Texas Tech University

Caroline Skidmore, M.S.

Photo Description

Biography

I was raised in the small town of Goddard, Kansas and graduated with a bachelors of science in biology from Kansas State University. During my undergraduate career, I was heavily involved with the Kansas State University Student Chapter of The Wildlife Society and held multiple leadership positions within the club, including presidency. Through this position, I was able to reach out to my community through events such as elementary school STEM nights and high school career lectures. In addition to this, I was employed by the Kansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit to conduct research on the monarch butterfly. This work is in the process of being published, titled “Monarch butterfly ecology relative to density, host plant occurrence, and habitat use in the Flint Hills”. I have volunteered on various studies collecting a wide range of experience, including but not limited to moose telemetry surveys, black-footed ferret trapping, prairie chicken lek trapping, plant ecology surveys, sein netting, mist netting, and bird banding. My career goals following graduation include working for a non-profit land trust to aid landowners in properly assisting and managing wildlife on their land, working on a fire crew to observe and learn firsthand about fire ecology, and completing a Ph. D to eventually be employed by a USGS cooperative fish and wildlife research unit within the decade following the completion of an M.S. degree. While my goals are diverse, my main objective is to conduct research to help inform the community on sound management decisions and educate the public on the natural world around them. The topic I am currently most interested is how the distribution and occupancy of wildlife is reacting to the recent drastic changes in our climate.