Submitted by Christopher Joh... on
Human-wildlife interactions that end with negative consequences (i.e., conflict) typically come from bolder individuals within a population that are more risk-prone and willing to approach humans and human entities. These interactions may also stem from individuals with superior cognitive abilities that use learning and problem-solving to exploit novel resources (e.g. access to garbage cans, human structures, etc.). The purpose of the Schell Lab’s research is to understand how variation in social and landscape heterogeneity is associated with risk-prone behavior and cognitive performance in urban wildlife. We will achieve this by:
(1) comparing the behavior and cognition of multiple mammalian species in locations throughout the Bay Area that represent variation in social and ecological features of interest (e.g., socioeconomic wealth, human densities, vegetation cover, and environmental contamination);
(2) comparing the behavioral responses between multiple urban individuals and comparing urban individuals to their nonurban counterparts.
(3) comparing behavioral responses to behavioral assessments (i.e., puzzles and novel objects) to captive individuals to better understand the proximate and ultimate mechanisms contribute to animal behavior
Our results will be used to understand why and where risk-prone behaviors occur within cities and nonurban spaces. Coyotes, raccoons, and other carnivores are well-suited organisms to address the consequences of variation in human disturbances on boldness in both urban and nonurban systems because of their broad implications for alleviating and mitigating human-carnivore conflicts.
Field work and camera deployment/maintenance: There is a possible field component to this project, in which motion-triggered camera traps will be deployed and maintained throughout the East Bay (n = 30+ camera stations) through the Spring semester. Deploying and monitoring those cameras will provide valuable field experience for undergraduates on the project, as well as a means of community engagement with the public around wildlife science and urban systems. This may also involve setting up objects and puzzles to assess an organism’s personality and cognition.
Species identification: Students will have the opportunity to learn how to identify species from videos collected from the field. Knowing how to accurately and effectively identify species in videos is a basic yet critical skill for rising and emerging scholars in wildlife sciences, and will help students both in this project and in any future projects that use camera traps as the main data collection method.
Data cleaning and video scoring: There is a substantial lab (i.e., computer) component to this project in which hundreds of videos collected across all camera traps will need to be sorted through and scored. Videos collected will need to be cleaned by removing empty videos with no organisms, such that only videos of wildlife interacting with an object are left over. Videos with interactions will need to be watched to record the behaviors displayed between an organism and the puzzle (e.g., did an organism solve the puzzle? did an organism bite the object?); this can often involve rewatching one video multiple times to ensure all behaviors are recorded accurately.
Applicants should be interested in wildlife ecology and animal behavior, as well as engaging with the social aspects of urban ecology and conservation. Applicants should be excited to learn about non-invasive field methods and novel questions about the interface between society and ecology.
Required skills: Applicants should have some basic understanding of animal behavior, including animal personality and behavioral responses to ecological pressures. Applicants should have basic skills in Microsoft Excel, an ability to work independently, an eye for detail, and patience with some repetitive tasks.
Desirable additional skills: experience coding videos and understanding ethograms, experience with RStudio