Dr. Daniel Wolcott

Areas of teaching and research interests:
Mammalogy, Biostatistics, Wildlife Management, Field Techniques, Population and Spatial Ecology

Dr. Wolcott's research addresses phenotypic, demographic, and spatial variation of small-to-large vertebrates in the context of human-induced and natural environmental change. His work is mostly at the population level through extensive field-based sampling of wildlife populations. Much of his research can be condensed down to three main components: 1) understanding how species respond to a changing world, 2) improving management of species, and 3) interfacing scientific research with the public sector to create more informed stakeholders. All of these components are strongly enriched through student research involvement and collaborative efforts.

Dr. Wolcott is currently developing graduate-level projects assessing feeding dynamics of female American Bison in relation to dominance hierarchies and the impacts of patch-burn-grazing management of prairie ecosystems on small mammal communities. He is continuing to develop other external projects in collaboration with the Missouri Department of Conservation, and will also have several long-term data sets (mesopredators, white-tailed deer, and several grassland bird species) that will be useful in assessing species’ responses to environmental variation.

For more information regarding Dr. Wolcott's research interests, current activity, collaborations, or joining his lab, please contact him via email.