Providing balanced and enriching enclosures is a key part of maintaining the animal welfare standards of zoos and sanctuaries. This study was designed to assess the enclosure usage patterns related to foraging opportunity of both the Patagonian mara (Dolichotis patagonum) and Crested screamer (Chauna torquata), housed within the same exhibit, at the Sequoia Park Zoo in Eureka, California. These results have the potential to be extrapolated towards the betterment of exhibit designs and husbandry practices for mixed-species exhibits in zoos.

Wildlife have been responding to climate change in many ways, and I decided to focus on if warming temperatures are influencing avian morphology by using museum specimens from the Cal Poly Humboldt Wildlife Museum. This study focused on passerine birds collected from the 1880's up until 2022.

Invasive plants and Roosevelt elk play important roles within an ecosystem, but knowledge on their interactions and ungulates roles as seed dispersers are limited. This study looked at Roosevelt elk in Humboldt County and if their pellets germinated plants, specifically invasive or native.

This study aimed to measure the proportion of time that long-billed curlews (Numenius americanus) were actively feeding, preening, roosting, walking, flying, or defending their territory. I hypothesized that the proportion of time that curlews were actively feeding would increase as they prepared for migration. Surveys were conducted along Humboldt Bay’s Elk River to determine if the proportion of time curlews were observed feeding increased from February to April 2023. Understanding foraging response is critical to understand the importance of winter habitats for this species.

Territorial hummingbirds often display aggressive behaviors to gain access to high-quality food sources. Previous studies have found that hummingbirds prefer to feed from feeders that have sugar concentrations that are slightly higher than regular flower nectar concentrations (20-25% sugar). However, to maximize their energy intake, hummingbirds may not always choose artificial feeders with the highest sugar concentration available to them. I used artificial feeders with varying sugar concentrations to determine if hummingbirds display more aggression and/or spend more time at feeders based on their sugar concentrations.

The objective of my study is to determine relative abundance and species diversity of avian species in dune habitat by comparing point counts conducted in burned sections of prescribed fires that were either treated or untreated with herbicides prior to application of fire compared to unburned areas of invasive beach grass or native dune mat. The prescribed fire event was conducted last fall in Loleta's Ocean Ranch Unit, and I am seeking to inform CDFW and Cal Fire on the potential effects of the burn on birds, with the goal of restoring our dunes to habitat with native vegetation.

My study assessed how invertebrate biomass effects the abundance and foraging behavior of the American Green-winged Teal and the Mallard in the restored Tidal habitat of the Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary.

This study examines the Virginia rail around Humboldt County. Distribution, abundance, and habitat characteristics are determined.

Prescribed fire is a widely used land management technique that accomplishes many important cultural and ecological benefits to people and wildlife. Since 1935, wildfires have been suppressed and prescribed fires have been largely removed from the landscape. This has led to the loss of important cultural practices conducted by tribes in the Klamath Mountains. Prescribed fire is particularly useful for producing hazel plants that are optimal for basket weaving material used by the Karuk tribe. The goal of this study is to develop an allometric equation to quantify the relationship between hazel height and basal diameter and look into fire effects interactions with hazel.

Raccoons have been observed around the campus of Cal Poly Humboldt, particularly in the trash cans. In this study, I tested how distance from dining resources affects raccoon trash can use. I predicted that trash cans closer to dining resources would be visited more often than other trash cans. My results indicated that trash can location in relation to dining resources did not impact the number of visits.