Recent Courses

EE BIOL 124 - Field Ecology
EE BIOL 126 - Behavioral Ecology
EE BIOL 193 - Journal Club Seminars: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Research Areas

Behavior, Conservation Biology

Research Interests

Broadly, I am interested in the evolution of social and antipredator behavior and the ramifications mechanisms of behavior have for higher level ecological processes and for wildlife conservation. I have spent over a decade studying the evolution of complex communication and sociality and used the 14 species of marmots (Marmota-cat-sized sciurid rodents found throughout the northern hemisphere) as a model system.

Much of my marmot work now focuses on the yellow-bellied marmots of the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (www.rmbl.org) which have been studied continuously since 1962.

A main theme in my research is integrating knowledge of animal behavior into conservation biology. Ultimately, I aim to illustrate, through examples, how knowledge of behavior should influence policy.

In addition to my more theoretical work, I've been actively engaged in using ecotourism as a form of community development and as a way to conserve natural resources. My theoretical research interests are particularly relevant to the applied work because ecotourism can adversely impact wildlife. Ultimately, it is the wildlife's perception of human impacts that matters.

Selected Publications

Putman, B.J., Drury, J.P., Blumstein, D.T., and G.B. Pauly., "Fear no colors? Observer clothing influences lizard escape behavior", PLoS One, 12 (8): e0182146- (2017) .

Blumstein, D.T., "Surviving in a post-truth world", Project Syndicate, 12 (8): - (2017) [link].

Blumstein, D., Geffroy, B., Samia, D., and Bessa, E., "The biological toll of ecotourism. Ecotourism?biological benefit or bane?", The Scientist, 12 (8): - (2017) .

Reed-Guy, S. Gehris, C., Shi, M., and D.T. Blumstein, "Sensitive plant hiding time depends on individual and state", PeerJ, 5 : e3598- (2017) .

West, R., Letnic, M., Blumstein, D.T., and K.E. Moseby, "Predator exposure improves anti-predator responses in a threatened mammal", Journal of Applied Ecology, 5 : - (2017) [link].

Smith, J.E., Petelle, M.B., Jerome, E.L., Cristofari, H., and D.T. Blumstein, "Oxytocin experiments shed light on mechanisms shaping prosocial and antisocial behaviors in non-human mammals", Integrative and Comparative Biology, 5 : - (2017) [link].

Samia, D.S.M., Blumstein, D.T., Diaz, M., Grim, T., Ibanez-Alamo, J.D. Jokimaki, J. Tatte, K., Marko, G. Tryjanowski, P., and A.P. Moller, "Rural-urban differences in escape behavior of European birds across a latitudinal gradient", Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 5 : Article 66- (2017) .

Snijders, L., Blumstein, D.T., Stanley, C.R., and D.W. Franks, "Animal social network theory can help wildlife conservation", Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 32 : 567-577 (2017) .

Blumstein, D.T., "Groundhog Day is so silly. But as a groundhog scientist, I love it anyway", Washington Post, 32 : - (2017) [link].

Blumstein, D.T., "Skiing for science", Science, 356 : 214- (2017) .