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 »
Dr. Kasim Rafiq recently presented his work on using animal-worn sensors to understand the impacts of environmental change on African wild dogs and lions at the Washington Research Foundation Symposium, who fund his position at the university. As part of this work, over the past two years, Kasim, Leigh West, and Dr. Briana Abrahms developed and deployed fitness trackers for
The Abrahms Lab is growing! This fall we will have two new grad students join us in the Center: Meredith HonigPenguin Camp Meredith is interested in how species interactions shape ecological communities and wildlife population dynamics, especially in the implications of global climate change on these processes. She received a BS in Wildlife and Conservation Biology from the University of
Welcome Marie-Pier and Meredith! Read More »
The paper “Climate presses and pulses mediate the decline of a migratory predator”,” published last year ” is the finalist for the Cozzarelli Prize in the category Class VI: Applied Biological, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences. Congrats to former Abrahms Lab postdoc Dr.T. J. Clark-Wolf, Dr. Dee Boersma, Dr. Ginger A. Rebstock, and Dr. Briana Abrahms! Read the full press release
Center paper finalist for Cozzarelli Prize Read More »
If you ever wondered how we use acoustic collars to gain insights into the daily lives of African wild dogs, watch the new nature documentary series EarthSounds on AppleTV! Dr. Briana Abrahms and postdoc Dr. Kasim Rafiq were scientific consultants on the show, while Dr. Rafiq’s and grad student Leigh West‘s research was featured in the episode “Listening to Our
Abrahms Lab featured in AppleTV’s “EarthSounds” Read More »
Dr. Briana Abrahms has been named a 2023 Packard Fellow for Science and Engineering. As one of 20 new fellows across the country, Abrahms, who holds the Boersma Endowed Chair in Natural History and Conservation, will receive $875,000 over five years for her research. Read the full story here. From all of us at the Center for Ecosystem Sentinels: congratulations
Dr. Briana Abrahms chosen as a Packard Fellow for 2023 Read More »
Written by Leigh West African wild dogs are very social animals, living in groups called packs. Wild dog packs have a dominant male and female, and it is this dominant pair that breeds each year to produce litters of pups. Packs of wild dogs are very cooperative, hunting and raising their young together. Two of the wild dogs that the
Field updates: Botswana, summer 2023 Read More »
Written by Dr. Anna Nisi We have been building cutting-edge models of species distributions for four great whale species – blue, fin, sperm, and humpback whales. One key threat to the great whales is collisions with shipping vessels, and identifying places where ship-strike risk is high is essential for informing mitigation actions like vessel slow-downs. Our next step is to
Using the power of models to protect whales from possible ship-strikes Read More »
The Abrahms Lab – Briana Abrahms, Biology assistant professor; Kasim Rafiq, Biology postdoctoral researcher; and Leigh West, Biology graduate student – was featured on the UW Homepage this week for their work studying the behavior of endangered African wild dogs in Botswana. Read the full article on the UW homepage. Congratulations, all!
Abrahms Lab featured on UW Homepage Read More »
