Achievements

Jeffrey Black, Micaela Szykman Gunther and student Kristin Brzeski

Wildlife

Wildlife Professors Jeffrey Black and Micaela Szykman Gunther recently co-authored a paper with student Kristin Brzeski in _The Journal of Wildlife Management_ evaluating the status of river otters in Humboldt Bay. River otters have experienced dramatic population declines in the last century and relatively few studies have evaluated their status, especially in California. Black, Gunther and Brzeski evaluated the population of river otters in Humboldt Bay by extracting DNA from the animals' scat. They analyzed the scat in the lab to create unique river otter "fingerprints." They pooled that data with visual observations from a citizen science project and determined that the Humboldt Bay is home to a larger number of river otters than previously expected. It also has a higher density of the creatures compared to other coastal systems. To read the full paper, visit http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jwmg.610/abstract.

Phil Chaon, Alisa Muniz, Justin Purnell, Felicia Aragon, Andrew Wiegardt and Brendan Higgins

Wildlife

Humboldt State University's Wildlife Quizbowl Team placed second in the student Quizbowl of the National Meeting of the Wildlife Society in Milwaukee. The single elimination tournament included 17 teams. HSU won the first match against University of Montana 95-25. The team won its second match against University of Wisconsin, Madison, 125-10, and its third match against Michigan Tech 85-70. The team was narrowly defeated in the final round by the University of Minnesota, Crookston, 105 to 100. This year marks the 13th time HSU competed at the National Quizbowl, with nine wins to date.

The quizbowl team included Phil Chaon (captain), Alisa Muniz, Justin Purnell, Felicia Aragon, and Andrew Wiegardt (alternate player).

The national meeting also included students presented "research in progress" posters. Muniz placed in top 20 (among 100+ posters, most by graduate and doctoral students). Student Brendan Higgins won several awards for some of his photos, including best of show.

Mark Colwell

Wildlife

Mark Colwell delivered an invited plenary talk on the challenges of conserving threatened species at the 5th Western Hemisphere Shorebird Group meeting in Santa Marta, Colombia on 20 September 2013.

Barbara Clucas

Wildlife

Wildlife faculty member Barbara Clucas recently co-authored a study suggesting that crows can recognize human faces. For the study, Clucas and her team approached crows in Seattle while directly looking at them and while averting their gaze. The crows scattered earlier when they were being directly stared at, suggesting that they have adapted to living in urban areas. The full article was published in the April issue of the journal _Ethology_.

Sharon N. Kahara and Steven R. Chipps

Wildlife

Dr. Sharon N. Kahara and Steven R. Chipps' paper "Wetland Hydrodynamics and Long-term Use of Spring Migration Areas by Lesser Scaup in Eastern South Dakota," published in the journal Great Plains Research (2012), was selected to receive the Charles E. Bessey award for the best paper in natural resources.

Lauren Wendt

Wildlife

Lauren Wendt ('09, Wildlife) received the "Torch Award" by the North American Wildlife Enforcement Officers Association. The award honors top young officers in the U.S. and Canada. Lauren works as a conservation officer for the Idaho Department of Fish & Game.

Mark Colwell

Wildlife

Wildlife Professor Mark Colwell was named 'Outstanding Mentor' at the 2013 Annual Conference of the Western Section of The Wildlife Society in Sacramento in January.

Kelly Weintraub, Dana Herman

Wildlife

HSU Wildlife Master's students Kelly Weintraub and Dana Herman received best poster awards at the 2013 Annual Conference of the Western Section of The Wildlife Society in Sacramento in January. Kelly's presentation summarized her research on the nesting ecology of tri-colored blackbirds in the San Joaquin Valley and Dana's presentation reported the results of her work on the reproductive success of the threatened snowy plover in Humboldt County.

T. Luke George and Joe LaManna

Wildlife

T. Luke George, graduate student Joe LaManna and scientists at the Institute for Bird Populations published a paper in the Auk (October 2012) examining factors influencing the annual survival of Swianson’s Thrushes in the Pacific Northwest. Using mark-recapture data collected at bird banding stations throughout the region (including a station near Eureka where many HSU students have been trained to band birds) they found that the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is an important driver of annual survival in Swainson's Thrushes.

Sharon N. Kahara, Walter G. Duffy, Ryan DiGaudio and Rosemary Records

Wildlife

Sharon Kahara and Walter Duffy along with colleagues Ryan DiGaudio (PRBO Conservation Science) and Rosemary Records (Colorado State University) published a paper in the journal "Diversity." The title of the paper is "Climate, Management and Habitat Associations of Avian Fauna in Restored Wetlands of California’s Central Valley, USA". The paper reports the results of a two-year study of avian diversity on restored wetlands in California's Central Valley. Restored wetlands support a large number of avian species; however, securing access to water in the drier southern valley is imperative to sustaining bird use and diversity.