Undergraduate Research
Our curriculum provides scaffolded opportunities for all undergraduates to meaningfully engage in wildlife research: scaling up from a project for first-years in the Klamath Connection place-based learning community, to a full course-based research project in Wildlife Techniques (for new transfers and matriculated 3rd yr students), to several 400-level courses that include group or individual research projects, to every undergraduate doing their own independent culminating research project either in Senior Project or Honor's thesis. Along the way, students have lots of opportunities to participate with faculty and/or graduate students on various research projects locally or even internationally, and our students are competitive for summer research internships around the country such as NSF's Research Experience for Undergraduates program. Students learn how to design, conduct, analyze and interpret results, and they practice disseminating their findings in written and oral forms. In some cases, these activities even result in undergraduates authoring or co-authoring peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts, as evidenced below:
Rose T., W.E. Vickers*, S. A. Cardenas*, and J. M. Black. 2023. North American River Otter diet includes invasive Sacramento Pikeminnow and herpetofauna on South Fork Eel River, Northern California. Northwestern Naturalist 104:229-241.
Clucas, B. and Z. Atkins*. 2022. Using camera traps to survey Humboldt’s flying squirrels in old and second growth redwood forests. Northwestern Naturalist 103:11-19.
Soller, J*., D.E. Ausband, and M. Szykman Gunther. 2020. The curse of observer experience: Error in noninvasive genetic sampling. PLoS ONE 15(3):e0229762.
Guerrero-Casado, J., R. Cedeño, J. Johnston*, M.S. Gunther. 2020. New records of the critically endangered Ecuadorian white-fronted capuchin (Cebus aequatorialis) detected by camera traps. Primates 61(2) DOI: 10.1007/s10329-019-00787-0.
Clucas, B., T. N. Smith, J. Carlino*, S. Daniel*, A. Davis*, L. Douglas, M. M. Gulak*, S. L. Kanga Livingstone*, S. Lopez, K. J. Kerr*, K. M. Koehn*, K. A. Lloyd*, J. A. Medina, E. A. S. Miller*, A. M. Prior, M. Sandoval*, A. Shedlock* and S. Thornton*. 2020. A novel method using camera traps to record effectiveness of artificial perches for raptors. California Department of Fish and Wildlife Journal 106:203-214.
Appel, C. A., P. Belamaric*, and W. T. Bean. 2018. Seasonal resource acquisition strategies of a facultative specialist herbivore at the edge of its range. Journal of Mammalogy 99:1159-1173.
Harris* M., B. Clucas, J. Stanek, and M Whitfield M. 2019. Wildlife mortalities in open-topped pipes in Central California. Western Wildlife 6:50-60.
Meisman*, E., C. Bortot*, L. Enriquez*, C. Herr*, S. Ihle*, S. Jensen*, M. Johnson, M. Sampson*, and C. Wendt. 2018. Coastal vegetation communities affect mesocarnivore activity in Northern California dune ecosystems. Western Wildlife 5:1–6.
Weigardt*, A. K., D. C. Barton, and J. D. Wolfe. 2017. Post-breeding population dynamics indicate upslope molt-migration by Wilson's Warblers. Journal of Field Ornithology 88:47–52.
Bean, W.T., D. Tange*, and S. Osborn. 2016. A suitability model for white-footed voles with insights into habitat associations at the southern boundary of their range. Northwestern Naturalist 97:105-112.
Jennings, E.*, and M. S. Gunther. 2016. Effects of high temperatures and sun exposure on Sherman trap internal temperatures. Northwest Science 89:414-419.
Spidal*, A.B. and M.D. Johnson. 2016. Sexual habitat segregation in migrant warblers along a shade gradient of Jamaican coffee farms. Journal of Caribbean Ornithology 29:37–42.
Black J. M., E. Wampole,* and J. Mayer*. 2016. Fifteen years of river otter monitoring by citizen science volunteers in northern California: Litter size. Northwestern Naturalist 97:226-236.
Delgado de al Flor, Y. A.*, and M. D. Johnson. 2015. Influence of invasive European beachgrass on mesopredator activity in the coastal dunes of Northern California. Western Wildlife. 2: 29-34.
Hardy*, B. M., K. L. Pope, J. Piovia-Scott, R. N. Brown, and J. E. Foley. 2015. Itraconazole treatment reduces Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis prevalence and increases overwinter field survival in juvenile Cascades frogs. Diseases of Aquatic Organisms 112: 243-250.
Johnson, M. D. and Y. L. De Leon*. 2015. Effect of an invasive plant and moonlight on rodent foraging behavior in a coastal dune ecosystem. PLoS ONE 10: e0117903.
Taylor, A.P.*, M.L Allen, and M. S. Gunther. 2015. Black bear marking behaviour at rub trees during the breeding season in northern California. Behaviour 152:1097-1111.
Kalinowski* R. S., P. O. Gabriel, and J. M. Black 2015. Who’s watching influences caching effort in wild Steller’s jays (Cyanocitta stelleri). Animal Cognition DOI: 10.1007/s10071-014-0780-x
Howard*, K. and M. D. Johnson. 2014. Effects of natural habitat on pest control in California Vineyards. Western Birds 45:276–283.
Trainor*, M., M. D. Johnson, and H. Davis. 2014. Orangequit (Euneornis campestris) and Bananaquit (Coereba flaveola) body condition in response to shade coffee habitat in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica. Journal of Caribbean Ornithology. 27: 15-21.
Cheng*, D., Vigil*, K., Schanes*, P., R. N. Brown, and J. Zhong. 2013. Prevalence and burden of two rickettsial phylotypes (G021 and G022) in Ixodes pacificus from California by real-time quantitative PCR. Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases 4:280-287.
Smith*, C., M. D. Johnson, B. Campos, and C. Bishop*. 2012, Variation in aggressive behavior of black-throated blue warblers in Jamaica. Condor 114: 831-839.
Berl*, J. L. and J. M. Black. 2011. Vigilance behaviour of American wigeon Anas americana foraging in pastures. Wildfowl 61, 140-149.
