Benjamin Robb

I’m from Pittsburgh PA, but it has been easy to call Wyoming home. I graduated with a BS in Biology from Wake Forest University, after which I was a field technician with the Chicago Botanic Gardens Conservation Land Management program in Oregon. I then joined an internship program at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s GIS lab, which fostered my continuing fascination in movement ecology. From there, I joined the Kauffman lab as a GIS technician and began my MS with the Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and Department of Zoology and Physiology in 2017.

We’ve known that Interstate-80 is a barrier to ungulate movement across Southern Wyoming. My research is focused on trying to inform where to improve the habitat permeability and connectivity for ungulates along the Interstate-80 corridor. We are using a pronghorn GPS-collar dataset to study where pronghorn are most affected by the barrier, and where would be an optimal location to try and mitigate this barrier to movement. Additionally, we are monitoring underpass movements of pronghorn and mule deer along Interstate-80 to inform where movements still occur. My research interests include the applications of movement, behavior, landscape and restoration ecology and how they can apply to conservation biology.

In my freetime I enjoy biking, hiking, swimming, backpacking, canoeing, skiing, and playing music.

 

Ben Robb presenting poster