Description: Conservation | Advocacy | Research | Education
Aspen joined the Whidbey Island Research Station (WIRS) as part of the Murdock Grant and the Pacific Research Institute in Science and Mathematics (PRISM) in May of 2021. There, she provided field support in collecting samples, data collection, entry, and logistics toward the project, “Seasonal Variability in Glucocorticoids Among Latrining River Otters ( Lontra canadensis ) of Whidbey Island, Washington,” a project to be presented at the PRISM Conferenc e in November of 2021 and at the Western Psychologica
This May concluded with river otter specimen collection on Whidbey Island. Aspen Shirley, a post-Bacc Pacific University student joined me at the Whidbey Island Research Station (WIRS) for a week, thanks to the Pacific University Murdock Grant.
We collected marine foraging river otter fecal and jelly samples from around the Island, charted behavioral movements and presence and met up with wildlife photographer, Ty Kent at Port Townsend. Ty has had an excellent run of otter activity near Fort Warden at low tide this spring. Since our behavioral data collection and photographic luck on Whidbey was a lot of verbal exchanges like this one,