Jillian Kusch (M.Sc. 2018) I completed my B.Sc. Honours in Environmental Biology from the University of Saskatchewan in 2015. My research focused on the social strategies of black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) in Grasslands National Park, comparing both between and within individual variation using social network analysis. The primary findings of my program revealed that prairie dogs exhibit social plasticity across reproductive and non-reproductive seasons, while also showed variation in sociality between age groups and sexes. This provided evidence for much finer-scale social structure than previously thought in this species.
Colleen Crill (M.Sc. 2018) I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2011. In 2013, I began working for the US Geological Survey on development and testing of an oral sylvatic plague vaccine. I was first involved with field trials in Utah, then on vaccine bait production at the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, WI. My master's research focused on how chronic stress and predation risk affect reproductive success in black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) in Grasslands National Park. I also investigated the use of glucocorticoid hormones in various tissues as a less invasive management technique for understanding population health of an at-risk species.