COLLABORATING IN CONSERVATION

2022 Conservation Science Trainee

Binta Sambou received a Ben Olewine Project Soar Award and collaborated with Science-Education Outreach Coordinator Rebekah Smith to create hooded vulture conservation education materials to share while travelling along the West Coast region of The Gambia. Binta is working to address the rapidly declining hooded vulture population by educating the public and students of all ages about the benefits of coexisting with this species.

2007 Conservation Science Trainee

Adrian Naveda received Hawk Mountain’s 2022 James A. Kushlan Award, which will support his project, “The Migration Ecology of North American Turkey Vultures: Spatial and Population Dynamics,” which is the subject of his doctorate studies at Mississippi State University. This Ph.D. project will shed light on how survival of individual vultures is affected by migration strategies and habitat use.

In December, Senior Scientist and Graduate Study Director Dr. JF Therrien traveled to Argentina to reconnect with recent trainees Diego Gallego and Paula Orozco-Valor for Chaco eagle and American kestrel monitoring field work, educational outreach with local farmers and the general public about threats to regional raptors, and a multi-day raptor conservation science field course for South American students.