After Humboldt, Dane went on to be a wildlife biologist with the California Dept of Fish and Wildlife.

  For his thesis, Dane studied barn owl prey delivery in winegrape vineyards in Napa Valley. Using nest box cameras, he documented the rate at which adults deliver prey items to birds in the nest box throughout the breeding season. Dane also analyzed how prey delivery rates relate to various local and landscape habitat variables and ultimately, how habitat affects the ecosystem service of rodent pest control delivered by barn owls in vineyard ecosystems.