Research
Research
My overarching research revolves around understanding the consequences of human disturbance and ecological changes on the behavior of animals, with implications for creating effective management plans for endangered species. My research examines the effects of the loss of apex predators on mesopredator (middle predators like the northern raccoon) behavior, with emphasis on 1) how mesopredators assess risk in their environment and what behavioral strategies they use to mitigate that risk, 2) how the evolutionary history between predator and prey might impact behavioral changes to cues typically indicating risk, and 3) creating methods to better predict and manage wildlife with high rates of conflict between other wildlife and humans. Although my work is rooted in biology, I strive to integrate interdisciplinary aspects into my research, such as computer science, engineering, and chemistry to better address these questions.
Wild animals constantly face tradeoffs when moving throughout their environment, and alter their behavior to maximize benefits while reducing costs. Wildlife managers can take advantage of the changed behavior brought on by the 'landscape of fear' to increase the survival of threatened species. For example, deterring the common raccoon (Procyon lotor), a predator of many endangered ground nesting species, from nesting areas by 'tricking' raccoons into thinking that area is high risk could reduce the predation rate of nests at critical nesting periods. However, how individuals perceive risk, and what factors indicate risk in a way that would elicit behavioral changes is often lacking for certain species. My research utilizes captive experiments, field work, and artificial nest experiments to determine whether raccoons respond with changes in their foraging behavior to tools commonly available to wildlife managers: commercially available predator urine.
Building on my work identifying how mesopredators perceive and and respond to risk in their environment, I explore the extent the evolutionary relationship between predators and prey impacts a preys' response to cues from said predator. The 'Ghosts of Predators Past' hypothesis states that prey co-evolved with certain predators should maintain a genetic predisposition to respond to cues from that predator with adaptive behavioral responses. Support for this hypothesis is shown in many species, however, work detailing the re-introduction and re-wilding of other species indicates that many species may lose the ability to recognize cues from their natural predators as something to be afraid of. Many species need to be trained to recognize their evolved predators, as well as how to behave to survive when being released back into the wild. My work delves deeper into this question using the common raccoon as a model organism
The study of animal behavior is often limited by the researcher’s perceptual abilities, as they need to directly observe an animal to record specific behaviors. However, recent advances in computer technology and artificial intelligence have allowed researchers to utilize devices continuously collecting movement data to create a machine learning algorithm that can predict animal behavior based on movement sequences. As part of my doctoral work, I set out to build my own GPS/accelerometer collar for raccoons, and worked with computer scientists to build an algorithm to predict raccoon behaviors based on sequences of accelerometer data. Although this still is a work in progress, I hope that the methods and results from this effort can be used by other scientists as a starting point for improving upon similar devices to more efficiently study animal behavior in their natural environments.
In addition to behavior conservation research, I am interested in learning how students learn in the broad field of STEM, and what barriers students have to overcome when engaging in classroom activities. To better learn how to conduct pedagogy research, and to learn about qualitative data collection and analysis in general, I am working as a research assistant in Dr. Mariel Pfeifer's lab at the University of Mississippi, where I am helping to conduct a systematic review compiling existing research about STEM students and their instructors. Results from the final review will be used to guide efforts for change in the classroom.