Student Micaela Szykman Gunther, Matt Delheimer, Keith Slauson, Bill Zielinski Wildlife

Former graduate student Matt Delheimer published his thesis in the September issue of the Wildlife Society Bulletin, along with co-authors Keith Slauson, Micaela Gunther, and Bill Zielinski. His work documented the Use of Artificial Cavities by Humboldt marten, recently listed as an endangered species in California.

Faculty Mark Colwell, Elizabeth Feucht Wildlife

Mark Colwell and Lizzie Feucht published a paper (Aug 2018) in Wader Study, an international journal dedicated to the ecology and conservation of shorebirds. Their work shows that Humboldt Bay hosts half a million shorebirds during spring migration alone! This information will be used to increase recognition of the bay under the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network.

Faculty Seafha Ramos Wildlife

Seafha Ramos, Research Associate and Lecturer in the Wildlife Department, published an article, "Considerations for culturally sensitive Traditional Ecological Knowledge research in wildlife conservation". The paper will be included in the June 2018 issue of the peer-reviewed journal, the Wildlife Society Bulletin.

Student Matt Brinkman, Dave Garcelon, and Mark Colwell Wildlife

Former graduate student, Matt Brinkman, authored a paper in Wildlife Society Bulletin, co-authored with his graduate advisor, Mark Colwell. The paper describes a field experiment using Carbachol to condition Common Ravens to avoid eating quail eggs made to look like Snowy Plover eggs. While successful in the short term, ravens still ate real plover eggs in the area of the field experiment.

Student Korinna Domingo, Ximena Gil Wildlife

Wildlife students Korinna Domingo and Ximena Gil's abstract was accepted for the Aquarium of the Pacific's Citizen Science for Conservation in Southern California Symposium (March 24th). They will be presenting a Lightning Talk titled, ‘Using citizen science to estimate frequency of latrine site usage along tributaries of Humboldt Bay by North American river otters.’

Student Korinna Domingo Wildlife

Wildlife undergraduate student Korinna Domingo’s abstract was accepted for the Wildlife Society Western Section Conference in Santa Rosa, CA (Feb 5-9th). She presented a poster titled, ‘Informing local government regarding wildlife activity in a recreational area through inexpensive and noninvasive trail camera methodology.’ See the poster here: bit.ly/TrailCameraPoster

Faculty Mark Colwell Allison Patrick Wildlife

Mark Colwell and Allie Patrick published a (Dec 2017) paper in Wader Study, an international journal dedicated to the ecology and conservation of shorebirds. Their work summarized a 12-year dataset on breeding Snowy Plovers in Humboldt County and showed that plovers nest in loose aggregations, especially when population size increase.

Faculty Mark Colwell, Lizzie Feucht, Nora Papian, Jeremy Pohlman, Katelyn Raby Wildlife

HSU hosted the annual recovery meeting for the Western Snowy Plover, held in the Native American Forum, 10 & 11 January 2018. HSU alumnus Dr. Luke Eberhart-Phillips of the Max Planck Institute, Germany delivered the keynote lecture, which was a comparative examination of plover demography and breeding systems. Colwell, Feucht, and Papian also presented their work.

Faculty Mark Colwell, Lizzie Feucht, Sean McAllister, Amber Transou Wildlife

Mark Colwell and former students Lizzie Feucht, Sean McAllister, and Amber Transou published a paper in the August issue of Wader Study, an international journal dedicated to understanding the ecology and promoting the conservation of shorebirds. Their paper details the longevity record for a Snowy Plover that they've studied for the past 16 years! Mark will present this story in an EcoSeries lecture on August 31 in the Wildlife Department.

Faculty Mark Colwell, Lizzie Feucht, Matt Lau, David Orluck, Sean McAllister, Amber Transou Wildlife

Mark Colwell and current and former students (Lizzie Feucht, Matt Lau, David Orluck, Sean McAllister, Amber Transou) published a paper in Wader Study, an international journal dedicated to shorebird ecology and conservation. The work summarizes 16 years of monitoring to show that immigration is vital to recent population growth of Snowy Plovers in coastal northern California.

Faculty Walt Duffy and Sharon Kahara Wildlife

"Ecosystems of California" won two 2017 PROSE awards, which are given by the Association of American Publishers. It won the award for environmental science, and the overall award for excellence in physical sciences and mathematics.For more information on AAP 2017 awardees visit:
https://proseawards.com/winners/

Faculty Professor Emeritus Rick Botzler, students in the Ecoclub and other collaborators Wildlife

Professor Emeritus Rick Botzler has been working with local kids aged 4 to 16 to survey for chytrid fungus in Humboldt County frogs. With the Ecoclub kids as first author(s), the research team, which includes ecologist colleagues from the US Forest Service, UC Davis and the Integral Ecology Research Center, has published their findings in the recent issue of the Journal of Wildlife Diseases. A great accomplishment fueled by citizen science.

Student Shannon Murphy, Daniel Barton Wildlife

Wildlife graduate student Shannon Murphy won best overall student presentation for her talk "Parental care behaviors in Brandt's cormorant (Phalacrocorax pencillatus): effects on reproductive success and use as indicators of the marine environment" at The Wildlife Society - Western Section meeting in Pomona, California, with co-authors Stephanie Schneider, Richard Golightly, and Daniel Barton.

Student Yuliana Rowe, Angelica Munoz, Thien Crisanto and Laura Hernandez Wildlife

Yuliana, Thien, Laura, and Angelica were invited to present independent research at Washington D.C. at the ERN Conference in STEM (Emerging Researcher's National Conference in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) in late February. Yuliana Rowe was awarded 2nd place in Ecology, Environment, and Earth Sciences for her presentation on "The effects of climate-induced forest disturbances on spiders in Michigan."

Student Eric Jennings, Micaela Szykman Gunther Wildlife

Eric Jennings, past undergraduate in the Department of Wildlife, had his honors thesis published in Northwest Science, coauthored with his mentor, Micaela Gunther. His work examined the "Effects of high temperatures and sun exposure on Sherman trap internal temperatures."

Faculty Jeff Black & Will Goldenberg Wildlife

Natural Born Hustlers, a new series co-produced by the BBC and PBS features research by HSU Wildlife Professor Jeff Black and alumnus Will Goldenberg. Black and Goldenberg are featured in a segment about Steller's jays. For 17 years, Black has led a study into the jay populations on campus and their deceptive behavior. The birds are known to mimic predator sounds like red-shouldered and red-tail hawk calls. Goldenberg, who currently lectures in HSU's film progrma, helped the BBC film the birds in action.

Natural Born Hustlers is a three part series, and begins on Wednesday, Jan., 13 at 8 p.m. on PBS. Check local listings for more information. Episode 2, the Hunger Games, which features the Steller's jays, airs January 20.

More information is available at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/natural-born-hustlers-about/13389/.

Faculty T. Luke George Wildlife

Dr. Luke George, emeritus faculty in Wildlife, along with other authors published an article describing how the disease West Nile Virus is affecting bird populations. "Persistent impacts of West Nile virus on North American bird populations" was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences (PNAS). Read the abstract online at http://www.pnas.org/content/112/46/14290.short.

It is also worth noting that some of the data in the paper came from bird banding operations at the Wright Wildlife Refuge, a small refuge on the edge of Eureka where many HSU students have worked over the years. Numerous graduate students have run bird banding operations there, and they and faculty have trained scores of undergraduates to handle and measure birds using standardized bird netting and monitoring processes. It's one of many sites in a network of field research sites called MAPS (monitoring avian productivity and survivorship).

Faculty Mark Colwell Wildlife

Mark Colwell gave a paper summarizing his research on Snowy Plovers at the 40th meeting of the International Wader Study Group in Iceland.

Faculty Mark Colwell, Dana Herman Wildlife

Dana Herman (now working for the US Fish & Wildlife Service, Sacramento) and Mark Colwell published a paper on Snowy Plover lifetime reproductive success showing that a small proportion of the Humboldt County population contributed disproportionately to population growth. Plovers that bred on gravel substrates of the Eel River produced appreciably more young than those on sandy, ocean-fronting beaches. Their work was featured in the 28 Aug 2015 issue of the eWildlifer (wildlife.org), published by the The Wildlife Society.

Student Matt Brinkman, Stephanie Leja Wildlife

Matt Brinkmann and Stephanie Leja received first and third place, respectively, in the student competition for best oral papers at the Western Section of The Wildlife Society meeting in Santa Rosa in late January 2015. Stephanie also received third place in the poster competitions. Both students work with Dr. Mark Colwell on Snowy Plovers.