stations.

So they're looking at specific radio frequencies that.

We actually attachments these transmitters to birds.

And these are sending off a little radio frequency that these towers are picking up.

And as bird flies by it█s going to ping off that tower and let researchers like myself know that individual was near that station.

Okay.

Fairly recently we had a summer tanager that was tagged down in Columbia on a shade grown coffee farm.

It flew up through Costa Rica, pinged off a few of the MOTUS stations there.

And then, actually it settled in for the breeding season at Taylorsville lake here in Kentucky.

A birder named James Wheat actually saw this little backpack transmitter on the bird, got a photo of it and we went out there and confirmed it.

And we were able to determine that that bird traveled well over 2000 miles to breed in Kentucky from Columbia.

So what all birds are you putting trackers like that on?

So right now we have a project deploying these on wood thrushes in eastern and central Kentucky.

We're trying to learn more about their full annual cycles to try to determine, we know they breed here, but where specifically are Kentucky█s birds going for the wintertime?

So hopefully, as they're flying south, they're going to ping off all those MOTUS stations that are going up all over the US and Mexico and South America.

And as these birds are flying we should hopefully figure out where they're going.

Okay.

All right.

Very cool.

That's very cool technology, Yeah.

It's improving every day.

It's amazing.

Next question is about armadillos again.

Wants to know if all armadillos carry leprosy?

I don't know, some do.

the transmission of leprosy from armadillo to humans is very rare.

Okay.

I know two cases in Louisiana.

Okay These were guys who lived in the swamp and actually ate armadillos.

Okay.

Probably didn't wash their hands.

Okay, so as far as, just handling them, it's not, you know, it's not it's probably not recommended, but you probably.

You don't need to worry about leprosy.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Next question.

is there more any more information about the summer tanager that migrate from America, South America to Kentucky?

so right now we're out there about two weeks ago, and that bird was still hanging around.

So we're expecting it to migrate probably towards the end of this month.

It'll start leaving and heading down back, hopefully Columbia.

It would be really cool if it went back to that same coffee farm and we were able to determine that█s it's winter range right there.

How long will that will that track for for that bird.

That's a great question.

this tracking tracking device may help you out with that.

Yeah, if we can try to pinpoint the leaves and it shows back up we can get a really, really good idea of long that trip took.

Yeah.

Usually it depends on the species.

It can range anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.

Wow.

Wow.

That's amazing.

Next question.

what has become a flying squirrels?

I used to see them as a kid but hasn't seen a flying squirrel in years.

Anybody have any info on flying squirrels?

Flying squirrels are doing okay.

Okay.

The best way to see them if you live near the woods, keep your bird feeder filled and have it near some trees and they will come to bird feeders at night and eat sunflower seeds.

Oh, really?

Or you can go to some of the state parks, like Natural Bridge, outside the dining room they have bird feeders.

And you can walk out there at night and see flying squirrels at the feeder.

Wow.

They're, they're quite common.

Okay, so, population of flying squirrels are doing well.

They█re doing well.

We catch them in bat mist nets occasionally.

Oh, do you?

Oh, that would be.

That would be pretty wild.

But, you know, the flying squirrels are pretty small, but they're big compared to a bat, right?

Yes.

One hits that you'd be like, wow, that's, something, something different.

I learned how much they can bite when I first try to get out years ago.

Yeah.

I learned that you have to take them out with a stick and not your hands.

Let me just preface that by saying, hold the stick up to them.

Not batting them out of it.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Next question.

Is there a decline in frogs in the bluegrass region?

We just don't see them like we used to.

They don't have a particular species of frogs.

But how are frogs doing?

It kind of depends.

People who have clean ponds, mow around them, they're not going to see many frogs.

What you if you want frogs, you want to have some old fields around your ponds and you want to have cattail and lots of emergent vegetation.

Is that is that because the birds and that are able to pick them off or the frogs just don't.

Well, a lot of frogs, their territory when they're mating, like bullfrogs, green frogs, they use vegetation to kind of guide where their territory are.

So that's, more cattails then the smaller the territories are going to be for the calling male bullfrogs.

Okay.

So you need you need cattails and some type of vegetation.

You know, most frogs in the bluegrass seem to be doing okay.

the toads seem to not be too as well.

Okay.

Part of that is the loss of insects that they feed on.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

All right.

Interesting.

Are crawfish in Kentucky stream safe to consume.

And are there any regulations, for the take of crawfish?

Anybody, anybody have found either crawfish?

I've never eaten.

I've eaten a lot of crayfish.

But the ones that come up from Louisiana, the the the other different species, not here.

When I worked for the transportation department the guys I worked with went out and seined crawdads and ate them.

Really.

And i█m thinking, you guys are eating crawdads out of Hickman Creek.

That gets all the sewage from Lexington.

Yeah.

I'm just not gonna, I'm not gonna go there.. Yeah, yeah.

You know, I, I would definitely not recommend eating any crayfish.

There's a process they go through, even with the ones down in the South that they do eat where they think they soak for a period of time, try to remove all the the waste.

And I don't know how to do all that.

I█m not going to take my chances.

Yeah, the ones they raise in those ponds, those are fine.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And so as far as, rules and regulations, are there any rules, regulations on that?

I think that for using them for bait, there are some rules and regulations on how many you're allowed to have, like a hundred or maybe a hundred and check your rules and regulations on that for fishing, which we just did a show on using, live crawdads for, for bait.

So, it could be a great bait.

I wouldn't recommend consuming them, but you have to ask someone smarter than me.

If they're thinking about protected crayfish.

We have the big sandy crayfish, so that might be part of what they were asking about.

Yeah.

You know.

Yeah.

That species is not one you can collect.

Yeah.

Okay.

So know what you're picking up and, what you're using it for.

But I don't know we're not sure about eating them, right.

Next question.

we used to find Hellbender in Drakes Creek in Warren County.

Is this river one that might be restocked with them in the future?

And, you know where they're talking about Drakes Creek, Warren County.

Yeah.

that is not a creek that is currently on our radar for the reintroductions.

But, I mean, as far as the reintroduction program, that is something that, you know, we foresee continuing to work with our partners for many years to come.

So if you know, there is opportunities, throughout the state to try to figure out where they're most needed, that's kind of what we're working off of right now.

And, you know, just if they if they do, I know they said they used to see records there.

So if they do find any more records, please do let us know.

Like we said, take a picture.

and just let us, you know.

So we can keep track of how they're doing there.

I'm assuming that when you guys start to come back to put species that are in decline, you're only putting them back in in areas that you have records of them being in the past.

Right?

We know that they are a native.

So is is this, area I know we're not having any plans really soon to be putting anything back in Drakes Creek, but is this that, Hellbender Creek that that, you know, of that used to have them in the past?

Do we have records of Hellbender I'm not exactly sure.

I could bring that up but I don't have my computer.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Well, you know, with Drake Creek, that's, I think that's in the Barren River drainage maybe.

The Green River drainage hellbenders are genetically different from the hellbenders in the Kentucky River and Licking River.

Oh really?

And we still have a PhD working on hellbender genetics and he can't yet tell us whether we can take our eastern Kentucky hellbenders that we█re raising and put them in the Green River.. okay.

It might be a totally different species.

So we're we're doing some research on it right now, but you're talking about, oh, we're getting to a Warren County.

You're talking about the the kind of the green River drainage area.

So you're saying that it might be a different genetic species.

It might be a whole different speices.

Okay.

We need a lot more information.

Okay.

So if you if you get a confirmed location and picture, that would be a great one to have.

Right.

All right, next question.

what is the range and estimated population of pygmy rattlesnakes in Kentucky?

Are they only in land between the lakes?

We have them in two counties.

They're in eastern Callaway, bordering Kentucky Lake.

And then they're in Trigg County on LBL.

Okay.

That's the whole range of the pygmy rattlesnake in Kentucky.

Okay.

Parts of two counties.. Have you encounter them in the wild?

You know, the last time I saw a pygmy rattlesnake in the wild was like 1973.

Okay.

Wow.

One turns up every every few years.

a couple of years ago, someone found one hiking a trail at LBL.

There have been a couple in Callaway County the past two or three years.

Okay, so.

They█re still here, they're really hard to find.

They█re curled up under a pine tree, and they blend in really well with pine needles and you just don█t see them.

Yeah.

When they rattle.

It's such a faint buzz that you can█t hear.

It's, Okay.

Yeah.

The next question, I see several bald eagles around Taylorsville lake, and I think I've seen a couple golden eagles.

Can you confirm if there's been any golden eagles in the area?

if you're seeing them this time of year, we wouldn█t expect for Golden Eagles to be in Kentucky quite yet.

It's usually towards a little bit further into the fall, and they█ll migrate down this way.

If you█re seeing them around now It's more than likely an immature bald eagle.

Okay, hatch year or second year birds can look a lot like Golden Eagles.

They█re brown, they don█t have that distinct white head.

So that's probably what they're seeing.

We do have golden eagles though in Kentucky, they do come in.

You can find them Western Kentucky, Central Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky.

You're more likely to see them in eastern Kentucky though, if you█re trying to find them.

All that being said they are quite rare, but they are here.

Okay.

And so yeah, the interesting thing about birds is that they grow really fast, right?

So, an immature bald eagle, size wise, you may go, oh, it's it's too big to be an immature, you know, bald eagle, but it can be full size I'm guessing?

Yeah actually, when they leave the nest, a female bald eagle, when she leaves the nest that's the biggest type of bald eagle actually.

They█re actually larger than the fully sexually mature adults.

Really?

That's, their still, their flight feathers are a little bit longer so their wingspan is larger.

But yeah, as soon as any bird, a raptor or songbird leaves the nest, that's the size they█re going to be probably for the rest of their life..

So yeah it's interesting.

So when you see one you go oh no it's not, it can't be a bald eagle because it's too big to be an immature.

Well, when they leave the nest, they're fully grown full size.

So.

All right.

Very interesting information there.

Next question here.

Are whippoorwill is in decline?

We get this question at this show almost every year.

What do you know about the whippoorwill populations?

They are in decline.

So that█s a species of greatest conservation need in Kentucky.

Okay.

And they are declining pretty rapidly.

They prefer, clear understory and forest habitats and with a lot of the invasive species that are coming into Kentucky, that understory is starting to fill up with a lot of shrubs, so there's less habitat for them.

Insect declines.

They're big insectivores, so as insects decline they have less food.

So as insects decline they decline as well.

There's also, they█re pretty susceptible to predation from things like feral cats and whatnot that are actually eating chicks and adults too.

So there's just a lot of things working against this species that causing this decline.

It's amazing if you sit there in one spot and in sing the same song as loud as you can sing it, you, you're, you probably susceptible toa predator too.

Yeah.

Because they just sit there and go on and on.

We hear we hear around the lakes in eastern Kentucky, you know, lake Cumberland and that type area, every night we're out there and they will sit there all night it seems like.

They sure will, but if you go trying to find them and actually see them, they are hard to spot.

Oh, really?

They blend in very well.

Very interesting.

It's a really unique bird.

Absolutely.

What should I do if a bird is dead near my feeders, should I be worried?

So apparently someone has a feeder out and a bird has died there near the feeder.

Yeah.

So, if you're seeing one bird, there's the possibility that maybe it's succumbed to some illness it already had, or and it's just left there.

If you think it's a disease and you█re seeing a lot of birds at your feeder, you can fill out one of our disease forms on our website, or you can call us and we█ll get in touch with you.

At that point what you're going to want to do is take down your feeder.

You're going to sterilize it with a bleach/water solution.

So nine parts water, one part bleach, just give it a good cleaning.

And I recommend that you leave the feeders down for a few weeks, about two weeks, just in case there is a disease of some sort that's on the feeder and the surrounding area.

Just let that kind of cool off so you're not infecting all the birds in your yard.

So you don't get too concerned but just take precautions and, get that cleaned up, keep it down for a period of time and then.

Exactly.

We█re not seeing, you know, bird flu going through the songbird population right now or anything like that.

So I wouldn't be too concerned, but things like finch eye disease if you're seeing house finches that have crusty eyes or that they█re dead under the feeder, go ahead and take them, clean them.

Okay.

Again a good picture of a dead bird.

a close up where you can kind of see that type of thing and submit that is a really good way to make sure that, you know that birds die.

So it could be no big deal, but if you get a really good close picture of it and you might be able to determine more as a biologist.

Exactly, we can help you identify what it is, possibly what went wrong, and then advise you from there..

Fantastic.

Next question will butterflies use butterfly boxes?

I'm not sure what they're talking about there, but.

So yeah, there are a type of box that you can find.

And they have just like these little thin kind of slits in them and they're labeled as butterfly boxes.

I've actually gotten this question quite a few times because people will buy them and then they won't really see any butterflies use them, they'll end up with, usually like paper wasps or spiders will inhabit them.

So you are providing habitat.

You're just not exactly providing habitat for the creature that you initially wanted.

butterflies are really sun loving.

So, you know, when it's sunny outside, you might be more likely to see a lot of them across any field you're looking at.

and so a butterfly box while they're cute, and they might have little designs on them.

It's not exactly something that a butterfly is going to use.

There'll be a little bit of a shock for, a little girl puts a butterfly box up, goes and gets wasp in it, she's not going to be very happy with that.

Yeah.

I've had a couple calls where people are asking about them and if butterflies are ever going to use them, because right now it's just wasps.

And really, I mean, the better thing that you can do, like we talked about earlier, is putting in, you know, those native plants for butterflies.

Oh, man.

Yeah.

There you go.

So milkweed you want to see butterflies put the milkweed.

You know, purple cone flowers, black eyed susans, bee bombs all, all kinds of pollinator plants.

All right, next question.

Are there any birds, that, in Kentucky that are on the endangered or protected list?

I work closely with raptors and songbirds.

As of right now there are no federally listed raptors or songbirds.

I think there are a few, wading birds and, possibly waterfowl that are but they are not like whooping cranes.

I don't know that much about it because right now there's not.

There is one species that are under review for possible listing.

that's the gold wing warbler.

We have a small populations in Eastern Kentucky.

But its under review so its not listed yet.

Okay.

All right.

Very interesting.

You know, all birds are protected.

Well, yes.

Yeah.

You know, and that's interesting because we get, you know, these questions.

A lot of these questions are all about I get calls and texts constantly about, hey, I've got this particular species, or I want to see this particular species around my house more often, usually I'd say about 80% is I want to see more of these species.

Sometimes it's, hey, how do I get this bird out of my yard?

Or how do I get this whatever this animal is, it might be a beaver.

It might be an otter in their pond, birds are a unique situation.

So how do you keep a bird?

Because birds are.

Some birds are like blue herons, for example.

We talk about frogs.

I get people that that have frog ponds, or they have, maybe a goldfish pond or whatever, and they see that blue heron on there and they're like, oh my gosh, I got to get this bird out here.

What's a good way to deter an animal from utilizing that space you don't want it to be in.

So like John said, all pretty much all birds in Kentucky are protected by the migratory bird treaty act.

now, if it's a bird that's you can't physically harm them.

You can't kill them, shoot them.

Yes, you can essentially dissuade them from being there.

Like a blue heron on your pond, you can essentially just keep harassing it and drive it away.

it will fly off.

They'll get the point eventually where it does not want to by there anymore.

Yeah.

Yes.

You're not actually causing harm to it.

Like food at your neighbors pond.

But it's the same thing in all these scenarios very species dependant.

And so if you have an issue with, let's just say the blackbirds behind your house making a mess, call the department you get in touch with us, we can provide you recommendations or in the case that you actually have.

okay.

Very good.

Because, buzzards.

Herons, those are the type of calls that, you know, sometimes people go like, hey, how do you I know I can't, I can't harm this bird, but how do I handle that?

And you're saying just be 2 or 3 times pester it away and it very well may not come back?

it's probably going to be more like a few, oh, two weeks pestering but.

Yes.

Yeah, yeah, put a dead dog in your neighbors yard so vultures go over there.

Okay.

So.

Oh.

So we won█t talk about how you get a dead dog.

next question is, how does Kentucky Wild keep all of all of these animal help all these animals?

I'm sorry.

You tell I have a rough time reading my phone.

How does Kentucky Wild help all of these animals?

We're talking about all kinds of different species of animals.

And, tell me a little bit about some of the species that, each one of you are working with through Kentucky Wild to help, you know, establish new populations or monitor.

What are you are you working with, animal species?

Are you working with through Kentucky Wild.

We have just started a pine snake restoration project.

Okay.

We are working with Murray State University and trying to identify good habitat, and we've been working with the Louisville Zoo and try to establish a breeding population for northern pine snakes that originated in Kentucky and try to restore populations and Kentucky Wild helps to fund that stuff Okay, tell me what you're doing with Kentucky Wild.

And if there's any outdoor projects that you guys are working on when you take volunteers.

let me know about that, too.

Yeah.

So we've been able to use Kentucky Wild Funds to purchase, lots of pollinator seeds.

So we've been able to get that out on the ground.

So different swaths of pollinator habitat.

So we're putting as much as possible as far as the habitat goes.

we've used Kentucky Wild Dollars to buy, you know, monitoring items like monarch tags for monarch butterflies so that we can hopefully pick up some of those butterflies, you know, after they have flown to Mexico the bat side of things, we have used Kentucky wild funding to, fund cave gates.

So if there is a cave that has a huge amount of disturbance and there are very endangered bats in there that are trying to, you know, rear their young and they will unfortunately die if there's too much disturbance.

we've been able to use that funding to put gates over some of those really sensitive caves.

Okay.

Very cool.

How about you?

We use Kentucky Wild money to build, like peregrine falcon nest boxes, barn owl nest boxes to increase essentially nesting availability for these species that are still imperiled.

their spreading in Kentuck but if we can put a barn owl box up that they can use the chances of all those chicks in their surviving to adulthood is always much higher than a hay loft where raccoons can get at them.

We also use Kentucky Wild to fund them all these motor stations we are putting up.

Okay.

And that's informing us all about where birds are going and what's kind of habitats we used at the migration.

And therefore we can learn a lot more on how to conserve species.

Okay.

And I'm sure that there are some probably federal programs that we're using Kentucky Wild dollars are probably getting some match funds and some of these ways to some federal dollars.

Are there programs like that as well?

When you guys file for grants using outside dollars like we do and Fisheries and Wildlife does that, I'm sure you guys probably do some of that.

Well, yeah.

Yeah, we we're able to use that.

and then we can also use things like volunteer hours as a match on some of our grants.

So, you know, when we can get people out for volunteer opportunities.

That also helps us if we can collect that information and, use it, you know, for for grants to continue the further the funding.

So Kentucky Wild memberships start at $25.

I think that gets you on a list where you may get some additional information, a $35, what I think gets you a T-shirt, but also get you as part of a group where you can do some outside potential research with these, with these individuals, but also, if they have an opportunity for some matching funds, your $35 may turn into much more.

I know that that happens on like, say, the fishery side.

And I'm assuming that that's probably the the case.

You're saying that hours that a person donates can also be used for match dollars for federally.

Yeah.

We were able to do like a cave cleanup event, which is a little bit different from some of our Kentucky Wild ones, but it's similar where we brought people out, and, you know, basically cleaned up some of the, debris that was in a came from when it was used as a show cave.

So we can kind of use events like that where we bring volunteers out, to help us with that sort of thing.

very cool.

So if you want to learn more about Kentucky Wild, you can go to the Department of Fish and Wildlife website and search for Kentucky Wild and learn more about some of the projects are working on and, how to become more involved.

So fw.ky.gov and search for Kentucky Wild.

How many different lizards are there in Kentucky and how many of them are poisonous?

Okay, zero.

there you go.

We have ten kinds of lizards in the state.

Eight are native.

And then the other two are introduced.

So you want to see lizards go to, northern Kentucky and Kenton, and Campbell counties near the Ohio River.

You will see lazerous lizards.

Those are European wall lizards.

And they they started in Cincinnati, brought over from Italy by members of a lazerous department store family.

Oh, really?

They are neat.

Northern Kentucky has very few native lizards and these are kind of filled an empty niche.

Ok. Our native lizards, fence lizards are statewide.

We have five different kinds of scinks.

We have a glass lizard which looks like snake.

And also called the glass snake..

It's very rare Okay.

It's on our conservation list, but none of them are, you know, poisonous.

we have no venomous lizards.

Okay.

next question.

I had a bat hanging in the outside of my, underpinning on my house during the day.

Is it sick or why would it be there during that time of the day?

So this time of year, we're not really concerned if there are bats you know, in places that you're not used to seeing them.

this is the time of year where the juvenile bats have just become volent or just become, you know, flying for the first time.

So similar to fledgling birds, they can, you know, they're a little bit clumsier and they can get into some strange places.

It may have just been that, that bat you know, did one of its first flights, got tired and kind of just stayed put right where it's at.

you know, in the evening time, the landowner should see it fly off and go forage for insects.

if it's there for, you know, 4 or 5 days, it, you know, it potentially needs some help and they might, may want to contact a wildlife rehab.

but really, this time of year, we're, we're not extremely concerned about, you know, one bat that's out in a bit of a strange place.

Okay.

All right, I have a black, vulture roost within 50 yards of my property.

Do I need to worry about any type of disease?

They are carrying eaters, so there's the potential for disease transmission.

That being said is very uncommon.

it is one of those things if you own the property, you don't want them there.

You are welcome to call the department we can advice you how to midigate that roost and drive them off.

It is a fairly involved process.

And it can be noisy with loud noises.

but as far as diseases, I would not worry much about it..

Okay.

All right.

And it says 50 yards, off a property of my property.

so it doesn't really say how close it is to the house.

I don't know if it's.

But if you have one really close to the house and you want to get it moved a way, call you guys, and you have a way that you can discourage them from being there, we'll give you a whole game plan how to get rid of them.

okay.

All right, next question.

is the tiger salamander common or rare and are we monitoring them?

We do not monitor tiger salamanders.

they are very common okay.

From about Shelbyville West okay.

So they're in the westen 2/3 of the state.

And the range just kind of stops when you go east of there.

okay.

But they are really common.

I get a lot of photos of them because they're big, but they come out of the ground usually January or February.

Go to a pond, court, lay eggs, go back in the borrows that they came out of and you know, you don't see them again until next winter or spring.

very common and we're not monitoring because They seem to be doing pretty well.

Really well.

All right.

next question.

how concerned should Kentuckians be about venomous snakes?

Should we carry a snake bite kit while hiking?

You know, the best thing to do if you're ever bitten by a venomous snake, seek medical attention.

Yeah.

Don't use a snakebite kit.

Don't cut into the name.

Don't apply suction.

Don't apply ice Don't apply a tournacet.

You can do much more damage.

Try to treat a snake bite if you just go to a doctor.

Okay, so snake bite kits.

you recommend no snake bite kits.

Yeah seek medical attention.

Leave the snake bite at home And if you get if you do happen to get bitten by a snake anywhere, you don't need to take that snake with you to the hospital and all that, right?

So take a picture of it.

I mean, they'll they'll be able to tell by the pain and swelling.

Yeah.

It's truly a venomous snake bite.

Yeah.

You know, about half of them.

The snake bites or dry bites or the snake is just irritated.

It's stepped on and not inject vemon.. it The snake uses venom to get food.

Doesn't want to waste it.

Now you have actually been bitten by a venomous snake at one point in time.

One time I was bitten while I was in college.

Okay, so did you know immediately that it was not a dry bite?

Oh, yeah.

So there's no there's no like, if you get bitten, you're questioning whether or not it was, it was not a dry bite.

You're now right.

Intense burning thing.

Like when you step on a lit cigaret.

Yeah.

It's it's sticks to your foot..

So it was like, molten metal.

I'll just ask that question.

Do you have a little bit of experience so people would.

You're not going to have to question whether or not it was.

It was a dry bite or not.

You're going to know, right?

Yeah.

Most most venomous snake bites in Kentucky.

Copperheads.

there are no records of anyone in Kentucky ever dying from a copperhead Okay, not that it can't happen.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's not even usually fatal to a small dog.

Okay.

The only snake bite fatalities that I know of since 1950 have been half a dozen timber rattlesnake deaths.

And they all happened in churches where people were passing around.

rattlesnakes.

And they did not seek medical, did not seek medical care.

Okay.

So any any you know, people who are really, really you're know, they're terrified of snakes.

Yeah, yeah.

Seek medical attention.

Yeah.

All right.

Next question.

is Can you tell us about the turtle in the tank behind us?

What what kind of turtle we've got here?

That that is a spiny, soft shell.

And that particular turtle, i found that turtle about 15 years ago.

It was a baby in the creek.

And part of the shell was scraped off, and I picked it up and took it home.

My wife took care of it, raised it in the kitchen.

It got about this big and brought to the Salato Center.

Is that it?

That's it.

So you actually you actually saved this turtle.

And how old is this turtle?

Well, you don't have to look for it.

It was in the maybe 2005 2006.

Okay.

Wow.

20 years.

That's a male.

But it's full grown.

Okay.

the females get huge.Yeah, I've seen them get pretty big.

Yeah, yeah.

Males are much smaller, and that's pretty much full grown male.

Very interesting.

You actually brought something today to what did you bring.

Are you speaking of, picking up and saving and, I don't know what the story behind this is.

You actually have a little snake here.

I just caught this for this.

This is a this is a full grown.

brown snake.

Okay.

We have about six different kinds of snakes on this state.

they get no bigger.

Okay.

And, so that's a really common snake.

And it's a full grown.

Yeah.

It's very common everywhere.

except bluegrass.

okay.

For some reason we don't have them her.e.

these guys eat slugs.

Okay.

Maybe we just don't have the right slugs.

Yeah, yeah.

For the brown snake..

These are common in wetlands and in and woods.

Eastern Kentucky, southern western.

Real common.

in woods in western Kentucky.

you know, it looked like it when you first pick it up.

It didn't really like being handled, but now it's kind of starting to settle down a little bit.

It doesn't like this, but what's it going to do.

Yeah it's a six inch snake.

He looks.

Yeah.

It can't possibly bite me.

Yeah.

Yeah.

very interesting.

This kind live in your garden and eat mostly slugs.

Okay.

Pretty good to have around there.

Good around.

That's interesting.

It's kind of goes into our next question.

I'll let you take care of your snake.

We'll start on the other end down there.

Michael, what is your favorite animal to work with?

That's a very good question.

right now it's probably still the peregrine falcon.

Okay.

It's a very, very neat bird.

I have very up close and personal, encounter during breeding season.

I get to monitor them and band chicks.

There just a very cool species, and they're very rare.

Only 18 pair statewide.

So we find a new peregrine falcon nest the bird people get very, very exciting.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

So peregrine falcons, that's your favorite animal species.

to work with.

Michaela.

What about you?

What's your favorite animal species to work with?

I think I change this answer every time I'm on this show, but I'm going to change it again.

So my favorite animal to work with I think, is the Virginia big eared bat.

That is one of our species with those charismatic large ears.

Yeah.

and the reason that they're my favorite to work with is because they have the most fascinating movements.

We will find a new cave for them that we're like, okay, that's great, or they're here, you know, we're going to monitor them here.

We're going to count them here.

You'll come back a few weeks later.

They've all packed up and moved somewhere and it's just they keep you on your toes and they're just constantly, you know, doing different things that make them frustrating but fascinating to study.

That's cool.

That I can tell you love your job because when every year it's something new that is, that is now your favorite thing to do when you tell you don't have a desk job where you're doing the same thing every single day.

So it's like a constant mystery that that that's great.

What's your favorite species Jon?

my favorite thing to do is, is I love going out.

Looking under tin to find copperheads.

Copperheads.

My favorite snake.

Okay.

But I also really like going to southeastern Kentucky, walking around at night and looking at the salamanders living in rock out crops.

Okay, so I live for those two things.

You really like we have actually been out with you.

You can kind of, if you want to see John out in the field, flipping over tins.

We actually did a Kentucky field segment years ago.

Mammoth Cave National Park, I believe.

Yeah.

You guys were hilarious because you were walking on the tin so you wouldn't step on the grass, and I turned over a piece of it.

Yeah, they had four copperheads.

under it.

Yeah.

And all of a sudden all the Kentucky Afield crew jumps off tins.

and they're they're walking in the grass.

Yeah, yeah.

We were like, where did they go?

We're like, right here where we're standing somewhere.

Careful with your next step.

yeah, I remember that.

are there any new bird species that have been introduced to Kentucky, that are invasive, introduced?

nothing large scale.

We have our usual suspects like European starlings, rock pigeons, and we have sparrows that pretty widespread around US, that are invasive.

we get some pet parakeets that get released, but its too cold for them to establish a breeding population.

there are a few that could that are on our prohibited species list that we do not want introduced.

And we are Looking at those birds so they can█t be released.

Moving wildlife from one location to the next is, is a really big deal.

Really serious.

We've kind of talked about different species.

You talk about you know, seeing a salamander that was brought in by the Lazarus family.

Yeah, lizard.

But those type of things, I mean, yeah, we may talk about where you can see them now, but the impact they're going to have on that new location could be catastrophic.

So you don't want to be moving animal species from location to location, even within the state, from one location to the next.

You're telling me there's certain areas where some species are in Kentucky because they don't reside in other parts of Kentucky.

We don't need to be moving those animal species around do we?

no.

You know, it's it's always a bad idea to do that, but usually they do not survive.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So you probably, you know, if you're taking it there in hopes of, of starting a new population and then living you, you may have doomed that that particular individual.

I know a guy who tried to get tiger salamanders started in Powell county.

And they hung on there for about ten years and finally died out.

Powell county is not tiger salamander habitat.

So yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

So not a good idea.

And in some, in some situation could be you could also be highly illegal.

So be very cautious on moving animal species from location to location.

next can you share any tips, or resources for planning a native pollinator plot at your home?

Do we have any anything online where you can talk about, where people can go to figure out exactly the best way to do this?

We do.

we actually have a planting brochure on our website.

If you go to the Monarch Butterfly tab and scroll to the bottom, you can click and we have a brochure that suggests a variety of plants that you can put in your backyard to attract butterflies.

and really, I mean, you know, like we were talking about before, sometimes it comes down to the simple things like turning your lights off at night, you know, not using pesticides or insecticides, and just trying to plant, you know, plants that insects connector on.

If you're thinking about it, you know, you're looking at your yard and if you don't see anywhere the insects can hide, they of course, can't see anything either.

You need like some shrubs, some plants.

You know, a lot of these species, may overwinter in the leaves.

So if you can leave, you know, maybe you don't have to leave your yard full of leaves in the fall, but you can leave some patches of leaves where, you know, some of our butterflies and moths can make their, cocoon or chrysalis and overwinter.

Just small things like that can really make a huge difference.

Okay.

Very cool.

How many species of animals are, are in Kentucky?

I didn't give a particular.

It just said how many species you guys want to get our fingers and toes out to start right now, we're talking thousands.

Nobody know.

Because you have to include insects.

Yeah.

So it's the insects.

Drive up our numbers.

Okay.

We probably have more species of beatles than anything else put together.

Really.

So, yeah.

So that, there are tons and tons and tons.

Well, that finishes up all of our questions.

Hopefully your question got answered.

If not, you can always reach out to our biologist.

Give us a call 1-800-858-1549.

And also make sure that you look into becoming a member of Kentucky Wild.

To learn more about Kentucky Wild go to FW.KY.GOV/KYWILD.

And remember, hunting and fishing on private property is a privilege.

Always ask permission and thank the landowner.

Until next week I'm your host Chad Miles.

That hope.

See you in the woods or on the water.