Growing up in Maryland, I was more of a bookworm than a play-in-the-mud kind of kid, but living in the suburbs of D.C. and Baltimore meant that I had ample opportunity to explore these cities’ museums, zoos, and aquariums. Consequently, it was a high-school internship at the National Aquarium in Baltimore that helped convert this would-be primatologist to an aspiring marine biologist. As an undergrad at Penn State University, I learned how to do research in a physiological ecology lab and, after graduation, I spent the next years exploring conservation-oriented career paths in science education, wildlife research, and animal husbandry. Along the way, across the country, I discovered new ecosystems, met all sorts of people, and learned a lot about myself. (more…)
Bigg’s killer whales (Orcinus orca; i.e. ‘transient’ ecotype), as apex predators, are important to the dynamics of marine ecosystems, but little is known about their population structure in western Alaska. Currently, all Bigg’s killer whales in western Alaska are ascribed to a single broad stock…