James D. Murdoch

Thrilled to have been awarded a Gund Catalyst Award to develop a framework for a sustainable cashmere certification program with colleagues Jon Erickson and Pablo Bose from the University of Vermont and Ganchimeg Wingard at the Denver Zoo. The project will be developing an interdisciplinary framework that includes elements of wildlife biology, economics, and culture to support a sustainable cashmere system in Mongolia. It will draw on nearly two decades of work in Ikh Nart Nature Reserve.

Congratulations to Cody Aylward for his new paper on the genetics of American marten in the northeastern United States. This study evaluated the origins of recently discovered marten in Vermont using genetic techniques and has implications for marten management and conclusions related to species' reintroductions. Cody was a former graduate student in our wildlife program. Aylward, C., J. Murdoch, and C. W. Kilpatrick. 2018. Genetic legacies of translocation and relictual populations of American marten at the southeastern margin of their distribution. Conservation Genetics, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-018-1130-3.

I am pleased to announce that we recently had an article accepted for publication that explores public acceptability of development and the influence of wildlife information, recreation involvement, and demographics. Jessica Espenshade, and former graduate student, led the research which involved surveying 9,000 households across Vermont. Here are details of the paper: Espenshade, J., J. Murdoch, T. Donovan, R. Manning, R. Mickey, and C. Bettigole. 2018. Public acceptability of development in the Northern Forest of Vermont, USA – the influence of wildlife information, recreation involvement, and demographic characteristics. PLoS ONE 13(12): e0203515. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0203515.

Congratulations to Dr. Tserendorj Munkhzul of the Institute of General and Experimental Biology of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences on the recent publication of her paper that analyzed morphological traits of corsac and red foxes: Munkhzul, T., R. P. Reading, B. Buuveibaatar, and J. D. Murdoch. 2018. Comparative craniometric measurements of two sympatric species of Vulpes in Ikh Nart Nature Reserve, Mongolia. Mongolian Journal of Biological Sciences 16:19-28.

I am happy to announce that we recently had a paper accepted to the Journal of Herpetology that examined how habitats and other landscape characteristics shape the distribution of one of the most widespread lizards in Mongolia along the periphery of their range. The work was led by Dr. Oyuna Yadamsuren along with several colleagues at the Mongolian National University of Education and National University of Mongolia. The article will come out in September and is titled: Estimating occupancy and detectability of toad headed agamas at the periphery of their range in Mongolia.

I'm delighted to announce that we recently had an article on bobcat habitat selection accepted for publication in the journal Landscape Ecology. The work was led by Hanem Abouelezz and Dr. Terri Donovan and examined aspects of bobcat movement behavior and habitat selection in Vermont. The article is entitled: Landscape composition mediates movement and habitat selection in bobcats (Lynx rufus): Implications for conservation planning.

We just had an article on American marten distribution and connectivity accepted for publication in the journal Animal Conservation. The article is entitled: Estimating distribution and connectivity of recolonizing American marten in the northeastern United States using expert elicitation techniques. The article presents a distribution model for martens based on expert opinion data, a map of marten distribution across the northeastern US, and an assessment of landscape connectivity using a circuit theory approach.

We recently published a paper on the development of Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) markers in moose. This was a collaborative effort between multiple investigators and institutions. The results provide a efficient tool for identifying individuals and relatedness of individuals in a population using genetic samples, and have exciting prospects for addressing management and conservation questions: Kalbfleisch, T. S., B. M. Murdoch, T. P. L. Smith, J. D. Murdoch, M. P. Heaton, and S. D. McKay. 2018. A SNP resource for studying North American moose. F1000Research 7:40 DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.13501.1