Graduate Student and Post Doctoral Alumni

Shotaro Shiratsuru
PhD Dissertation (2025): Understanding the mechanisms and consequences of predator-prey interactions: the traits of prey and predators interact with winter conditions to mediate the food-safety trade-off

Currently a Postdoc at Trinity College Dublin

 

Spencer Keyser
PhD Dissertation (2024): Ecology and conservation in seasonal environments

Currently a Postdoc at Cornell University 

 

 

Emma Blackdeer
M.S. Thesis (2024): Mechanisms for digestion of a varied diet in a group of forest carnivores  

 

 

Corbin Kuntze
PhD Dissertation (2024): The effects of spatial heterogeneity on predators, prey, and their interactions  

Currently a Postdoc in the Pauli Lab

 

Gonzalo Barceló
PhD Dissertation (2024): The trans-hemispherical role of an apex predator: Foraging, energetic and behavioral ecology of Puma concolor

Currently a Postdoc in Chile with ANID (National Association of Research and Development)

 

Mauriel Rodriguez Curras
PhD Dissertation (2024): Carnivore community structure in a changing world

M.S. Thesis (2019): Humans affect every major niche axis in a community of competing carnivores.

Currently a Postdoc at University of California-Berkeley

Matt Smith
Postdoctoral Fellow (2024)

PhD Dissertation (2023): Mechanisms of species recovery for a forest carnivore in a changing landscape
Aldo Leopold Scholar

Currently a Postdoc at Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute

Lydia Druin
M.S. Thesis (2023): Quantifying connectivity: a recovery network of American martens (Martes americana) in the upper Great Lakes region

Currently a Scientist-in-Parks Ecology Assistant with the National Park Service Greater Yellowstone Network

Sam Jolly
M.S. Thesis (2023): Spatiotemporal analysis of small mammal populations: implications for American marten recovery

Currently a biologist with the U.S. Forest Service

Burcu Lacin Alas
M.S. Thesis (2022): The repatriation of wolves to Isle Royale alter the foraging of mesocarnivores

 

Penelope Murphy
M.S. Thesis (2022): Survival of ruffed grouse color morphs in seasonally snow-covered forests

Currently a natural resources scientist at Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

Malena Candino
M.S. Thesis (2022): Moving through a heterogeneous landscape: Migration and habitat selection of a guanaco population in a seasonal environment

Currently a science communications research specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Taylor Peltier
M.S. Thesis (2022): Phenotypic variation in the molt characteristics of the snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus)

Currently a Ph.D. student at Utah State University

Kimberly Thompson
PhD Dissertation (2021): The Abiotic Characteristics and Ecological Consequences of a Deteriorating Subnivium

Currently a Postdoc at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research

Evan Wilson
PhD Dissertation (2021): Mechanisms of Community Disassembly Along a Southern Range Boundary

Currently a Postdoc at Michigan State University 

Brad Smith
M.S. Thesis (2021): Carnivore resource use and competition under rapid environmental change: the diet of fishers (Pekania pennanti) and martens (Martes caurina) in the Sierra Nevada mountains during drought and tree mortality

Currently a program manager at U.S. Forest Service-Northern Region

Tiffany Bougie
M.S. Thesis (2020): Demography Informed Species Recovery: Quantifying Wood Turtle (Glyptemys insculpta) vital rates, population viability, and effects of management actions in Wisconsin

Currently a wildlife biologist with Michigan Department of Natural Resources

Ally Scott
M.S. Thesis (2020): Small Mammal Communities in Changing Environments

Currently the Deputy Tribal Climate Resilience Liaison at the Midwest Climate Adaptation Science Center   

Julian Padro
Postdoctoral Fellow (2020): Andean condor conservation genetics. 

Currently a Research Assistant at CONICET in Argentina

 

Paula Perrig
PhD Dissertation (2019): Apex scavengers in a changing world: historical demography and future conservation of Andean condors

M.S. Thesis (2015): Predation subsidizes an obligate scavenger in the Andes

Currently a Postdoc at CONICET in Argentina

 

Marie Marten
M.S. Thesis (2019): Exploring the energetic and spatial ecology of Pacific martens in Lassen National Forest, CA.
Annie Alexander Award

Currently a Faculty Research Assistant at Oregon State University Institute for Natural Resources

Julia Poje
M.S. Thesis (2019): Impacts of Environmental Conditions on Prairie Dog Fleas: Implications for Sylvatic Plague

 

 

Phil Manlick

Ph.D. Dissertation (2019): Landscape-mediated niche dynamics in North American Carnivores
Aldo Leopold Scholar

M.S. Thesis (2015): Mechanisms of delayed recovery in reintroduced American martens 

Currently a research wildlife ecologist at the USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station

Megan Fitzpatrick
Postdoctoral Fellow (2018)

Currently a biologist with Minnesota DNR

 

Mario Garces Restrepo
Ph.D. Dissertation (2018): Reproductive Ecology and Conservation of Sloths in Costa Rica 

Currently the technical director of Biota at Proinsa LTDA in Colombia

Kristina Black
M.S. Thesis (2018): The Great Lakes region is a melting pot for vicariant red fox (Vulpes vulpes) populations through natural expansion and fur-farm translocations

Currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Texas at Austin

Jen Grauer
M.S. Thesis (2017): Demography and genetics of reintroduced American martens

Currently a Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University

Becky Kirby
Ph.D. Dissertation (2016):Foraging Ecology and aging of black bears in human-modified landscapes

Currently a regional wildlife ecologist at the U.S. Forest Service-Southwestern Region

Emily Fountain
Postdoctoral Fellow

Currently a Research Associate at the University of Wisconsin

Wynne Moss
M.S. Thesis (2015): Mountain lion foraging in the Colorado Front Range
FWE Outstanding Thesis

Currently a Postdoc at Conservation Science Partners

Sean Sultaire
M.S. Thesis (2014): Climate change and snowshoe hares

Currently a Postdoc at University of Montana

 

John Pokallus
M.S. Thesis (2014): Population dynamics of a northern-adapted mammal in response to climate change and an altered predator community

Currently a game warden for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department

Jorge Mendoza
M.S. Thesis (2014): Resource use by two-and three-toed sloths differ in a shade-grown agro-ecosystem.

Currently the STEM Exploration and Engagement Scholars Program Manager at Ohio State University

 

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Undergraduate Alumni (Senior Thesis)

T Innis
Senior thesis (2024): Top-down and bottom-up processes mediate the diet of red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) on Isle Royale in the aftermath of the gray wolf (Canis lupus) reintroduction

 

 

Alivia Arredondo
Senior thesis (2024): Whitebark Pine: a surprisingly important dietary item to American martens

 

 

Isabel Field
Senior thesis (2024): Anthropogenic food consumption influences the nutritional condition and reproductive rates of hunter-harvested black bears in Wisconsin

 

 

Sabrina Zhao
Senior thesis (2023): The introduction of an exotic carnivore: stone martens in Wisconsin 

 

 

Betty Chu
Senior thesis (2023): Mating strategies of the porcupine community based on parentage

 

Grace Nugent
Senior thesis (2022): Distribution and sympatry of snowshoe hares and cottontail rabbits in Wisconsin

 

 

Clare Knife
Senior thesis (2021): Genetic structure of the Moquah Barrens sharp-tailed grouse translocation

 

 

Michaela Rudolf
Senior thesis (2021): Consequences of variable winter conditions on nutritional condition and mortality of porcupines (Erethizon dorsatum) in central Wisconsin

 

Kate Silverthorne
Senior Thesis (2019): Niche Partitioning in Communities Featuring Different Avian Scavenger Richness

 

 

Aleana Savage
Senior Thesis (2018): Assessing the Colonization History of the Isle Royale Red Squirrel: Tamiasciurus hudsonicus regalis

 

 

Shelby Petersen
Senior Thesis (2017): Eltonian niche conservatism of martens across the Pacific Northwest

 

 

Rachel Larson
Senior Thesis (2017): The genetic structure of American black bear (Ursus americanus) populations in the southern Rocky Mountains

 

 

Carissa Freeh
Senior Thesis (2015): Diet driven decline of a generalist forest carnivore?

 

 

Jenna Carlson
Senior Honors Thesis (2014): Potential role of prey in the recovery of American martens to Wisconsin
Holstrom Environmental Scholarship

 

Sonia Petty
Senior Thesis (2014): The effects of climate change and land cover type on the subnivium, a seasonal refuge beneath the snow.
Reid Bryson Scholarship

 

Katrina Brickner
Senior Honors Thesis (2013): Exploring black-footed ferret diet specialization in Shirley Basin, Wyoming.