Angela Brennan

Thesis Title: The effects of climate, land use, and predation on elk aggregation and brucellosis in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Available data suggest that the recent outbreaks of brucellosis in Wyoming and Montana cattle are the result of spill-over infections from elk. Other data indicate that the prevalence of brucellosis may be increasing in elk around the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. We hypothesize that increases in brucellosis are due to changes in elk aggregation in response to changes in climate, altered land-use, hunter access, and presence of predators, which can create a few very large herds that facilitate disease transmission. We plan to conduct aerial surveys of elk in several regions of Wyoming to assess group size and density, and then determine those factors that are associated with large elk aggregations (e.g. snowpack, irrigation, hunter access, habitat type, wolf presence). We will combine this work with ongoing elk GPS tracking to determine the sites and conditions that create the risk of transmission from elk to cattle, which will allow us to predict how future changes in land-use and snowpack are likely to affect brucellosis dynamics.

Research Interests
Ungulate and disease ecology, remote sensing, predator-prey dynamics, wildlife tracking, telemetry, backcountry navigation, and wildlife blood and tissue sampling.

I am interested in anthropogenic and non-consumptive effects on elk behavior, distribution, and health. I am also interested in using climate models to project how these effects on elk will change based on various climate scenarios.