Tom Batter

I am generally interested in utilizing wildlife research to better inform wildlife management decisions. In particular, I am interested in integrating spatial and genetic tools to provide scientifically sound data for biologists tasked with recommending habitat and harvest management decisions. Currently, I am partnering with the California Department of Fish & Wildlife to develop a DNA-based survey method to monitor tule elk population parameters in Colusa and Lake Counties, CA. Prior to this research I was working with the MECU on the Sacramento Valley Red Fox Project testing a predictive habitat model in the Sacramento River Valley. For two years before joining the MECU, I was cutting my teeth as a scientific aide for CDFW’s Wildlife Investigations Lab where I gained hands-on experience working with a wide variety of mammals including black bears, mule deer, elk, and mountain lions, among others. During this time I was also able to spend the summers researching how human recreation influences spatial and temporal use of mammals in the San Francisco Bay ecoregion under the tutelage of Dr. Michelle Reilly out of Northern Arizona University. I moved to California in 2012 after I earned a BS in Environmental Science and a BS in Fisheries & Wildlife at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. During my undergraduate career at UNL, I performed field and lab research in Dr. James Stubbendieck’s Grassland Ecology Lab and helped conduct avian cognition experiments with corvids for Dr. Alan Kamil and Dr. Alan Bond. During my free time I enjoy hunting waterfowl and big game, hiking and exploring California’s outdoors with my two dogs, and following my favorite sports teams more closely than I care to admit (especially all Nebraska Cornhusker sports). I was born and raised in Nebraska, so that part comes naturally.