Written by Dr. Kasim Rafiq In June 2024, postdoctoral researcher Dr. Kasim Rafiq and PhD candidate Leigh West from Dr. Briana Abrahms‘ lab returned to Wild Dog Camp in the Okavango Delta and were joined by Briana’s new PhD student Marie-Pier Poulin. The team successfully deployed six new tracking collars on African wild dogs, including in two brand new packs, […]
Field Updates: Botswana, summer 2024 Read More »
Congratulations to Leigh West, Dr. Abrahms’s graduate student, who just recently published her first paper as lead author. Her research article, “Droughts reshape apex predator space use and intraguild overlap,” was published in the Journal of Animal Ecology on October 4th, and also serves as the second chapter of her dissertation. This is an exciting milestone for Leigh as she
Abrahms Lab grad student Leigh West publishes first article Read More »
In July 2024, Dr. Dee Boersma and Dr. Caroline Cappello traveled to the Galápagos Islands for a penguin expedition unlike any they’d experienced before. Since 2010, CES has collaborated with Galápagos National Park and conservationist Godfrey Merlen to visit penguin breeding areas and conduct research. After Godfrey’s passing in 2023, CES—with heavy hearts but optimism for the future—sought a new
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Authors: Leigh West, Kasim Rafiq, Sarah J. Converse, Alan M. Wilson, Neil R. Jordan, Krystyna A. Golabek, J. Weldon McNutt, Briana AbrahmsJournal: Journal of Animal EcologyDOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.14192 From the Abstract:Droughts are increasing in frequency and severity globally due to climate change, leading to changes in resource availability that may have cascading effects on animal ecology. Although several studies have demonstrated
Droughts reshape apex predator space use and intraguild overlap Read More »
Authors: Jennifer B. Tennessen, Marla M. Holt, Brianna M. Wright, M. Bradley Hanson, Candice K. Emmons, Deborah A. Giles, Jeffrey T. Hogan, Sheila J. Thornton, Volker B. DeeckeJournal: Global Change BiologyDOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.17490Media coverage: National Geographic, KUOW, KIRO 7, Capital Daily, Vancouver Sun, UW News, MSN, and E&E NEWS Summary adapted from social media post by Anna Testorf: One of our recent studies illustrates how noise from large ships and other vessels decreases overall
Authors: Kaitlyn M. Gaynor, Briana Abrahms, Kezia R. Manlove, William K. Oestreich and Justine A. SmithJournal: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society BDOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0527 From the abstract: “Here, we review studies of animal behaviour at the spatial–social interface to understand and predict how human disturbance affects animal movement, distribution and intraspecific interactions, with consequences for the conservation of populations and
Anthropogenic impacts at the interface of animal spatial and social behaviour Read More »
Authors: Simona Picardi, Briana L. Abrahms and Jerod A. MerkleJournal: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society BDOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0523https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0523 From the abstract: “We propose three key innovations that incrementally build upon each other […] These conceptual innovations cast our understanding of the relationships between social and spatial dimensions of animal ecology in a new light, allowing a more holistic understanding and
Scale at the interface of spatial and social ecology Read More »
Happy World African Wild Dog Day! While most people know the Center for Ecosystem Sentinels for our work on penguins, we also research African Wild Dogs. In fact, Dr. Kasim Rafiq and graduate students Leigh West and Marie-Pier Poulin are just returning from Botswana right now! As usual, they worked alongside our collaborators from Botswana Predator Conservation over the summer.
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Authors: Deqiang Ma, Briana Abrahms, Jacob Allgeier, Tim Newbold, Brian C. Weeks, and Neil H. CarterJournal: Science AdvancesDOI: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adp7706Coverage: UW News, The Guardian “We show that the potential spatial overlap of global human populations and 22,374 terrestrial vertebrate species will increase across ~56.6% and decrease across only ~11.8% of the Earth’s terrestrial surface by 2070 […] The strong spatial heterogeneity
Global expansion of human-wildlife overlap in the 21st century Read More »
Authors: T. J. Clark-Wolf, P. Dee Boersma, Floriane Plard, Ginger A. Rebstock, and Briana AbrahmsJournal: PNASDOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2406314121 “Using a multidecadal dataset on Magellanic penguins, we show that despite strong selection on body size, some environmental conditions favored larger bodies, and others favored smaller bodies, thus preventing consistent evolution in one direction or the other […] Such findings highlight that fluctuating
