Tom Morrison

Tom Morrison

Tom Morrison

Tom has general interests in demography, plant-herbivore interactions, disease ecology and animal movement. He is currently a Research Fellow at the Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, where he studies migratory wildebeest and zebra in the Greater Serengeti Ecosystem, East Africa. While at the Coop, Tom worked with Matt Kauffman modelling ungulate population monitoring data, in collaboration with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and bighorn sheep habitat selection and demography with Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. Between 2012 and 2014 he studied savannah tree dynamics in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania with Michael Anderson of Wake Forest University. Tom’s Ph.D. dissertation, under Doug Bolger in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology program at Dartmouth College, examined patterns of spatial demography and site fidelity in a declining population of wildebeest in Northern Tanzania (the Tarangire Ecosystem, Tanzania). This project used a non-invasive photographic identification software program (Wild-ID) developed at Dartmouth to individually identify wildebeest by their shoulder stripe patterns.

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Publications

See tom’s google scholar profile

 

(publications in conjunction with WY Coop Unit)

Morrison TA, Merkle J, Hopcraft JGC, Aikens EO, Beck JL, Boone RB, Courtemanch A, Dwinnell SP, Fairbanks WS, Griffith B, Middleton AD, Monteith KL, Oates B, Riotte-Lambert L, Sawyer H, Smith K, Stabach JA, Taylor KL, Kauffman MJ. Drivers of site fidelity in ungulates. 2021. Journal of Animal Ecology, 90, 4, 955-966.

Kauffman et al. (91 co-authors). Mapping out a future for ungulate migrations. 2021. Science, 372, 6542, 566-569.

Bond M, Bradley C, Kiffner C, Morrison TA, Lee D. 2017. A multi-method approach to delineate and validate migratory corridors. Landscape Ecology. 32 (8), 1705-1721.

Morrison TA, Link W, Newmark W, Foley C, Bolger DT. 2016. Tarangire revisited: population consequences of loss of migratory connectivity in a tropical ungulate. Biological Conservation. 197, 53-60.

Morrison TA, Keinath D, Zumpf-Estes W, Crall J & Stewart C. 2016. Individual identification of the endangered Wyoming Toad Anaxyrus baxteri and implications for monitoring species recovery. Journal of Herpetology, 15, 44-49.

Morrison TA & Bolger DT. 2014. Connectivity and bottlenecks in a migratory wildebeest population. Oryx, 48, 613-621.

Sawyer H, Kauffman MJ, Middleton AD, Morrison TA, Nielson, RM & Wyckoff, TB. 2013. A framework for understanding semi-permeable barrier effects on migratory ungulates. Journal of Applied Ecology, 50, 68-78.

Middleton AD, Morrison TA, Fortin JK, Kauffman MJ, Robbins CT, Proffitt KM, White PJ, McWhirter DE, Koel TM, Brimeyer D & Fairbanks WS. 2013. Grizzly bears link non-native trout to migratory elk in Yellowstone. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 280: 20130870.

Bendik NF, Morrison TA, Gluesenkamp AG, O’Donnell LO & Sander M. 2013. Computer-assisted photo identification outperforms visible implant elastomers in a threatened Eurycea salamander. PlosOne, 8, 1-9.

Scholarships & Fellowships

2012: Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Excellence in Wildlife Conservation Award
2009: Switzer Fellowship, Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation
2009: Wildebeat Interactive Digital Art (co-creator), Neukom Institute
2009: Tarangire migration corridor research (Map); WCS-Tarangire Elephant Project, Tembo Foundation
2008: Earthwatch Institute: Saving the Tarangire Migration
2008: NSF Biological Instruments grant (co-authored proposal)
2008: Dartmouth Arts and Sciences Graduate Alumni Research Award
2008: Dartmouth NASA Space Grant, student award
2007: Ecological Society of America, Graduate Student Policy Award
2006: Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Research Fellowship Program

Projects