Researching Wildlife Sentinels of the City
Our research helps to bridge the gap between urban ecology and environmental justice
Mammalian carnivores (e.g., coyotes, raccoons, and foxes) frequently serve as our lab avatars, guiding us through the vast multiverse of stories underscoring how people and wildlife are intimately connected in urban spaces. See below for more details on our projects.
featured Projects
a snapshot of our work in action
Navigating the Matrix
Urban carnivores are the quintessential of movers and shakers. The locations they frequent, their repeated movement patterns, and their habitat choices are all revealed through GPS trackers - providing us insight into how they traverse the urban matrix. This project aims to address how these species navigate the complex urban matrix.
Carcasses Tell Tales
Wildlife carcasses still have plenty of stories to tell. We can learn what these animals ate, quantify the stress they’ve experienced, and uncover their genetic lineages. In this project we use salvaged tissues to piece together their stories and unpack the many lessons from the dead.
Lights, Cameras, Action!
Remote triggered camera traps provide compelling insight into the hidden lives of wildlife communities. We combine these modest technological marvels with geospatial analyses to assess how social (e.g., socioeconomics, redlining, environmental pollutants, etc.) and ecological (e.g., green spaces, connectivity, etc.) factors affect wildlife boldness, cognition, and biodiversity.
Why this Work Matters
Our scientific and methodological focus is grounded in the underlying tenet that human activities and societal inequities have profound impacts on wildlife. If we hope to mitigate the dual climate and biodiversity crises, we are compelled to interrogate the pervasive consequences of systemic oppression on our nonhuman kin.
Historical and Contemporary injustices shape environmental quality
Systemic racism, classism, and economic inequality profoundly shape the urban landscape, influencing the distribution of environmental disturbances (e.g., noise, light, air pollution, heat). Both historical and contemporary inequities in society (e.g., housing segregation, pollution siting, sacrifice zones, etc.) spillover to affect wildlife residing with us in cities.
Our health is intimately tied to Wildlife & Environmental Health
Human health and well-being are interdependent on the health of the environment, and the other wild organisms that co-occur in shared landscapes. Species loss and reduction degrades ecosystem function and stability, to the detriment of human health.
societal attitudes towards wildlife affect their adaptation
How we perceive and tolerate various organisms in our built environment, and the interactions that follow, can dictate how species cope with anthropogenic environments, how often we come into conflict with wildlife, and whether we can successfully coexist.