Projects Overview

Our research is at the interface of behavioral ecology and conservation biology.  With our "Tico" partners and collaborators, my students and I are conducting a community-based conservation project in a cloud forest ecosystem in Costa Rica.  For the past nine years, we have conducted a survey of the mammalian predators and prey inhabiting the high-elevation zone of the western Talamanca Cordillera and beyond.  The Talamanca mountain range is the largest continuous block of protected montane cloud forest in Costa Rica, providing habitat for six species of felids (jaguar, puma, jaguarundi, ocelot, margay, oncilla), the invasive coyote, and several large prey species (e.g., tapir, peccary, brocket deer, paca).  This region is a critical biological corridor for the movement of large mammals such as jaguar, puma, and tapir.  Due to rugged terrain and the elusive habits of mammals, there is a significant gap in our understanding of these montane populations.  We use camera traps (motion sensor cameras) and fecal genetic analysis of scat to survey large mammals in national parks, private reserves, and biological corridors.  Our camera trap survey now stretches from Cabo Blanco on the Nicoya Peninsula to the Osa Peninsula in the south, and from lowland regions west of San Jose to extremely rugged high-altitude habitat containing some of the highest peaks in Central America.  Because our local partners run the camera trap monitoring throughout the year, my team comes to Costa Rica during May, June, or July to do special projects -- deploying new camera trap surveys, collecting felid scat using a scent detection dog for genetic analysis, and travelling to far flung communities to present our research and promote environmental education.  Our immediate goal is to characterize the distribution, abundance, activity patterns, and population genetics of large mammals in order to provide critical population data to guide conservation policy in Costa Rica in the years to come.  By partnering with park officials, conservationists, and community activists, we help empower local communities to protect their own wildlife by promoting environmental education and citizen science.  Read on for further details of these projects!

Return to Cerro Kamuk: Perspectives from the research trail

Online article in the PLNU Viewpoint