Matthew Kauffman, PhD
Unit Leader - Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit
Matt grew up in rural southern Oregon, the son of a horse logger and an elementary schoolteacher. He received his B.S. in Biology from the University of Oregon in 1992 and his Ph.D. in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2003. Since 2006, Matt has worked as a USGS researcher with the Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and as faculty in the Department of Zoology and Physiology at the University of Wyoming; in 2010 he assumed leadership of the Wyoming Coop Unit. Matt leads a scientific team at the University of Wyoming that studies the long-distance migrations of large ungulates and communicates their importance to the public. His research seeks to understand how and why ungulates migrate, by evaluating the role of forage, movement, fat dynamics, reproduction and survival. Increasingly, he has sought to understand how the persistence of ungulate migration is threatened by landscape change. In 2012, Matt co-founded (and now directs) the Wyoming Migration Initiative (migrationinitiative.org), whose mission is to advance the understanding, appreciation, and conservation of Wyoming's migratory ungulates. He teaches graduate seminars in quantitative analysis of spatial wildlife data, community ecology of wildlife, and migration ecology.
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 89
Integrating physiological stress into the movement ecology of migratory ungulates: A spatial analysis with mule deer
Rapid climate and human land-use change may limit the ability of long-distance migratory herbivores to optimally track or “surf” high-quality forage during spring green-up. Understanding how anthropogenic and environmental stressors influence migratory movements is of critical importance because of their potential to cause a mismatch between the timing of animal movements and the emergence of hig
Authors
David S. Jachowski, Matthew Kauffman, Brett R. Jesmer, Hall Sawyer, Joshua J. Millspaugh
Green‐wave surfing increases fat gain in a migratory ungulate
Each spring, migratory herbivores around the world track or ‘surf’ green waves of newly emergent vegetation to distant summer or wet‐season ranges. This foraging tactic may help explain the great abundance of migratory herbivores on many seasonal landscapes. However, the underlying fitness benefits of this life‐history strategy remain poorly understood. A fundamental prediction of the green‐wave h
Authors
Arthur D. Middleton, Jerod Merkle, Douglas E. McWhirter, John G. Cook, Rachel C. Cook, P.J. White, Matthew J. Kauffman
U.S. Geological Survey science for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative—2016 annual report
This is the ninth annual report highlighting U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) science and decision-support activities conducted for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI). The activities address specific management needs identified by WLCI partner agencies. In fiscal year (FY) 2016, there were 26 active USGS WLCI science-based projects. Of these 26 projects, one project was new for FY20
Authors
Zachary H. Bowen, Ellen Aikens, Cameron L. Aldridge, Patrick J. Anderson, Timothy J. Assal, Anna D. Chalfoun, Geneva W. Chong, Cheryl A. Eddy-Miller, Steven L. Garman, Steve Germaine, Collin G. Homer, Aaron N. Johnston, Matthew J. Kauffman, Daniel J. Manier, Cynthia P. Melcher, Kirk A. Miller, Annika W. Walters, Jerrod D. Wheeler, Daniel J. Wieferich, Anna B. Wilson, Teal B. Wyckoff, Linda Zeigenfuss
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area, Science Synthesis, Analysis and Research Program, Land Management Research Program, Science Analytics and Synthesis (SAS) Program, Species Management Research Program, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center , Fort Collins Science Center, Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center, Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, Wyoming-Montana Water Science Center
Factors influencing elk recruitment across ecotypes in the Western United States
Ungulates are key components in ecosystems and economically important for sport and subsistence harvest. Yet the relative importance of the effects of weather conditions, forage productivity, and carnivores on ungulates are not well understood. We examined changes in elk (Cervus canadensis) recruitment (indexed as age ratios) across 7 states and 3 ecotypes in the northwestern United States during
Authors
Paul M. Lukacs, Michael S. Mitchell, Mark Hebblewhite, Bruce K. Johnson, Heather E. Johnson, Matthew J. Kauffman, Kelly M. Proffitt, Peter Zager, Jedediah Brodie, Kent Hersey, A. Andrew Holland, Mark Hurley, Scott McCorquodale, Arthur Middleton, Matthew Nordhagen, J. Joshua Nowak, Daniel P. Walsh, P.J. White
Demographic drivers of a refugee species: Large‐scale experiments guide strategies for reintroductions of hirola
Effective reintroduction strategies require accurate estimates of vital rates and the factors that influence them. The hirola (Beatragus hunteri) is the rarest antelope on Earth, with a global population size of <500 individuals restricted to the Kenya–Somali border. We estimated vital rates of hirola populations exposed to varying levels of predation and rangeland quality from 2012 to 2015, and t
Authors
Abdullahi H. Ali, Matthew J. Kauffman, Rajan Amin, Amos Kibara, Juliet King, David P. Mallon, Charles Musyoki, Jacob R. Goheen
Moving in the Anthropocene: Global reductions in terrestrial mammalian movements
Animal movement is fundamental for ecosystem functioning and species survival, yet the effects of the anthropogenic footprint on animal movements have not been estimated across species. Using a unique GPS-tracking database of 803 individuals across 57 species, we found that movements of mammals in areas with a comparatively high human footprint were on average one-half to one-third the extent of t
Authors
Marlee A. Tucker, Katrin Böhning-Gaese, William F. Fagan, John Fryxell, Bram Van Moorter, Susan C Alberts, Abdullahi H. Ali, Andrew M. Allen, Nina Attias, Tal Avgar, Hattie Bartlam-Brooks, Buuveibaatar Bayarbaatar, Jerrold L. Belant, Alessandra Bertassoni, Dean Beyer, Laura Bidner, Floris M. van Beest, Stephen Blake, Niels Blaum, Chloe Bracis, Danielle Brown, P. J. Nico de Bruyn, Francesca Cagnacci, J.M. Calabrese, Constança Camilo-Alves, Simon Chamaillé-Jammes, Andre Chiaradia, Sarah C. Davidson, Todd Dennis, Stephen DeStefano, Duane R. Diefenbach, Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Julian Fennessy, Claudia Fichtel, Wolfgang Fiedler, Christina Fischer, Ilya Fischhoff, Christen H. Fleming, Adam T. Ford, Susanne A. Fritz, Benedikt Gehr, Jacob R. Goheen, Eliezer Gurarie, Mark Hebblewhite, Marco Heurich, A. J. Mark Hewison, Christian Hof, Edward Hurme, Lynne A. Isbell, René Janssen, Florian Jeltsch, Petra Kaczensky, Adam Kane, Peter M. Kappeler, Matthew J. Kauffman, Roland Kays, Duncan Kimuyu, Flavia Koch, Bart Kranstauber, Scott LaPoint, Peter Leimgruber, John D. C. Linnell, Pascual López-López, A. Catherine Markham, Jenny Mattisson, Emilia Patricia Medici, Ugo Mellone, E. Merrill, Guilherme de Miranda Mourão, Ronaldo G. Morato, Nicolas Morellet, Thomas A. Morrison, Samuel L. Díaz-Muñoz, Atle Mysterud, Dejid Nandintsetseg, Ran Nathan, Aidin Niamir, John Odden, Robert B. O'Hara, Luiz G. R. Oliveira-Santos, Kirk A. Olson, Bruce D. Patterson, Rogerio Cunha de Paula, Luca Pedrotti, Björn Reineking, Martin Rimmler, T. L. Rogers, Christer Moe Rolandsen, Christopher S. Rosenberry, Daniel I. Rubenstein, Kamran Safi, Sonia Saïd, Nir Sapir, Hall Sawyer, Niels Martin Schmidt, Nuria Selva, Agnieszka Sergiel, Enkhtuvshin Shiilegdamba, João Paulo Silva, N. Singh, Erling J. Solberg, Orr Spiegel, Olav Strand, S.R. Sundaresan, Wiebke Ullmann, Ulrich Voigt, J. Wall, David W. Wattles, Martin Wikelski, Christopher C. Wilmers, John W. Wilson, George Wittemyer, Filip Zięba, Tomasz Zwijacz-Kozica, Thomas Mueller
Diel predator activity drives a dynamic landscape of fear
A “landscape of fear” (LOF) is a map that describes continuous spatial variation in an animal's perception of predation risk. The relief on this map reflects, for example, places that an animal avoids to minimize risk. Although the LOF concept is a potentially unifying theme in ecology that is often invoked to explain the ecological and conservation significance of fear, little is known about the
Authors
Michel T. Kohl, Daniel R. Stahler, Matthew C. Metz, James D. Forester, Matthew J. Kauffman, Nathan Varley, P.J. White, Douglas W. Smith, Daniel R. MacNulty
State-dependent behavior alters endocrine–energy relationship: Implications for conservation and management
Glucocorticoids (GC) and triiodothyronine (T3) are two endocrine markers commonly used to quantify resource limitation, yet the relationships between these markers and the energetic state of animals has been studied primarily in small-bodied species in captivity. Free-ranging animals, however, adjust energy intake in accordance with their energy reserves, a behavior known as state-dependent foragi
Authors
Brett R. Jesmer, Jacob R. Goheen, Kevin L. Monteith, Matthew J. Kauffman
Linking spring phenology with mechanistic models of host movement to predict disease transmission risk
Disease models typically focus on temporal dynamics of infection, while often neglecting environmental processes that determine host movement. In many systems, however, temporal disease dynamics may be slow compared to the scale at which environmental conditions alter host space-use and accelerate disease transmission.Using a mechanistic movement modelling approach, we made space-use predictions o
Authors
Jerod Merkle, Paul C. Cross, Brandon M. Scurlock, Eric Cole, Alyson B. Courtemanch, Sarah Dewey, Matthew J. Kauffman
Endemic chronic wasting disease causes mule deer population decline in Wyoming
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy affecting white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni), and moose (Alces alces shirasi) in North America. In southeastern Wyoming average annual CWD prevalence in mule deer exceeds 20% and appears to contribute to regional population declines.
Authors
Melia DeVivo, David R. Edmunds, Matthew J. Kauffman, Brant A. Schumaker, Justin Binfet, Terry J. Kreeger, Bryan J. Richards, Hermann M. Schatzl, Todd Cornish
The greenscape shapes surfing of resource waves in a large migratory herbivore
The Green Wave Hypothesis posits that herbivore migration manifests in response to waves of spring green-up (i.e. green-wave surfing). Nonetheless, empirical support for the Green Wave Hypothesis is mixed, and a framework for understanding variation in surfing is lacking. In a population of migratory mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), 31% surfed plant phenology in spring as well as a theoretically p
Authors
Ellen O. Aikens, Matthew J. Kauffman, Jerod Merkle, Samantha P.H. Dwinnell, Gary L. Fralick, Kevin L. Monteith
Alternative foraging strategies enable a mountain ungulate to persist after migration loss
The persistence of many migratory ungulate populations worldwide is threatened due to anthropogenic impacts to seasonal ranges and migration routes. While many studies have linked migratory ungulate declines to migration disruption or loss, very few have explored the underlying factors that determine whether a population perishes or persists. In some cases, populations undergo severe declines and
Authors
Alyson B. Courtemanch, Matthew J. Kauffman, Steve Kilpatrick, Sarah Dewey
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 89
Integrating physiological stress into the movement ecology of migratory ungulates: A spatial analysis with mule deer
Rapid climate and human land-use change may limit the ability of long-distance migratory herbivores to optimally track or “surf” high-quality forage during spring green-up. Understanding how anthropogenic and environmental stressors influence migratory movements is of critical importance because of their potential to cause a mismatch between the timing of animal movements and the emergence of hig
Authors
David S. Jachowski, Matthew Kauffman, Brett R. Jesmer, Hall Sawyer, Joshua J. Millspaugh
Green‐wave surfing increases fat gain in a migratory ungulate
Each spring, migratory herbivores around the world track or ‘surf’ green waves of newly emergent vegetation to distant summer or wet‐season ranges. This foraging tactic may help explain the great abundance of migratory herbivores on many seasonal landscapes. However, the underlying fitness benefits of this life‐history strategy remain poorly understood. A fundamental prediction of the green‐wave h
Authors
Arthur D. Middleton, Jerod Merkle, Douglas E. McWhirter, John G. Cook, Rachel C. Cook, P.J. White, Matthew J. Kauffman
U.S. Geological Survey science for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative—2016 annual report
This is the ninth annual report highlighting U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) science and decision-support activities conducted for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI). The activities address specific management needs identified by WLCI partner agencies. In fiscal year (FY) 2016, there were 26 active USGS WLCI science-based projects. Of these 26 projects, one project was new for FY20
Authors
Zachary H. Bowen, Ellen Aikens, Cameron L. Aldridge, Patrick J. Anderson, Timothy J. Assal, Anna D. Chalfoun, Geneva W. Chong, Cheryl A. Eddy-Miller, Steven L. Garman, Steve Germaine, Collin G. Homer, Aaron N. Johnston, Matthew J. Kauffman, Daniel J. Manier, Cynthia P. Melcher, Kirk A. Miller, Annika W. Walters, Jerrod D. Wheeler, Daniel J. Wieferich, Anna B. Wilson, Teal B. Wyckoff, Linda Zeigenfuss
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area, Science Synthesis, Analysis and Research Program, Land Management Research Program, Science Analytics and Synthesis (SAS) Program, Species Management Research Program, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center , Fort Collins Science Center, Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center, Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, Wyoming-Montana Water Science Center
Factors influencing elk recruitment across ecotypes in the Western United States
Ungulates are key components in ecosystems and economically important for sport and subsistence harvest. Yet the relative importance of the effects of weather conditions, forage productivity, and carnivores on ungulates are not well understood. We examined changes in elk (Cervus canadensis) recruitment (indexed as age ratios) across 7 states and 3 ecotypes in the northwestern United States during
Authors
Paul M. Lukacs, Michael S. Mitchell, Mark Hebblewhite, Bruce K. Johnson, Heather E. Johnson, Matthew J. Kauffman, Kelly M. Proffitt, Peter Zager, Jedediah Brodie, Kent Hersey, A. Andrew Holland, Mark Hurley, Scott McCorquodale, Arthur Middleton, Matthew Nordhagen, J. Joshua Nowak, Daniel P. Walsh, P.J. White
Demographic drivers of a refugee species: Large‐scale experiments guide strategies for reintroductions of hirola
Effective reintroduction strategies require accurate estimates of vital rates and the factors that influence them. The hirola (Beatragus hunteri) is the rarest antelope on Earth, with a global population size of <500 individuals restricted to the Kenya–Somali border. We estimated vital rates of hirola populations exposed to varying levels of predation and rangeland quality from 2012 to 2015, and t
Authors
Abdullahi H. Ali, Matthew J. Kauffman, Rajan Amin, Amos Kibara, Juliet King, David P. Mallon, Charles Musyoki, Jacob R. Goheen
Moving in the Anthropocene: Global reductions in terrestrial mammalian movements
Animal movement is fundamental for ecosystem functioning and species survival, yet the effects of the anthropogenic footprint on animal movements have not been estimated across species. Using a unique GPS-tracking database of 803 individuals across 57 species, we found that movements of mammals in areas with a comparatively high human footprint were on average one-half to one-third the extent of t
Authors
Marlee A. Tucker, Katrin Böhning-Gaese, William F. Fagan, John Fryxell, Bram Van Moorter, Susan C Alberts, Abdullahi H. Ali, Andrew M. Allen, Nina Attias, Tal Avgar, Hattie Bartlam-Brooks, Buuveibaatar Bayarbaatar, Jerrold L. Belant, Alessandra Bertassoni, Dean Beyer, Laura Bidner, Floris M. van Beest, Stephen Blake, Niels Blaum, Chloe Bracis, Danielle Brown, P. J. Nico de Bruyn, Francesca Cagnacci, J.M. Calabrese, Constança Camilo-Alves, Simon Chamaillé-Jammes, Andre Chiaradia, Sarah C. Davidson, Todd Dennis, Stephen DeStefano, Duane R. Diefenbach, Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Julian Fennessy, Claudia Fichtel, Wolfgang Fiedler, Christina Fischer, Ilya Fischhoff, Christen H. Fleming, Adam T. Ford, Susanne A. Fritz, Benedikt Gehr, Jacob R. Goheen, Eliezer Gurarie, Mark Hebblewhite, Marco Heurich, A. J. Mark Hewison, Christian Hof, Edward Hurme, Lynne A. Isbell, René Janssen, Florian Jeltsch, Petra Kaczensky, Adam Kane, Peter M. Kappeler, Matthew J. Kauffman, Roland Kays, Duncan Kimuyu, Flavia Koch, Bart Kranstauber, Scott LaPoint, Peter Leimgruber, John D. C. Linnell, Pascual López-López, A. Catherine Markham, Jenny Mattisson, Emilia Patricia Medici, Ugo Mellone, E. Merrill, Guilherme de Miranda Mourão, Ronaldo G. Morato, Nicolas Morellet, Thomas A. Morrison, Samuel L. Díaz-Muñoz, Atle Mysterud, Dejid Nandintsetseg, Ran Nathan, Aidin Niamir, John Odden, Robert B. O'Hara, Luiz G. R. Oliveira-Santos, Kirk A. Olson, Bruce D. Patterson, Rogerio Cunha de Paula, Luca Pedrotti, Björn Reineking, Martin Rimmler, T. L. Rogers, Christer Moe Rolandsen, Christopher S. Rosenberry, Daniel I. Rubenstein, Kamran Safi, Sonia Saïd, Nir Sapir, Hall Sawyer, Niels Martin Schmidt, Nuria Selva, Agnieszka Sergiel, Enkhtuvshin Shiilegdamba, João Paulo Silva, N. Singh, Erling J. Solberg, Orr Spiegel, Olav Strand, S.R. Sundaresan, Wiebke Ullmann, Ulrich Voigt, J. Wall, David W. Wattles, Martin Wikelski, Christopher C. Wilmers, John W. Wilson, George Wittemyer, Filip Zięba, Tomasz Zwijacz-Kozica, Thomas Mueller
Diel predator activity drives a dynamic landscape of fear
A “landscape of fear” (LOF) is a map that describes continuous spatial variation in an animal's perception of predation risk. The relief on this map reflects, for example, places that an animal avoids to minimize risk. Although the LOF concept is a potentially unifying theme in ecology that is often invoked to explain the ecological and conservation significance of fear, little is known about the
Authors
Michel T. Kohl, Daniel R. Stahler, Matthew C. Metz, James D. Forester, Matthew J. Kauffman, Nathan Varley, P.J. White, Douglas W. Smith, Daniel R. MacNulty
State-dependent behavior alters endocrine–energy relationship: Implications for conservation and management
Glucocorticoids (GC) and triiodothyronine (T3) are two endocrine markers commonly used to quantify resource limitation, yet the relationships between these markers and the energetic state of animals has been studied primarily in small-bodied species in captivity. Free-ranging animals, however, adjust energy intake in accordance with their energy reserves, a behavior known as state-dependent foragi
Authors
Brett R. Jesmer, Jacob R. Goheen, Kevin L. Monteith, Matthew J. Kauffman
Linking spring phenology with mechanistic models of host movement to predict disease transmission risk
Disease models typically focus on temporal dynamics of infection, while often neglecting environmental processes that determine host movement. In many systems, however, temporal disease dynamics may be slow compared to the scale at which environmental conditions alter host space-use and accelerate disease transmission.Using a mechanistic movement modelling approach, we made space-use predictions o
Authors
Jerod Merkle, Paul C. Cross, Brandon M. Scurlock, Eric Cole, Alyson B. Courtemanch, Sarah Dewey, Matthew J. Kauffman
Endemic chronic wasting disease causes mule deer population decline in Wyoming
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy affecting white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni), and moose (Alces alces shirasi) in North America. In southeastern Wyoming average annual CWD prevalence in mule deer exceeds 20% and appears to contribute to regional population declines.
Authors
Melia DeVivo, David R. Edmunds, Matthew J. Kauffman, Brant A. Schumaker, Justin Binfet, Terry J. Kreeger, Bryan J. Richards, Hermann M. Schatzl, Todd Cornish
The greenscape shapes surfing of resource waves in a large migratory herbivore
The Green Wave Hypothesis posits that herbivore migration manifests in response to waves of spring green-up (i.e. green-wave surfing). Nonetheless, empirical support for the Green Wave Hypothesis is mixed, and a framework for understanding variation in surfing is lacking. In a population of migratory mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), 31% surfed plant phenology in spring as well as a theoretically p
Authors
Ellen O. Aikens, Matthew J. Kauffman, Jerod Merkle, Samantha P.H. Dwinnell, Gary L. Fralick, Kevin L. Monteith
Alternative foraging strategies enable a mountain ungulate to persist after migration loss
The persistence of many migratory ungulate populations worldwide is threatened due to anthropogenic impacts to seasonal ranges and migration routes. While many studies have linked migratory ungulate declines to migration disruption or loss, very few have explored the underlying factors that determine whether a population perishes or persists. In some cases, populations undergo severe declines and
Authors
Alyson B. Courtemanch, Matthew J. Kauffman, Steve Kilpatrick, Sarah Dewey