Tabitha Graves, Ph.D.

Research Interests

My work falls under three broad themes: (1) understand the influence of humans and associated land use impacts on wildlife distributions, densities, and related processes at local and landscape scales, (2) develop new analytical tools that address the influence of landscape features on animals at the sub-population and population scales, and (3) improve efficiency of research and monitoring through optimal study design. I have >15 years experience studying grizzly bears, bighorn sheep, elk, and the development of novel and integrated analyses of habitat use, connectivity, migration, and genetics, all very applied work.   I have also assisted with projects studying black bears, wolverines, mountain goats,  wolves, lynx, kinkajou, loons, hawks, owls, riparian vegetation, pika, and sugar pine.  

Current projects

•  Chronic wasting disease- evaluating changes in density and contacts across multiple cervid populations
• Assessing current and changing forage for elk and mule deer with climate change
• Assessing connectivity and migration in and around Glacier National Park (GNP)
• Optimal monitoring of wildlife with occupancy models
• Pollinator communities and Western bumble bee assessment on BLM lands in Montana and the Dakotas, in GNP, and across the west
• Mountain goat and bighorn sheep abundance, trend, population structure, and habitat
• Spatial capture recapture approaches
• Water to Wildlife: Connecting changes in water to vegetation to wildlife across 3 northwest parks
• Evaluating potential impacts of climate change on berry plant abundance and production