Botanists scour US-Mexico border to document forgotten ecosystem split by giant wall

Bright yellow blooms carpet the ground, a sharp contrast to the imposing steel bollards of the border wall topped with rolls of razor wire along the U.S.- Mexico border, April 19, 2024, in the Ejido Jacume in the Tecate Municipality of Baja Calif., Mexico. Members of the Baja California's conservation Baja Rare project lead a botanical expedition to document native plants along the U.S.-Mexico border, April 19, 2024, in the Ejido Jacume in the Tecate Municipality of Baja Calif., Mexico. Botanists and citizen scientists armed with the iNaturalist app on their smartphones record the biodiversity along the U.S.-Mexico border in the Ejido Jacume in the Tecate Municipality of Baja Calif., Mexico, April 19, 2024. College students and members of Baja California's conservation organization Baja Rare document native plants in the Ejido Jacume in the Tecate municipality of Baja Calif., Mexico, April 19, 2024. A California Horned Lizard is held for classification in the Ejido Jacume in the Tecate Municipality of Baja California, Mexico, April 19, 2024. Horses walk close to the U.S. - Mexico border, April 19, 2024, in the Ejido Jacume in the Tecate Municipality of Baja California, Mexico.

Near the towering border wall flanked by a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle, botanist Sula Vanderplank heard a quail in the scrub yelp “chi-ca-go,” a sound the birds use to signal they are separated from a mate or group.