B&C Fellow - Jacob Hill

Michigan State University - Research Scientist

I became interested in wildlife ecology when I took a college internship working with sea turtles in my home state of North Carolina. This led me to working a variety of seasonal sea turtle positions in Florida, Costa Rica, and the US Virgin Islands and eventually completing a Masters degree studying diving behavior and population genetics of hawksbill sea turtles in the Caribbean. I shifted to terrestrial systems during the completion of my PhD, which focused on dynamics of vertebrate scavenging communities. I completed postdoctoral positions at SUNY-ESF examining the ecology of vulture-aircraft collisions and at the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Lab studying the ecology of raccoons and opossums. My research interests include scavenging ecology, road ecology, human-wildlife conflict, and wildlife conservation. My non-research interests include gardening, crafting, and traveling.

I am working on a variety of projects related to wildlife harvests. Some of these are based on using IUCN Red List data to examine the effects of sport hunting and spatial scales of consumptive use on the conservation statuses of mammals. I am also coordinating a group of undergraduates on a literature review assessing wildlife harvest sustainability.