Our science
Broadly, our team shares an interest in understanding the movement and spatial ecology of animals across scales, particularly in the context of ecological heterogeneity and dynamic environments. We approach this question using a synthesis of movement, behavioral, population, and community ecology, in which animal movement is the critical conduit connecting individual behavior to population and ecosystem dynamics.
For many species, we are still just starting to discover the mechanistic foundation of behavioral patterns and why and how individuals make different decisions. By investigating these differences mechanistically, we can better understand the extent and limits of behavioral flexibility, facilitate innovative monitoring of population status, improve predictions of how animals cope with changing conditions, and understand the consequences for species interactions and ecosystems.
Below are some of our current projects. We are always excited about developing new collaborations with like-minded researchers on these or any related topics, so please reach out!
The ecology and conservation of diverse space use and movement strategies in North American ungulates
Large mammals are highly mobile, occupy large ranges, and exhibit long-distance movements such as migration and nomadism. The nature of these movements presents a challenge for conservation as animals often cross multiple ecotypes, jurisdictions, land ownerships, roads, and fences. Existing ecological theory suggests that an individual’s movement strategy is determined by its environment; however, advances in animal tracking have shown that even within a single population in the same environment, there can be both nomadic and migratory, and in some cases resident, individuals. Our research synthesizes GPS-collar data and remote sensing of the environment to assess the relationship between movement strategies and key habitat and climatic features in western North America. Current work in this area includes: understanding the drivers of movement strategy switching in pronghorn and elk in Wyoming, describing patterns of winter habitat selection and determining factors associated with large-scale winter movements in pronghorn across Montana, including the effects of anthropogenic linear features, and assessing patterns of mule deer habitat selection in Montana, including functional responses to environmental heterogeneity and responses to habitat treatments.
Behavioral and demographic responses of animals to human-modified landscapes
Human activities present many challenges for mobile animals, ranging from physical barriers to movement such as roads and fences, to the fear of humans constraining diurnal activity, to increased pressure on populations from hunting and outdoor recreation. Flexibility in behavior allows animals to navigate these novel environments, and the degree to which individuals can adjust their patterns of activity and space use impacts their survival and fitness. We investigate how individuals within and across different populations cope with human-modified landscapes through dynamic behavioral decisions, how these decisions impact population demography, and then apply this understanding of to pressing problems in wildlife management. Current work in this area includes: understanding the movement and demography of African cheetah in a prey-depleted ecosystem in Kafue National Park, Zambia, studying Great Gray Owl nesting habitat, responses to disturbance, and methods for efficient population monitoring in light of forest management needs in southwest Montana, and investigating the environmental and social factors that predict incidences of human-wildlife conflict in Montana’s urban areas.
The role of behavioral dynamics in structuring ecological communities
Behavioral decisions made by individual animals about where to be and what to eat intuitively determine the diversity and abundance of organisms and the trophic links among them in an ecological community, but individual-based theories of community ecology are rare. We are currently working on and developing an ambitious set of studies in Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park (GNP) and Zambia’s Liuwa Plains National Park that aim to quantify the drivers and impacts of individual movement behaviors in the context of top-down and bottom-up ecosystem processes. In Gorongosa, we are working with collaborators from University of California Merced, University of British Columbia, University of Idaho, Princeton University, and UC Davis to examine the behavioral mechanisms underpinning the dynamics of the diverse large-herbivore community. In Liuwa, we are collaborating with the Zambian Carnivore Program to assess the drivers of migration behavior and patterns of space use in a large wildebeest herd, which makes up the highest biomass of both herbivorous consumers and prey for large carnivores. We aim to understand how behavioral decisions affect wildebeest population dynamics as well as the movement and demography of their main predator—spotted hyena, and the consequences of these predator-prey interactions for the Liuwa ecosystem.
Behavioral responses of keystone prairie species to management actions
Prairie ecosystems are an essential part of Montana’s natural resources and home to some of the state’s rarest flora and fauna, as well as important biodiversity. These ecosystems have been heavily impacted by human activities and global change and our understanding of the natural ecological processes that govern these ecosystems remains limited. Our research on black-tailed prairie dogs, black-footed ferrets, and swift foxes in northeast Montana aims to address this information need.
All three species are heavily managed with treatments for sylvatic plague mitigation on prairie dogs, captive breeding programs for black-footed ferrets, and translocations/reintroductions for both swift foxes and ferrets. Our research will provide the scientific understanding of the impacts of these management interventions and lead to improved strategies for the conservation of prairie communities. To do this work, we are implementing exciting new technology for the high-resolution tracking of the movement and space use behavior of these species both above- and below-ground using accelerometry, dead reckoning, GPS- and cellular-tracking, and drone technology. This is a collaborative research effort in partnership with the Smithsonian Great Plains Science Program.
Tools to describe broad scale animal-environment interactions
Some components of our research also require a broader view of spatial ecology to efficiently describe the effects of landscape structure on animal space use over vast scales. We take remote-sensing data from satellites such as MODIS and using statistical analyses to generate novel products that more accurately describe key habitat features, such as landscape heterogeneity and predictability over large regions. We also develop theoretical and simulation models to address questions in situations where field data collection would be logistically prohibitive.