Hello! My name is Aubrey LaBarre, and I’m excited to be working at St. Marks as a fall Biological Intern! I am originally from a suburb of Dallas, Texas, and I graduated from Montana State University with a Bachelor’s in Organismal (Wildlife) Biology in 2017. While in college, I split my time between two wildlife internships. In the winter, I implemented audio recording instruments in various locations of Yellowstone National Park to record canine vocalizations. I then analyzed the data via Raven software and isolated coyote and wolf howls and calls for research on canine behavior and communication complexity. In the spring and fall, I organized photos and data from kill sites of Zambian large carnivores and mapped them out via arcGIS to determine the highest density of lions, hyenas, and African wild dogs. I spent two weeks in the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica learning different data collection techniques, from primate population densities and behavioral surveys to habitat condition analysis to avian biometrics. 

Since graduating, I’ve been fortunate enough to work with an array of wildlife. I’ve hiked transects in the Mojave desert to find the threatened desert tortoise and tagged individuals I found, implemented protocols for mosquito, beetle, and leaf litter collection for a climate change study in interior Alaska, and rehabilitated grey and common (harbor) seal pups in Ireland. Last summer, I located spotted owl nests and assisted with least chipmunk and Sacramento salamander population surveys at the Lincoln National Forest in southern New Mexico. This past year, I tracked (via telemetry) and performed health check-ups on California condors and recorded their behaviors during mating season, and this summer I located and inventoried loggerhead sea turtle nests at Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge in South Carolina. 

I’ve had so many incredible opportunities throughout my career, and I’m wholeheartedly thankful for every one of them, especially this internship with St. Marks, where I’ve been able to safely and effectively continue to do what I love - observing, monitoring, and protecting wildlife - in spite of the current COVID-19 crisis. I can’t wait to band red-cockaded woodpeckers, capture and tag flatwood salamanders, and assist the refuge and its staff in any way I can!