2018-2019 Mentors
M.S. Student
Wildlife & Fisheries Sciences
Texas A&M University
Research Focus: I am interested in the evolution of complex animal communication systems, social behavior and how it is facilitated through signaling as well as how environmental changes impact social systems by altering signal transmission. I am also interested in using remote sensing technology to less invasively monitor threatened species for conservation. My current research focuses on a closed population of Indian peafowl in Texas. In the past I have studied larval coral reef fish settlement behavior at the Virgin Islands Environmental Resource Station, many species of bats in Baja California Sur, Mexico, yellow-bellied marmots in the Rocky Mountains, Catalina Hutton’s vireo song and Scripps’s Murrelet population trends on Santa Catalina Island and spent many years working as an Acoustic Data Analyst at Conservation Metrics Inc..
M.S. Student
Wildlife & Fisheries Sciences
Texas A&M University
Research Focus: I am interested in conservation ecology and landscape ecology of Central American and Texan bat populations. Specifically, I hope to study the potential effects of White-nose syndrome (WNS) on cave bat populations in Texas and Mexico, and the potential implications of WNS development in Central American ecosystems. I earned my B.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences from Texas A&M University in 2016. I have been a research assistant at the Natural Resources Institute since 2017, where I work on a project studying cave bats in Texas prior to the arrival of WNS.
2017-2018 Mentors
Ph.D. Candidate
Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences
Texas A&M University
Research Focus: My research focus is on landscape connectivity and in how landscape features drive elephant movement and patterns of human-elephant conflict. I use GPS collar data from elephants (pictured collaring a bull elephant ) and social and environmental data. My study region is in northern Botswana. For more information check out my website!
Jordan Rogan
Ph.D. Student
Wildlife & Fisheries Sciences
Texas A&M University
Research Focus: My research is focused on the use of biodiversity thresholds and species-specific functional traits to determine the resilience of mid-large mammals to land cover change in fragmented landscapes. My study site is in the tropical montane forests of Monteverde, Costa Rica. I am broadly interested in conservation biology, community-based conservation planning, human-wildlife dimensions, social-ecological systems and landscape ecology.
2016-2017 Mentors
Jessica GilbertPh.D. Student
Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences
Texas A&M University
Research Focus: I am interested in assessing the effectiveness of protected areas systems in achieving conservation objectives. My current research focuses on the interactions between human activity and biodiversity conservation in a high altitude biosphere reserve. I am particularly interested in understanding how traditional livestock grazing systems affect the distribution of medium and large mammals in the tropical Andes. I am a trainee in the NSF-IGERT Applied Biodiversity Sciences Program, a Texas A&M Merit Fellow , and the recipient of an InterAmerican Development Foundation Fellowship and a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship.
Mike PetrielloPh.D. Student
Department of Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Sciences
Texas A&M University
Research Focus: Conservation Social Science, Human-Wildlife Interactions, community-based conservation, human environmental attitudes, conservation behavior, conservation education. My research in Nicaragua, in combination with my subsequent Master’s thesis investigating public perceptions of bats among wildland-urban interface residents in northern Arizona, solidified my desire to devote my nascent career to studying LEK. In particular, my current research will focus the construction, maintenance, and communication of LEK among community members in southwestern Nicaragua. Moreover, I would like to explore if and how residents’ awareness of and participation with community-based conservation influences the content and development of LEK.
2015-2016 Mentors
Liz MarchioPh.D. Student
Department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Sciences
Texas A&M University
Research Focus: I study Science as Leisure activities. These are leisure activities, such as bird-watching and aquarium keeping, that promote both scientific interest and literacy as well as pro-environmental behavior. I’m a trained ichthyologist turned social scientist and my dissertation focuses on the social world of aquarium keeping. Visit my website for more information.
Ph.D. Candidate
Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences
Texas A&M University
Research focus: I am interested in how environmental pollutants impact wildlife species. My dissertation focuses on the impacts of persistent organic pollutants on neotropical migratory songbirds and aims to quantify contaminant accumulation during migration. In addition, I’m interested in assessing the potential sublethal impacts contaminants may cause in birds. Visit my website for more information.
Ph.D. Candidate
Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences
Texas A&M University
Research focus: I study how environmental policies influence ecological processes, including mammal dispersal across the landscape. My dissertation research focuses on landscape changes due to environmental policies, as well as mammal movement within biological corridors and payment for environmental services policies in the Paso de las Nubes Biological Corridor, Costa Rica. See my website for more information.
2014-2015 Mentors
Rika Muhl
Applied Biodiversity Science Conservation Scholars Program 