PREDATOR ECOLOGY

FULFILLS:
BIOS 453/853, ACE 10

PREREQUISITES:
BIOS 207 or NRES 220

THE INSTRUCTOR:
Stella Uiterwaal - I'm a postdoctoral researcher with the Forest Park Living Lab, via the Living Earth Collaborative at Washington University in St. Louis. My postdoctoral research is on the community movement ecology of wildlife in Forest Park, a spectacular park in the heart of St. Louis. I'm particularly interested in why predators eat what they do and as much as they do, and how this depends on the predator's traits, community, and environment. I've worked with everything from protists to spiders to birds, although I have developed a particular fondness for owls.

I completed my PhD in the DeLong lab at the University of Nebraska. My dissertation focused on predation in wolf spiders at Cedar Point Biological Station, and I have spent the last seven summers at Cedar Points learning, teaching, and conducting research.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course envelopes:

• Conservation and management of native and invasive predators.
• Functional and numerical responses.
• Evolution of predator-prey interactions.
• Optimal foraging.
• Modeling predator-prey population dynamics.
• Trophic cascades.
• Prey defenses against predation.

Grades are evaluated on class participation, quizzes, and an independent project.

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