Wildlife Graduate Studies
The professional field of wildlife science covers the basic ecology of free-living animals and their relations to humans, including their management and conservation. Wildlife science is, therefore, a multidisciplinary field which draws from the natural, quantitative, and social sciences. Wildlife studies at the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences is active in all phases of the discipline with current research projects on the basic ecology of species and a wide range of issues dealing with management and conservation of species and ecosystems, including problems in forest management, wildlife toxicology, range management, and marine mammalogy. Students and faculty focus on vertebrates and is strongly field-oriented. Courses and seminars feature current approaches to wildlife research and management, ecological theory, and quantitative methods.
Graduates concentrating in wildlife science obtain employment in varied settings. Historically, most graduates have been hired by municipal, state and federal agencies. Recently, as the demand for expertise in wildlife science has intensified, graduates also have found opportunities with consulting firms, private conservation organizations, and research laboratories.
Prepare and apply for graduate studies in wildlife at the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences.
Previous Research
- Wildlife communities on new forestry demonstration sites in western Oregon and Washington
- Home range movements and habitat use of western gray squirrels
- Evaluating bird response to the Plum Creek Habitat Conservation Plan
- Winter habitat use and foraging behavior of lynx in north central Washington
- Amphibian use of stormwater retention ponds in King County
- Effects of natural disturbance and barred owl competition on spotted owls in Olympic National Park
- The role of summer range on mule deer populations in north-central Washington
Wildlife Science Curriculum Structure
Orientation | Credits | Notes |
SEFS 500 | 1 | Graduate Orientation Seminar |
Disciplinary Knowledge | — | — |
ESRM 441 | 5 | Landscape Ecology |
ESRM 456 | 3 | Biology and Conservation of Birds |
ESRM 452 | 3 | Field Ornithology |
ESRM 458 | 5 | Management of Endangered, Threatened and Sensitive Species |
SEFS 501 | 5 | Forest Ecosystems – Community Ecology |
Research Design/Quantitative Methods | — | — |
QSCI 482 | 5 | Statistical Inference in Applied Research I |
QSCI 483 | 5 | Statistical Inference in Applied Research II |
QSCI 458* | 5 |
Advanced Ecological Modeling
|
QSCI/STAT 480* | 3 | Sampling Theory for Biologists |
QSCI/STAT 486* | 4 | Experimental Design |
STAT 403* | 4 | Introduction to Resampling Inference |
STAT 492* | 3 | Stochastic Calculus for Option Pricing |
STAT 516* | 4 | Stochastic Modeling of Scientific Data |
CS & SS 564* | 4 | Bayesian Statistics for the Social Sciences |
CS & SS 565* | 3 | Inequality: Current Trends and Explanations |
CS & SS 567* | 4 | Statistical Analysis of Social Networks |
Social & Natural Science | — | — |
SEFS 509 | 3 | Analysis of Research Problems |
Current Topics | — | — |
SEFS 554** | 1-2 | Wildlife Seminar |
Research | — | — |
SEFS 700 | 9 | Master’s Thesis |
SEFS 800 | 27 | Doctoral Dissertation |
*Ph.D. level course
**for MS, taken twice; for Ph.D., taken three times
Related Faculty
Faculty Member | Areas of Interest |
Stanley Asah | Human dimensions of natural resource management; human environment systems analyses; environmental social psychology |
Sarah Converse | Conservation biology, decision science, demographic estimation, hierarchical modeling, integrated population modeling, reintroduction biology |
Beth Gardner | Hierarchical models, spatial capture-recapture models, occupancy models, camera trapping, hair snares, sampling techniques, spatial statistics, Bayesian inference |
Christian Grue | Wildlife toxicology |
Josh Lawler | Landscape ecology, conservation biology |
Phillip Levin | Interdisciplinary conservation science, ecosystem-based natural resource management, marine and coastal conservation biology, marine ecology |
John Marzluff | Wildlife-habitat relationships, avian social ecology and demography |
L. Monika Moskal | Remote sensing, biospatial analysis |
Laura Prugh | Quantitative multi-species conservation and management; wildlife community ecology; conservation of endangered species and fragmented populations; human-wildlife interactions; noninvasive genetics; predator-prey interactions |
John Skalski | Wildlife biostatistics |
Sandor F. Toth | Natural resources informatics; sustainable forest and natural resource management; spatial forest planning and optimization; forest engineering and operations research; reserve design |
Aaron Wirsing | Wildlife science, behavioral ecology, predator-prey interaction |