Description

PROFESSIONAL AND RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

2022 – Present           Quantitative Wildlife Biologist and Ecologist

Zoetica Wildlife Research Services

Key Activities:

• Develop study designs regarding monitoring of large mammals across Canada – including elk, barren-ground caribou, woodland caribou, mountain caribou, wolves, bears, and moose – using multiple techniques, such as camera traps, GPS collars, unmanned aerial vehicles, environmental DNA, fecal accumulation surveys, and traditional knowledge.

• Analyze monitoring data and generate reports from camera trap data, environmental DNA, aquatic surveying, ungulate aerial inventories, historical weather, and randomized spatial sampling.

• Capacity development and research project design and implementation for First Nations in British Columbia, including site reconnaissance, training materials, hands-on training sessions, and follow-up for project monitoring and assessment.

• Consult on animal monitoring plans and programs.

• Background research on ecology, monitoring, management, and traditional knowledge for large mammal species, including gap analyses.

 

2021 – Present           Research Collaborator and Board Member

Tanzania Pangolin Conservation Project

Tanzania Research and Conservation Organization

Key Activities:

• Assessing the perception of local communities towards pangolin in Ruaha landscape, central Tanzania.

• Occupancy analysis, habitat use, and population trends of different pangolin species from interview data.

• Social science data analysis, including development of culturally relevant educational programs, assessment of attitudes and beliefs regarding wildlife, and alternative conservation strategies specific to pangolins.

• Study design and logistics to expand pangolin research to other regions of Tanzania.

• Grant writing and research proposal development, including for international programs such as USAID, Conservation Leadership, and World Wildlife Fund. Secure over $500,000 USD in research grants to date.

• Develop social media outreach and educational materials about pangolin for awareness campaigns in Tanzania and worldwide.

 

2021 – 2022    Advancing methods and understanding: Status and drivers of change in populations of mid- to large-size mammals

Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute

Key Activities:

• Explore zero-inflated mixed effects and hierarchical modelling approaches on camera trap data to assess the consequences of human disturbance and climate change on mammals in Alberta, Canada.

• Assess study design and methods to improve camera trap surveillance of mesocarnivores.

• Evaluate multi-species interactions and behavioural responses to human disturbance and climate change, including multistate occupancy models.

• Use multistate occupancy and latent selection difference to assess habitats associated with successful reproduction of white-tailed deer, moose, and black bear in Alberta.

• Literature review of mesocarnivore responses to human activity.

• Plan and perform analysis of temporal activity patterns, activity overlap, and time-to-event between predators, prey, and competitors using camera trap data.

 

2014 – 2020    Sitatunga population ecology and habitat use in central Uganda

University of Alberta

Field Site: Mayanja River Basin, Central Uganda

Key activities:

• Analyze camera trap data to estimate density, explore community ecology, and space use.

• Population genetics – sample collection, preparation, and data analysis.

• Deploy and maintain camera traps in papyrus marsh.

• Study design, implementation, monitoring, troubleshooting, and analysis.

• Capacity development of local crews, including hands-on field training for camera trap deployment and maintenance.

 

2010 – 2013    Evaluating survival and cause-specific mortality on white-tailed deer in

Wisconsin

University of Wisconsin – Madison

Field Sites: Winter (Northern Forest) and Shiocton (Eastern Farmland), Wisconsin, USA

Key activities:

• Field capture of adult and neonatal white-tailed deer, including chemical immobilization.

• Telemetry: homing, biangulation, aerial and ground techniques.

• Bayesian statistical methods.                      • Survival analysis.

 

2007 – 2010    Coyote – deer dynamics in the Southeastern North America

Effects of experimentally manipulated snag density on avian communities in loblolly pine forests

Short rotation woody crops, carbon, and bioenergy

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service

Field Site: Savannah River Site, New Ellenton, South Carolina, USA

Key Activities:

• Use of vaginal implant transmitters, rocket nets, tranquilizer darts, forward-looking infra-red cameras (FLIR), radio-collars, radio-backpacks, GPS, mist nets.

• Collection of woody plant samples, tree measurements, and other data.

• Manage work on multiple projects.              • Data entry and quality control.

 

 

EDUCATION

2020    PhD, Biological Sciences

University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

Dissertation: Sitatunga population ecology and habitat use in central Uganda

Advisor: Dr. Mark S. Boyce

 

2013    M.S., Wildlife Ecology

University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA

Thesis: Cause-specific mortality of neonatal white-tailed deer in different ecological contexts

Advisor: Dr. Tim R. Van Deelen

 

2001    B.S., Forest Resources

University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

 

 

PUBLICATIONS

Warbington, C.H., and Boyce, M.S. (2023), Water-Level Fluctuations and Ungulate Community Dynamics in Central Uganda. Water 15(15), 2765. doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/w15152765

 

Becker, M., Huggard, D. J., Dickie, M., Warbington, C. H., Schieck, J., Herdman, E., Serrouya, R., and Boutin, S. (2022), Applying and testing a novel method to estimate animal density from motion-triggered cameras. Ecosphere 13(4):e4005.  doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4005

 

Brownlee, M., Warbington, C.H., and Boyce, M.S. (2022) Monitoring sitatunga (Tragelaphus spekii) populations using camera traps. African Journal of Ecology 60(3)377-385. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/aje.12972

 

Kimaro, M. H., Mroso, H. T., Chidodo, S. J., Chilagane, N. A., Msigwa, F. F., Bulenga, G. B., Kicheleri, R. P., Mgeni, C. P., Kangile, R. J., Kimambo, E. A., Hughes, C., Warbington, C. H., Mchaki, H., Mathayo, D., and Kiwango, H. R. (2022) African lion population estimates in Tanzania’s Ruaha National Park. Open Journal of Ecology 12:558-569.  doi: https://doi.org/10.4236/oje.2022.128031

 

Warbington, C.H., and Boyce, M.S. (2020), Population density of sitatunga in riverine wetland habitats. Global Ecology and Conservation 24:e01212. doi: 10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e01212

 

Warbington, C.H. and Boyce, M.S. (2018), Ecology of Sitatunga along the Mayanja River, Uganda.  GNUSLETTER 35(2), IUCN Antelope Specialist Group.

 

Warbington, C.H., Van Deelen, T.R., Norton, A.S., Stenglein, J.L., Storm, D.J., and Martin, K.J. (2017),  Cause-specific neonatal mortality of white-tailed deer in Wisconsin, USA.  Journal of Wildlife Management 81:824-833. doi:10.1002/jwmg.21260

 

Boyce, M.S., Mallory, C.D., Morehouse, A.T., Prokopenko, C.M., Scrafford, M.A., Warbington, C. H. (2017), Defining Landscapes and Scales to Model Landscape–Organism Interactions. Current Landscape Ecology Reports 2:89-95. doi:10.1007/s40823-017-0027-z