Gavin Cotterill, PhD
I’m a quantitative disease ecologist interested in combining wildlife movement, natural history and social behavior to examine processes relevant for the invasion, transmission and persistence of pathogens in host populations.
Prior to graduate school I collected data as a field technician for a variety of projects on songbirds, ground squirrels, ungulates and carnivores, often as a scat detection dog handler. Apart from scratching my itch to be in the backcountry, these opportunities gave me a fuller appreciation of the wildlife research process, and the lengths we go to in pursuit of data. I have a disease ecology background working with elk and bighorn sheep, although my taxonomic and methodological interests are much broader. I enjoy thinking about ‘big-picture’ ideas like how aspects of host natural history and behavior give rise to movement and contact patterns relevant to pathogen transmission and how to best tackle these puzzles quantitatively given the data that are available. My Ph.D. research focused on the ecology of brucellosis in elk (caused by the bacterium Brucella abortus) in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem that attend supplemental winter feedgrounds. My current research centers around questions aimed at helping to manage and curtail the spread of chronic wasting disease.
