Packrat Middens: Online Curator Talk
At Zoom
Discover the surprising things we can learn from rodents in this free online talk presented by the Great Basin National Park Foundation and featuring the Museum’s newest curator, Curator of Mammalogy Ally Coconis, Ph.D.
Packrats are inconspicuous nocturnal rodents, but their preserved nests have provided significant insight into Great Basin climate and biotic change through time. They are also important species in the desert ecosystem, spreading native seeds, providing microhabitat for invertebrates, and sustenance for carnivores. Though packrats have been well-studied throughout the last half century in the Great Basin region, scientists continue to uncover the many facets of their biological and ecological significance to mammalian research and beyond.
Dr. Coconis received an undergraduate degree in biology and a master’s degree in environmental science from the University of Utah before completing her doctorate in ecology from the University of Nevada Reno, where her focus was on woodrats of the Great Basin. Great Basin National Park served as an ideal location to study mechanisms of small mammal distributions due to the large elevational gradient along the southern Snake Range. At the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, she continues to study woodrats alongside other small mammals in both California and Nevada.
Great Basin National Park Foundation passionately works to enhance, preserve, and interpret the starry night skies, wide-open scenery, cultural heritage, and diverse native ecosystems of Great Basin National Park.
For more information, visit the Great Basin National Park Foundation’s website.
Bushy-tailed Woodrat photo by National Park Service
