Fisher ecology
Fishers (Pekania [Martes] pennanti) are semi-arboreal carnivores native to the northern forests of North America. They are also super cool! I’ve had the pleasure to work with fishers since my undergraduate summer field tech jobs in New York and California.
I did my dissertation on suburban fisher ecology and behavior near Albany, New York under the supervision of Drs. Roland Kays and Martin Wikelski. Using accelerometers (recording fisher motion every 3 minutes) and GPS (collecting fisher locations as often as every 2 minutes) we found fishers moving through suburbia by connecting forest fragments via corridors and under-road drainage pipes. They were super resourceful, eating the bird feeder-fed eastern grey squirrels, resting in squirrel middens, snags, and old cars, and were strictly nocturnal.
I’m now at Black Rock Forest, where we are starting a new fisher ecology project aimed specifically to use fisher movements and behaviors to quantify landscape connectivity. Based on our success with the suburban fishers, we now want to use fishers as a model species, an indicator for forest animals, to identify land parcels that facilitate connectivity and the infrastructure that limits it.
Papers of interest:
LaPoint SD, Belant J, Kays R (2015) Mesopredator release facilitates range expansion in fisher. Animal Conservation doi:10.1111/acv.12138. (email me)
LaPoint SD, Gallery P, Wikelski M, Kays R (2013) Animal behavior, cost-based corridors, and real corridors. Landscape Ecology 28:1615–1630 doi: 10.1007/s10980-013-9910-0. (paper here)
Brown D, LaPoint SD, Kays R, Heidrich W, Kümmeth F, Wikelski M (2012) Accelerometer-informed GPS telemetry: reducing the trade-off between resolution and longevity. Wildlife Society Bulletin 36:139–146 doi:10.1002/wsb.111. (email me)
Funding & Support:
I did my dissertation on suburban fisher ecology and behavior near Albany, New York under the supervision of Drs. Roland Kays and Martin Wikelski. Using accelerometers (recording fisher motion every 3 minutes) and GPS (collecting fisher locations as often as every 2 minutes) we found fishers moving through suburbia by connecting forest fragments via corridors and under-road drainage pipes. They were super resourceful, eating the bird feeder-fed eastern grey squirrels, resting in squirrel middens, snags, and old cars, and were strictly nocturnal.
I’m now at Black Rock Forest, where we are starting a new fisher ecology project aimed specifically to use fisher movements and behaviors to quantify landscape connectivity. Based on our success with the suburban fishers, we now want to use fishers as a model species, an indicator for forest animals, to identify land parcels that facilitate connectivity and the infrastructure that limits it.
Papers of interest:
LaPoint SD, Belant J, Kays R (2015) Mesopredator release facilitates range expansion in fisher. Animal Conservation doi:10.1111/acv.12138. (email me)
LaPoint SD, Gallery P, Wikelski M, Kays R (2013) Animal behavior, cost-based corridors, and real corridors. Landscape Ecology 28:1615–1630 doi: 10.1007/s10980-013-9910-0. (paper here)
Brown D, LaPoint SD, Kays R, Heidrich W, Kümmeth F, Wikelski M (2012) Accelerometer-informed GPS telemetry: reducing the trade-off between resolution and longevity. Wildlife Society Bulletin 36:139–146 doi:10.1002/wsb.111. (email me)
Funding & Support:
- National Science Foundation
- New York State Museum
- Max-Planck Institute for Ornithology
- E-obs GmbH digital telemetry
- National Geographic Waitt Foundation
Landscape connectivity
Landscapes are dynamic. How animals adapt to these changes dictates their survival and our conservation strategies. Connectivity then, can be viewed as a safety net for biodiversity: ensuring that species can move about the landscape without limit.
Since my undergraduate thesis, I’ve pursued questions that addressed how landscapes facilitate (i.e., corridors or under-road passages) or hinder (e.g., roads) animal movements. I’ve used road-kill and snow tracking surveys, camera traps and tracking substrates, and animal movement data and modeling to answer these questions.
I’ll be drawing from all of these experiences while at Black Rock Forest…
Papers of interest:
LaPoint SD, Balkenhol N, Hale J, Sadler J, van der Ree R (2015) A review of ecological connectivity research in urban areas. Functional Ecology doi:10.1111/1365-2435.12489. (paper here)
LaPoint SD, Gallery P, Wikelski M, Kays R (2013) Animal behavior, cost-based corridors, and real corridors. Landscape Ecology 28:1615–1630 doi: 10.1007/s10980-013-9910-0. (paper here)
Funding & Support:
Since my undergraduate thesis, I’ve pursued questions that addressed how landscapes facilitate (i.e., corridors or under-road passages) or hinder (e.g., roads) animal movements. I’ve used road-kill and snow tracking surveys, camera traps and tracking substrates, and animal movement data and modeling to answer these questions.
I’ll be drawing from all of these experiences while at Black Rock Forest…
Papers of interest:
LaPoint SD, Balkenhol N, Hale J, Sadler J, van der Ree R (2015) A review of ecological connectivity research in urban areas. Functional Ecology doi:10.1111/1365-2435.12489. (paper here)
LaPoint SD, Gallery P, Wikelski M, Kays R (2013) Animal behavior, cost-based corridors, and real corridors. Landscape Ecology 28:1615–1630 doi: 10.1007/s10980-013-9910-0. (paper here)
Funding & Support:
- SUNY ESF
- Edna Bailey Sussman Foundation
- Wildlife Conservation Society
- New York State Museum
- New York State Department of Transportation
Animal behavioral adaptations to arctic warming
Understanding how animals adapt to climate change is a conservation priority, particularly in arctic-boreal regions where warming is occurring nearly three times faster than the global average.
I worked out of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (under Dr. Natalie Boelman) on the "Animals on the Move" project, a large collaborative effort funded through NASA's Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment. We’ve been working with dozens of field biologists, animal ecologists, and data biotelemetry owners to better understand how highly mobile terrestrial fauna navigate and select habitat in the rapidly changing arctic-boreal landscape. Our study species include: American robins, golden eagles, caribou, moose, wolf, and brown bear.
We are linking animal behavior data to remotely sensed environmental data, allowing us to investigate animal responses to both short- and long-term changes in the Arctic.
Papers of interest:Mahoney PJ, Liston G, LaPoint SD, Gurarie E, Mangipane B, Wells A, Brinkman T, Eitel JUH, Hebblewhite M, Nolin AW, Boelman NT, Prugh LR (2018) Navigating snowscapes: scale-dependent responses of mountain sheep to snowpack properties. Ecological Applications doi: 10.1002/eap.1773 (email me)
Funding & Support:
I worked out of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (under Dr. Natalie Boelman) on the "Animals on the Move" project, a large collaborative effort funded through NASA's Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment. We’ve been working with dozens of field biologists, animal ecologists, and data biotelemetry owners to better understand how highly mobile terrestrial fauna navigate and select habitat in the rapidly changing arctic-boreal landscape. Our study species include: American robins, golden eagles, caribou, moose, wolf, and brown bear.
We are linking animal behavior data to remotely sensed environmental data, allowing us to investigate animal responses to both short- and long-term changes in the Arctic.
Papers of interest:Mahoney PJ, Liston G, LaPoint SD, Gurarie E, Mangipane B, Wells A, Brinkman T, Eitel JUH, Hebblewhite M, Nolin AW, Boelman NT, Prugh LR (2018) Navigating snowscapes: scale-dependent responses of mountain sheep to snowpack properties. Ecological Applications doi: 10.1002/eap.1773 (email me)
Funding & Support:
- NASA: Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment
- Movebank.org
Ontogenetic and seasonal changes in the skulls of small carnivores
All animals undergo a series of behavioral, physiological, ecological, and morphological adaptations that facilitate their survival in dynamic environments. Few however, exhibit the bidirectional size changes of the brain, skull, skeleton, and several organs, described as Dehnel’s Phenomenon. Such bidirectional changes require, for example, bone regrowth; a phenomenon with tremendous applications.
I worked with Dr. Dina Dechmann at the Max-Planck Institute for Ornithology to quantify ontogenetic and seasonal skull size patterns in weasels (Mustela nivalis and M. erminea). Skull depth in both species demonstrated seasonal and ontogenetic patterns in standardized braincase depths, with peaks in the first summer, then decrease in their first winter, followed by a remarkable regrowth that peaks again during their second summer. This seasonal pattern varies in magnitude and timing between geographical regions and the sexes, matching predictions of Dehnel’s Phenomenon. Dina continues to dig deeper into the behavioral responses, molecular mechanisms, and possible drivers for this phenomenal Phenomenon.
Papers of interest:
LaPoint SD, Keicher L, Wikelski M, Zub K, Dechmann DKN (2017) Growth overshoot and seasonal size changes in the skulls of two weasel species. Royal Society Open Science doi: 10.1098/rsos.160947 (paper here)
Dechmann DKN, LaPoint SD, Zub K, Taylor JRE, Hertel M, Wikelski M (2017) Profound seasonal shrinking and regrowth of the ossified braincase in phylogenetically distant mammals with similar life histories. Scientific Reports doi: 10.1038/srep42443 (paper here)
Funding & Support:
I worked with Dr. Dina Dechmann at the Max-Planck Institute for Ornithology to quantify ontogenetic and seasonal skull size patterns in weasels (Mustela nivalis and M. erminea). Skull depth in both species demonstrated seasonal and ontogenetic patterns in standardized braincase depths, with peaks in the first summer, then decrease in their first winter, followed by a remarkable regrowth that peaks again during their second summer. This seasonal pattern varies in magnitude and timing between geographical regions and the sexes, matching predictions of Dehnel’s Phenomenon. Dina continues to dig deeper into the behavioral responses, molecular mechanisms, and possible drivers for this phenomenal Phenomenon.
Papers of interest:
LaPoint SD, Keicher L, Wikelski M, Zub K, Dechmann DKN (2017) Growth overshoot and seasonal size changes in the skulls of two weasel species. Royal Society Open Science doi: 10.1098/rsos.160947 (paper here)
Dechmann DKN, LaPoint SD, Zub K, Taylor JRE, Hertel M, Wikelski M (2017) Profound seasonal shrinking and regrowth of the ossified braincase in phylogenetically distant mammals with similar life histories. Scientific Reports doi: 10.1038/srep42443 (paper here)
Funding & Support:
- Max-Planck-Poland Biodiversity Initiative
- National Science Centre grant
- Numerous natural history museums!