After Humboldt, Jeanne continued to work for PRBO Conservation Science.

  For her thesis, Jeanne’s conducted an experiment to determine whether an introduced predator, the black rat, limits Song Sparrow nesting productivity. Nesting success in mature riparian forest is very low due to predation, and a UC Davis study had documented that black rat abundance is high in these areas. After collaborators from UC Davis removed rats from one of her study sites, Jeanne documented how the birds respond there compared to a reference site. Information from this study on songbirds in riparian forest is useful to conservation ecologists working to restore endangered riparian habitat in the Central Valley.