Author: Taal Levi

MS Student

Hi! I am thrilled to join the Levi Lab as a master’s student at OSU. My research focuses on bioacoustics as a non-invasive tool for modeling ecosystem dynamics and community ecology, intending to put forth best practices for conserving biological diversity. I have worked on various bioacoustics projects with different taxa, from analyzing elephant vocal communication to building machine-learning models for identifying bees! At OSU, I will use passive acoustic monitoring and remote sensing data (e.g., LiDAR) to study the birds of the PNW forests.

I aim to understand species distribution across various forest management modalities within the Northwest Forest Plan while accounting for ecosystem complexities such as co-occurrence (e.g., Barred Owl and Northern Spotted Owl) and environmental variables (e.g., vegetation density; canopy height). I also seek to understand how/if bird species respond to noise pollution, using acoustic data collected on the Olympic Peninsula, where there is significant air traffic from the nearby naval base on Whidbey Island.

I grew up outside of Boston, MA, and received my bachelor’s degree from UMass Amherst. When I am not in the field or the lab, you can usually find me biking, hiking, reading, doing a crossword puzzle, looking for salamanders, and/or dreaming about my cat, Ollie. 

PhD Student
I am positively obsessed with optimizing and expanding the use of detection dogs for non-invasive ecological research. While at OSU, my research will focus on wolf-sea otter interactions in southeastern Alaska. The wolf scat that the dogs find in Alaska will help us answer questions regarding wolf diet, sea otter consumption, and what that means for other terrestrial animals. Separately, I hope to study connectivity and carnivore populations in Central America’s Northern Triangle countries (El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala). We hope to gather information on population numbers for wild felids, mustelids, and carnivores in these under-studied areas and provide information on high-priority areas to be connected as part of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. 

When not working, I am an avid cross-country skier, trail runner, puzzle-doer, and swing/salsa dancer. I am owned by two detection dogs and a tyrannical cat. 

I earned my B.A. in ecology at Colorado College and was awarded the NSF-GRFP to support research that leverages conservation detection dogs. I grew up in northern Wisconsin and have lived on and off in Central America for much of my adult life. 

PhD Student

I am a conservation social science PhD student masquerading as a wildlife ecologist. For my dissertation, I will be looking at the social-ecological system of wolves, ranchers, and drought in eastern Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, more broadly. Our work will explore how wolves, wild and domestic ungulates, and drought affect the relationships between people and wildlife on Western rangelands. We hope to understand how humans make decisions regarding drought, wolves, and other rangeland conditions, and how large ungulates respond to drought and wolf activity. When not working, I enjoy hiking, reading, and trying to get my cat to hang out with me.

I earned my B.S. in Ecology from the University of Georgia and my M.S. in Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences from Virginia Tech. My master’s research focused on human disturbance of fall migrating shorebirds in the Northeastern U.S. I have been fortunate to be involved in a variety of research efforts across the U.S. and internationally, and these experiences and my broad interest in wildlife ecology has shown me the importance of understanding the intersection between human and natural systems. I believe that understanding people’s relationships with nature is essential to the future of conservation and human communities.

MS Student

I am interested in wildlife population dynamics. Specifically, building methods, techniques and models to estimate population abundance, distribution and habitat use. I have spent four years working in the field in an on-going wildlife and habitat monitoring program in Malawi. In my Masters dissertation I will work on modelling abundance and distribution of key species in Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve using data collected with camera traps. I will be co-advised by Dr. Damon Lesmeister, U.S. Forest Service PNW Research Station

In an effort to repopulate Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve, the African Elephant and other animals were translocated to the Reserve from other protected areas in Malawi. This work is particularly relevant because it is essential in long term monitoring of the animal populations that were translocated. I obtained my undergraduate degree in natural resources management from the University of Malawi, Bunda College. In my undergraduate thesis, I assessed how institutions support protected area management. Over the years, I have worked across various fields of wildlife conservation relating to conservation education; promoting knowledge and skills transfer

Postdoctoral Research Associate

I am passionate about combining applied aquatic research with ecologically broad theory to inform conservation and management. My research has focused on the intersection of predation and migration in aquatic environments and how humans modify these interactions. I use diverse approaches including experiments, observational data, models, and syntheses to scale from individual predator-prey interactions to population and ecosystem consequences. I have examined patterns of juvenile salmon mortality and behavior as influenced by habitat and hatchery practices, and how seascape features influence salmon foraging, growth, survival, and bycatch in the ocean. I value thinking big picture and have created new conceptual theory and a review of predator effects on migratory prey relevant across taxa.

I obtained my undergraduate degree in Environmental Science from Miami University of Ohio and Masters and PhD degrees in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of California Santa Cruz. I am currently a postdoc in the Levi lab studying Chinook salmon bycatch in the Pacific hake fishery. In my free time, I enjoy biking, baking, and cheering on my hometown Chicago sports teams.