Dr. Katie Holt
Graduate Student
ORCID: 0000-0002-4384-2713
I graduated from Pacific Lutheran University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology. As an undergraduate I focused on marine invertebrate ecology. I assisted with projects working on larval dispersal of Olympia oysters in Fidalgo Bay, WA and disease ecology of the purple sea urchin on the Olympic Peninsula, WA. After I graduated I worked as biology lab manager for PLU and in the education department at the Woodland Park Zoo before finding my current home with the Center for Ecosystem Sentinels. Currently, I am working on processing data from our automatic weigh scales. Automatically weighing penguins as they enter and exit the colony will help determine if the new Marine Protected Area around Punta Tombo, Argentina is large enough to protect the colony’s food source.
Recent publications
Latest News
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Katie Holt attends PSG/Waterbird Society Conference 2025
Written by Katie Holt I kicked off the year by heading the joint meeting of the Pacific Seabird Group and the Waterbird Society in San José, Costa Rica! At the conference, I presented my research on how commercial fishing reduces the rate at which adult seabirds acquire food while foraging. As the only member of…
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Testing Technology with the Woodland Park Zoo
Since 2015, we have deployed automatic weighbridges to track the foraging success of Magellanic penguins at one of their largest breeding colonies – Punta Tombo, Argentina. These weighbridges weigh penguins noninvasively as they leave the nesting area to forage and when they return to feed their chicks. This helps us track whether these penguins are…