La Kretz Center Special Seminar
Social-Ecological Habitat Suitability: Measuring Human Tolerance for Wildlife to Augment Ecological Models
Social-Ecological Habitat Suitability: Measuring Human Tolerance for Wildlife to Augment Ecological Models
La Kretz Center Postdoctoral Fellow Candidate Lara Volski uses interdisciplinary approaches to link social and ecological systems, with an emphasis on large carnivores.
Through surveys and spatial modeling, Lara’s research examines how the conflict that so often accompanies carnivore recoveries can be forecast to guide statewide management.
Partnering with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and The Wildlands Conservancy, she will identify where high habitat suitability and connectivity for gray wolves, which have only recently returned to California, overlap with low social tolerance.
Her work will clarify how social conditions shape carnivore movement and ecology, and guide managers on how to prevent conflict before wolves reestablish in Southern California.