In the season finale of In Our Nature: Nebraska, we're traveling to Central Nebraska, where whooping cranes have paused their 2500 mile migration at the Platte. What is it about whooping cranes that draws us in? Why do we connect with them? And how has that connection caused them harm? Explore these questions and more in today's episode.

Welcome to the audience choice episode! Today, we talk about the swift fox, the smallest wild canine in North America. The fox itself is well-liked and harmless, but efforts to tackle other pests and unwanted creatures have driven them from their historic range. In Episode 4, we discuss what it means to be a predator and how predation has left the swift fox vulnerable to harm.

In this episode of In Our Nature: Nebraska, we dive beneath the surface of Nebraska's rivers to discover the pallid sturgeon—strange and threatened. But there's more than meets the eye to these bizarre fish, entangling us in a story about the consequences of the conservation, as well as the price of doing nothing at all.

Stick around the credits as we introduce the subject of next week's audience choice episode!

News coverage from KETV Omaha, KMBC News, and WRDW 12 26,

In Our Nature: Nebraska is on hiatus this week, but amazing things are right around this corner! Listen to this quick update to hear what you've missed and what's to come — including information about our audience choice episode!

Link to voting for audience choice episode: https://forms.gle/7VKTg6hDAYS6Ut2r6

This week, we're taking to the air with the southern flying squirrel, which captured the hearts of UNL's East Campus when it was spotted in December of 2021. Since then, the amazing flying squirrel has us thinking about what it really means to be threatened and the role we all have to recognize the natural beauty in our urban communities!

Citizen science project: https://snr.unl.edu/research/projects/researchproject.aspx?pid=20

FLYING SQUIRREL SHIRTS: https://marketplace.unl.edu/nemaps/flying-squirrel-t-shirt.html 

Welcome to the first episode of In Our Nature: Nebraska! In this episode, we're taking a journey that spans millions of years without leaving Lancaster County. Along the way, we'll become acquainted with the Salt Creek tiger beetle, a brave and voracious little bug that is critically endangered and only found here in Nebraska. This episode, I'm also joined by Brooke Talbott, a producer for Platte Basin Timelapse, as she recounts her experience with the beetles and their habitat, the amazing — and vulnerable — saline wetlands. 

Link to Brooke's AMAZING photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CjiviFYL8NS/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Link to Lincoln wetlands: https://www.lincoln.ne.gov/City/Departments/Parks-and-Recreation/Parks-Facilities/Saline-Wetlands/Wetland-Areas 

Link to Nebraska G&P wetlands: http://outdoornebraska.gov/nebraskawetlands/

Listen here for your first sneak peak of In Our Nature: Nebraska! This five-part podcast brings listeners face-to-face with Nebraska's most fascinating endangered animals. Join Emma Krab, a student journalist, nature-lover, and sixth generation Nebraskan, on a journey to discover our state's most vulnerable creatures and the bonds we share with them.