About
22
Publications
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73
Citations
Introduction
Current institution
Additional affiliations
August 2020 - present
Position
- Ph.D. Candidate
Description
- As part of my PhD research, I am studying how highways impact the mammal community, including factors that impact wildlife crossing use at both broad and fine spatial scales and the size of the road effect zone for the mammal community
August 2013 - May 2014
Position
- Undergraduate
Description
- As part of an undergraduate honor’s thesis, I examined the relationship between animal anti-predator behavior and households and towns in the Tarangire-Manyara Ecosystem of Tanzania.
January 2018 - August 2020
Position
- Research Assistant
Description
- As the subject of my Master’s Thesis, I am conducting research on how construction of wildlife mitigation structures affects spatiotemporal patterns of wildlife road mortalities and wildlife activity in Cameron County, TX.
Education
July 2020 - December 2024
January 2018 - May 2020
August 2010 - May 2014
Publications
Publications (22)
Collisions with vehicles can be a major threat to wildlife populations, so wildlife mitigation structures, including exclusionary fencing and wildlife crossings, are often constructed. To assess mitigation structure effectiveness, it is useful to compare wildlife road mortalities (WRMs) before, during, and after mitigation structure construction; h...
The jaguarundi (Puma yagouaroundi) is a small felid with a historical range from central Argentina through southern Texas. Information on the current distribution of this re-clusive species is needed to inform recovery strategies in the United States where its last record was in 1986 in Texas. From 2003 to 2021, we conducted camera-trap surveys acr...
Wildlife corridors are typically designed for single species, yet holistic conservation approaches require corridors suitable for multiple species. Modelling habitat linkages for wildlife is based on several modelling steps (each involving multiple choices), and in the case of multi-species corridors, an approach to optimize single species corridor...
Worldwide, transportation agencies have been involved in road mitigation efforts to reduce road mortality and promote connectivity of endangered species. Baseline data on how mammals respond to highway construction, however, are rarely collected in road mitigation and monitoring studies, including in the USA. Our goal in this study was to assess di...
Background: Complexity in landscape structure is often assessed using individual metrics related to ecological processes. However, this rarely incorporates important relationships among metrics and may miss landscape structure effects. Multivariate statistics provide techniques for assessing overall landscape structure effects. We assessed how mult...
Assessment of locations where wildlife species cross highways is a key question in mitigating future wildlife-vehicle mortality. Examination of the spatial structure, complexities, and patterns of vegetation or other land-use types (i.e., cropland, urban areas) near roadways allows scientists to identify any thresholds that influence where animals...
Identification of buildings from remotely sensed imagery in urban and suburban areas is a challenging task. Light detection and Ranging (LiDAR) provides an opportunity to accurately identify buildings by identification of planar surfaces. Dense vegetation can limit the number of light particles that reach the ground, potentially creating false plan...
Helicopters used for aerial wildlife surveys are expensive, dangerous and time consuming. Drones and thermal infrared cameras can detect wildlife, though the ability to detect individuals is dependent on weather conditions. While we have a good understanding of local weather conditions, we do not have a broad-scale assessment of ambient temperature...
Collisions with vehicles are a major threat to wildlife populations and often occur in identifiable patterns. To reduce wildlife road mortalities, mitigation structures including exclusionary fencing and wildlife crossings are constructed. Openings in fencing at road intersections may lead to concentration of road mortality hot spots at openings le...
Roads can have major impacts on wildlife, causing habitat fragmentation and direct mortality from wildlife-vehicle collisions. Therefore, wildlife crossing structures (WCSs) are often constructed on roads to help promote connectivity and reduce wildlife road mortality. In order to assess the effectiveness of these structures over long time periods,...
Using control camera trap arrays to examine the wildlife community around wildlife crossing structures to differentiate the influence of surrounding habitat and wildlife crossing structure design on frequency of structure use. Two control arrays were used, one based on proximity to wildlife crossing structure, the other based on similar vegetation...
Using percent of permeable road estimates to determine the permeability of road mitigation structures for all target mammals within the south Texas study area. Preliminary research indicates it is important to consider the entire wildlife community when constructing a road mitigation corridor, or some species may experience the wildlife exclusion f...
Using control camera trap arrays to examine the wildlife community around wildlife crossing structures to differentiate the influence of surrounding habitat and wildlife crossing structure design on frequency of structure use. Two control arrays were used, one based on proximity to wildlife crossing structure, the other based on similar vegetation...
Using control camera trap arrays to examine the wildlife community around wildlife crossing structures to differentiate the influence of surrounding habitat and wildlife crossing structure design on frequency of structure use. Two control arrays were used, one based on proximity to wildlife crossing structure, the other based on similar vegetation...
Roads are a leading cause of mortality for many species of wildlife, including endangered species such as the ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) in South Texas. To prevent ocelot mortalities and maintain habitat connectivity, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) installed 11.9 kilometers of fencing and upgraded or built five wildlife crossing st...
We used proximity and vegetation based camera arrays to assess the effectiveness of wildlife crossing structures around State Highway 100 in South Texas. Proximity has been shown to be a useful measure of what wildlife will use a crossing but in places where vegetation is highly heterogeneous such as South Texas, vegetation may be a better indicato...
This poster provides a visual representation of how wildlife road mortalities have changed with construction of wildlife crossings and exclusionary fencing between 2015 and 2018
As human populations grow and come into more frequent contact with wildlife, it is important to understand how anthropogenic disturbance alters wildlife behaviour. Using fine-scale spatial analyses, we examined how proximity to human settlements affects antipredator responses of ungulates. We studied seven common ungulate species (Kirk's dik-dik, T...
