A.P.E. Lab

Dr. Shoemaker is the director of the Applied Population Ecology (A.P.E) lab at the department of Natural Resources & Environmental Science at the University of Nevada, Reno. Broadly, his research couples ecological data (e.g., census records, mark-recapture data, remote sensing data) with simulation models, statistics and machine learning to support wildlife conservation and management. Visit his UNR site Contact Kevin T Shoemaker Assistant Professor, Natural Resources & Environmental Science University of Nevada, Reno / mail stop 186 1664 N Virginia St, Reno NV 89557 kevinshoemaker_at_unr.edu; (775) 682-7449 Fleischmann Agriculture room 220E (lab: room 235) ...

Miranda is a PhD student who joined the Shoemaker and Matocq labs in April 2016. She came to University of Nevada, Reno from Washington State University in Pullman, WA where she completed her M.S. with Dr. Lisa Shipley investigating pygmy rabbits’ foraging ecology. Here, at UNR, Miranda is researching pygmy rabbit distribution across Nevada and southeastern Oregon, focusing on demography, genetic connectivity, and key landscape characteristics that pygmy rabbits require. To learn more about Miranda, the ongoing pygmy rabbit research, and to see updates from the field, visit her website. ...

Margarete is a Ph.D. student who joined the APE lab and the EECB program in Fall 2016. Her research interests include population ecology, herpetology, conservation biology, terrestrial vertebrate physiology, and species’ responses to climate change. She completed her M.S. with Dr. Nancy Karraker on the timing of hibernation in Eastern Box Turtles. Margarete’s research in the A.P.E. lab centers around understanding the environmental and climatic niche breadth of the Mojave Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii). Margarete works closely with the Hunter lab at Georgia Southern University, which is performing similar research on the Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus). Margarete is anticipating to complete her dissertation in Spring 2022. ...

Danielle C Miles Danielle is a PhD student in her fourth year as part of the A.P.E. lab. I am working on measuring the broad impacts of pinyon and juniper tree removal in sagebrush ecosystems on bat, bird, reptile, small mammal and insect populations. Besides this ecological study, I am interested in exploring anthropogenic effects on the environment such as climate change and deforestation with specific emphasis on the implications for amphibians. ...

Dr. Elizabeth Hunter was a postdoctoral researcher in the A.P.E. lab from 2016-2018 where she worked on several population modeling projects including: predicting plague outbreaks in black-tailed prairie dogs, using abundance data to predict the effects of competition on songbird responses to climate change, and simulation modeling to inform restoration of giant tortoise populations in the Galapagos Islands. She is now an Assistant Professor of Landscape Ecology at Georgia Southern University. ...