I am very excited to introduce this month’s featured scientist: Corrie Navis. I met her while we were both pursuing our Master’s degrees in Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology at Eastern Michigan University. Corrie’s excitement for science (and many other things, actually) is extremely infectious, and her current research is so adorable that I have been pestering her to let me share it with you guys, so I’ll get started without further ado. (as usual, notes from me in green)
What first sparked your interest in science? I’d always loved animals and nature, and pursuing a science degree was the best way I could see to learn more about them and work for conservation. It was when I started to see how the basic concepts I was learning in the classroom tied together into explaining more about the world that I really got passionate about science!
Describe your research in laymen’s terms: Right now, I’m monitoring the population of Western Burrowing Owls on a military base in New Mexico. Burrowing Owls are vulnerable throughout their range, and the local population declined a lot during a stretch of bad drought years. The information I gather about nesting pairs on the base helps determine how the population is doing and determine what threats they face. Having a solid understanding of the local Burrowing Owls is vital to providing them with the protection they need to continue being successful in raising chicks and getting those population numbers back up! In practical terms, what that entails is spending a lot of time searching the base for Burrowing Owls, measuring how much of their prey is available, providing recommendations about how to adjust activities on the base to minimize disturbances to the nesting owls, trapping and banding owls so they can be tracked over time, and regularly checking up on each burrow to determine what the outcome is (i.e., how many chicks make it to the stage of leaving the nest).
More broadly speaking, I’m very interested in animal behavior, understanding how human activities impact wildlife, and in research that helps us better conserve species that are at risk. I’ve worked with songbirds, small mammals, frogs and toads, salamanders, and snakes! (I’m jealous over here! I need to learn to work with birds!)
What are your hopes/plans for your scientific future? I love doing research that helps us learn more about wildlife and about how all the different aspects of an ecosystem are connected and impact each other. I’m hoping to pursue a PhD program within the next year or two. In the meantime, I’m enjoying getting more experience working with various types of wildlife and research methods.
What do you think is the most important thing for the general public to know about science? That it’s for everyone! Scientists aren’t some special breed of human that have special access to scientific thinking or caring about the questions that science addresses. We’re just people who are curious about how the natural world works, and decided to pursue a career in finding the answers to our questions. And most of us are very happy to share and explain what we’ve learned and are continuing to study! (That is so true. One of my favorite things to do when I was researching algae on the Great Lakes was to answer the questions of fishermen and other boaters.)
What non-scientific interests do you have? Even though a lot of my work time is spent outdoors, I love getting outside for some less structured enjoyment, such as hiking or camping. I also enjoy reading, cooking, various crafty endeavors, and hanging out with my cat and pet beetles. Oh, and of course listening to many different podcasts, and the Hamilton soundtrack on endless repeat.
If you have enjoyed Corrie’s fieldwork photos thus far, and would like to see numerous pictures of flurry burrowing owls (I am enjoying them very much), feel free to follow her on twitter @CorrieJN.
Very interesting, thanks for sharing!
Great post, Kayla! I have to admit, science has never been my strong point (I’ve always been a literature and history kind of girl 😏), but you wrote a great article! I loved learning about the owls 😍 They’re SO adorable!
Aren’t they? I’m just in love with them!