Is the island life really the better life?
On April 2, 2020, the Wolf Conservation Center offered a free webinar with Dr. Kristin Brzeski to introduce the history, insights, and exciting new developments surrounding two island wolf populations. Dr. Brzeski discussed the recent arrival of several gray wolves to Isle Royale National Park, her search for red wolf ancestry on Galveston Island in Texas, and how these two projects can provide new lessons from endangered canid populations found in isolated and island systems.
About The Speaker:
Dr. Kristin Brzeski is an Assistant Professor in the College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science at Michigan Technological University, where her lab’s research focuses on wildlife genetics, conservation, and management. Her PhD research was on wild red wolves in North Carolina and as a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University from 2016-2018, Dr. Brzeski worked with Dr. Bridgett vonHoldt on canid genomics. Dr. Brzeski is a project leader for the North American Canine Ancestry project, a project that utilizes restriction site-associated DNA sequences to compare the genomes of over 2,300 canids. In addition to her canid research, Dr. Brzeski leads biodiversity projects in Central Africa, where her team works with local conservation practitioners to monitor and protect endemic Africa wildlife. Please see Biodiversity Initiative (http://biodiversityinitiative.org/) for more details.