THE MEMBERS OF THE BODERCATS WORKING GROUP
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The core group of individuals/organizations and how these individuals will contribute to BWG follows: Paul Beier: Paul, a professor at Northern Arizona University, is a scientific adviser to BWG. Paul has done extensive field work on puma in fragmented habitats in southern California, and in the SkThe core group of individuals/organizations and how these individuals will contribute to BWG follows: Paul Beier: Paul, a professor at Northern Arizona University, is a scientific adviser to BWG. Paul has done extensive field work on puma in fragmented habitats in southern California, and in the Sky Island Region of the Southwestern US and northern Mexico, and will join the Florida Panther Recovery Team on his return to the US in August 2000. Paul will help structure the research program and will bring special expertise in population modeling and PVA. Paul may be able to involve graduate student researchers in BWG research. Arturo Caso: Arturo is the Executive Director of the Proyectos Sobre los Felinos Neotropicales de Mexico and one of the primary ocelot and jaguarundi biologist in the world. Arturo studies all three neotropical cat species in our eastern bioregion of Texas/Tamaulipas-Coahuila. Arturo is also a member of the recovery team for ocelots and jaguarundis. Kevin Crooks: Kevin completed his Ph.D. in wildlife ecology with Michael Soulé, studying the effects of habitat fragmentation on mammalian carnivores, and will begin an assistant professorship at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Kevin works with Round River Conservation Studies, a major supplier of volunteers to the BWG effort. Kevin will concentrate on developing survey techniques to inventory bordercats throughout their range. Through Round River, Kevin will work with volunteers who will conduct field research to determine the status and distribution of bordercats and will write up results of these surveys, in addition to planning for future surveys. Kevin will also put together a summary of the effectiveness of underpass/culvert structures for cats. Barbara Dugelby: Barbara is the Wildlands Project’s Chief Ecologist. She will integrate the Bordercats Working Group conservation strategies into all Wildlands Network designs along the border region and will provide grassroots services to the group. Dave Foreman: Dave is our Sky Island and Wildlands Project coordinator and is also co-founder of the BWG. Dave will coordinate future meetings with the philanthropic community and will serve as a liaison between the BWG and this community - which is currently interested in buying large tracts of land in bordercat habitat in the Southwest and Mexico. Dave will fund raise for us and will continue his effort to coordinate media efforts with Sky Island on behalf of the BWG. Sue George: Sue is a Defenders of Wildlife lawyer and is legal adviser to the BWG. She is actively involved with both state and federal laws protecting bordercats. She will help determine how we can best promote recovery, from a legal perspective, in Mexico. Lastly, in areas like Texas, where private land predominates, Sue will assist BWG in designing land conservation projects with private land owners. Melissa Grigione: Melissa, is an assistant professor at the Pace University (Pleasantville, NY) in the Graduate program in Environmental Science and Policy, and co-founder of the Bordercats Working Group. She will serve as a coordinator to the BWG and the IUCN-Cat Specialist Group. She is working with John Morrison from World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Kurt Menke, and Robert Thomas, on a Geographical Information System (GIS)-based recovery map for all bordercat species. This map will follow the mapping protocols developed in a WWF in a report (1997) entitled, "A Framework for Identifying High Priority Areas and Actions for the Conservation of Tigers in the Wild." She, John and Robert will also work closely with Dave Foreman (and the Wildlands Project mapping group), Jack Humphrey (and the Sky Island Alliance mapping group) and Eric Sanderson (GIS ecologist at Wildlife Conservation International). In addition, with the assistance of Robert, she will develop a web presence to raise awareness about these endangered species and to provide an internet link to both the conservation community and the international populous at large. Melissa will continue to apply for funds, with Round River Conservation Studies and other researchers, to fuel the research portion of the BWG. In addition, she will coordinate research projects that will synthesize data for bordercat specimens (from museum and sighting reports) and review all literature on bordercats. A sighting/distribution map for each species has been produced from this effort. She will work as an expert witness on legal issues between the U.S. Border Patrol and co-plaintiffs Frontera Audubon Society, Lone Star Sierra Club, and Defenders of Wildlife as they negotiate ways to conserve neotropical cats near the U.S./Mexican border.rvation of carnivores, threatened species and their habitats. He has a special interest in species’ reintroduction, and in the identification and protection of biologically important areas. An important part of his activities are on outreach about his work subjects and areas, and about Nature conservation issues in general. Most of his career has taken place in grasslands and temperate forests. He has been involved in research or in conservation efforts with species like the black-footed ferret, wolf, kit and gray foxes, coyote, bison, ringtail and jaguar. Carlos Lopez: Carlos is one of the foremost jaguar biologists. Currently attached with the Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative and the Denver Zoo, he studies all three neotropical cat species in our western bioregion of Arizona-New Mexico/Sonora-Chihuahua. Dave Maehr: Dave, a professor at University of Kentucky-Lexington, is a scientific adviser to BWG. As a member of the USFWS recovery team for ocelots and jaguarundis, Dave will link our activities with those of the recovery team. Dave will help structure our research program, which will include track work, telemetry work, identification of core population areas and identification of bordercat dispersal activities. In the future, Dave may be able to contribute graduate students to the BWG research effort. Craig Miller: Craig, Arizona representative to Defenders of Wildlife, is our jaguar conservation team liaison. Craig has already established our sighting information data for jaguars throughout the southwest and will continue to review the jaguar sighting literature for future sightings. Craig will work with Melissa to develop a similar sighting protocol for ocelots and jaguarundis so that these points can be put on a GIS layer to authenticate historical ranges for each species. Craig will facilitate constituency building in the Southwest and will also work closely with individuals at the Arizona Department of Fish and Game. Paul Polechla: Paul, research associate professor at the University of New Mexico-Albuquerque, will help supervise our track surveys and field work for the bordercats and will supervise undergraduate and graduate students who will supplement our research efforts. Paul will help the BWG apply for grants and will set up a protocol with museums to obtain data on locations of bordercat specimens. He will also work with Melissa Grigione on collating all literature on bordercats. Michael Robinson: Michael working for the Center for Biological Diversity, will integrate the Center’s conservation and legal strategies in the Southwest with those of the BWG. The Center’s legal and biological efforts led to the federal listing of the jaguar as an endangered species in the U.S. Michael is a member of the jaguar conservation team: a group of volunteers defining conservation priorities for jaguars prior to a Fish and Wildlife Service recovery plan or team. Scott Royder: Scott, former Director of Communications and Grassroots Services of The Sierra Club-Austin, has been our primary conservation contact in Texas. Scott has kept us abreast of all activities which could potentially threaten ocelot and jaguarundi recovery in Texas, such as highway projects, housing developments, international bridges, and oil/gas pipelines. He coordinated our Rio Grande survey in March and will continue to coordinate efforts between south and west Texans who are involved in bordercat issues, including land owners. Lastly, Scott has gathered sighting information for bordercats in Texas and has incorporated this data into our GIS database. Other Core individuals/institutions (who
did not attend the initial Bordercats Working Group meeting): Marcelo Aranda - Instituto De Ecologia, Mexico Anthony Giordano - The Society for the Preservation of Endangered Carnivores and their International Ecological Study (S.P.E.C.I.E.S) & Texas Tech University: Anthony is a doctoral fellow and graduate teaching assistant at Texas Tech University, and Director of Conservation Science & Field Projects for S.P.E.C.I.E.S. For his dissertation research, he is currently studying the spatial ecology and population structure of jaguars in Paraguay, as well as surveying them using noninvasive genetic methods. Anthony is pursuing the initiation of research on carnivores in the borderlands, including jaguarundis and ocelots in the Big Bend- El Carmen Mountain Ecosystems, as well as on private lands in South Texas. He will secure funding for efforts to survey and research jaguars in Sonora-Mexico, as well as the southern Carmen Mountains in Mexico. Diana Lawhorn: Diana, an alumni M.S. student in the Environmental Science & Policy department at the University of South Florida, was the point person for gathering historical sighting data for the museum project that was used to create the historical sighting maps. Kurt Menke: Kurt is a GIS Specialist at the Earth Data Analysis Center at the University of New Mexico and the Principle of Bird's Eye View GIS Services . He has a background as an archaeologist, having done work in the southwest US for ten years and Geographical Information Systems. Having assisted the Wildlands Project on several GIS Mapping projects, Kurt recently has been assisting the BWG on several projects in the southwest US and Mexico, including giving presentations and participating in outreach workshops. John Morrison - World Wildlife Fund Robert Thomas, GISP: Robert has been working on all the GIS initiatives from the onset of the BWG and the BWG web site. He is currently working as a GIS Network Specialist for a local city in the Sacramento Valley. Robert is in the process of finishing his bachelors at U. C. Davis in Community & Regional Development with an emphasis in GIS and Remote Sensing. Robert's future plans are to attend graduate school in Environmental Science & Planning utilizing remote sensing technology with GIS and neural network habitat modeling to further the conservation ecology research of bordercats. Alison Scoville - University of Kansas: Alison is a Postdoctoral researcher in the department of Ecology and Environmental Biology. She uses both theoretical and empirical approaches to investigate fundamental questions in evolutionary biology, with an emphasis on incorporating the complexity inherent in natural populations. Alison works on a number of projects for the BWG and has been a key contributor on a number of peer review articles. Gerald Scoville - Round River Conservation Studies: Jerry has been a naturalist at Round River Conservation Studies for over thirteen years and has been a key contributor on a number of articles on bordercats. Dennis Sizemore - Round River Conservation Studies: Dennis is the Executive Director at the Round River Conservation Studies and serves on the Board of the Taku-Atlen Conservancy and with The Wildlands Project. Sharon Wilcox - University of Texas: Sharon, a graduate student in the Department of Geography and the Environment at the University of Texas, is working on the cultural dimensions of jaguar and ocelot conservation in the United States-Mexico borderlands region. Sharon works on a number of projects for the BWG, including organizing and participating in workshops, and giving presentations. A list of affiliate-scientists/institutions |
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