Courtney Conway, PhD

Dispersal is one of the key elements of species’ metapopulation dynamics and, hence, influences global conservation status. Furthermore, determining the geographic variation in magnitude and direction of dispersal throughout a species’ distribution may expand our understanding of the causes of population declines in species of conservation concern. For instance, western burrowing owl (Athene cunic

Documenting the spatial distribution of high-quality habitat patches, the distributions of threats and protected areas, and the vulnerability of habitat patches to changes in environmental conditions is vital for conservation of rare species. Range-wide species distribution models were developed for Black Rails (Laterallus jamaicensis) to predict the distribution of high-quality habitat patches fo

Many applications in wildlife management require knowledge of the sex of individual animals. The Yuma Ridgway's rail Rallus obsoletus yumanensis is an endangered marsh bird with monomorphic plumage and secretive behaviors, thereby complicating sex determination in field studies. We collected morphometric measurements from 270 adult Yuma Ridgway's rails and quantified the plumage and mandible color

Understanding the neutral (demographic) and adaptive processes leading to the differentiation of species and populations is a critical component of evolutionary and conservation biology. In this context, recently diverged taxa represent a unique opportunity to study the process of genetic differentiation. Northern and southern Idaho ground squirrels (Urocitellus brunneus—NIDGS, and U. endemicus—SI

Western Burrowing Owls (Athene cunicularia hypugaea; hereafter, Burrowing Owls) were once widespread residents of grasslands throughout western North America, but their range has contracted, and abundance has declined in some regions. The causes of declines and geographic variation in population trends of Burrowing Owls are unclear but may be linked to changing land use and urbanization. Burrowing

Managing wildlife populations on a landscape is not a new concept to the field of wildlife management. However, a variety of barriers exist to effectively manage wildlife species at landscape scales. For example, competing management objectives for the same population can occur in parts of two adjoining states and 3-4 agencies within a single state may be charged with managing the habitat on which

AimAnticipating and mitigating the impacts of climate change on species diversity in montane ecosystems requires a mechanistic understanding of drivers of current patterns of diversity. We documented the shape of elevational gradients in avian species richness in North America and tested a suite of a priori predictions for each of five mechanistic hypotheses to explain those patterns.LocationUnite

Hibernation is an adaptation to survive periods of stress, from food limitation or harsh thermal conditions. A key question in contemporary ecology is whether rare, range-restricted species can change their behavior in response to climate change (i.e., through behavioral plasticity). The northern Idaho ground squirrel, Urocitellus brunneus (A. H. Howell, 1928), is a federally threatened species th

Investigators rely on brood surveys to estimate annual fecundity of game birds. However, investigators often do not account for factors that influence brood detection probability nor rarely document how much females and their broods are disturbed (flush rates) during surveys, which could lead to biased survival estimates. We used 45 radio-tagged female Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianu

Variation in life-history strategies is central to our understanding of population dynamics and how organisms adapt to their environments. Yet, we lack consensus regarding the ecological processes that drive variation in traits related to reproduction and survival. For example, we still do not understand the cause of two widespread inter- and intraspecific patterns: 1) the ubiquitous positive asso

One enduring priority for ecologists has been to understand the cause(s) of variation in reproductive effort among species and localities. Avian clutch size generally increases with increasing latitude, both within and across species, but the mechanism(s) driving that pattern continue to generate hypotheses and debate. In 1961, a Ph.D. student at Oxford University, N. Philip Ashmole, proposed the

Plague is a non-native disease in North America that reduces survival of many mammals. Previous studies have focused on epizootic plague which causes acute mortality events and dramatic declines in local abundance. We know much less about enzootic plague which causes less punctuated reductions in survival and abundance of infected populations. As a result, enzootic plague is much more difficult to