Hello! My name is Chloe Moore. I’m from Atlanta, Georgia. I graduated from the University of Georgia in December of 2015 with a Bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Science. At UGA I had the opportunity to work on my own research and I can easily say it was my favorite part of undergrad.

My research focused on environmental DNA and hellbenders, the largest species of salamander in North America. I collected all my data during the summer before graduation and I had the opportunity to snorkel streams, help hellbenders, and even look for some other herpetofauna along the way (including the rainbow snake in the picture)! This opportunity was a major learning experience for me and helped me narrow down my goals for future careers, which now includes contributing to conservation with genetic research.

Following graduation I decided to take a gap year so that I could discover more opportunities to narrow down my career path while gaining valuable field skills. At the beginning of the year I interned at Brookhaven National Laboratory where I was able to learn how to do a variety of things including small mammal trapping, fox camera trapping, and box turtle radio telemetry. My favorite experience was surveying for tiger salamanders because I got to work with an entirely new species of salamander I had never worked with before. During the summer I had another great opportunity to work with hellbenders, helping out in North Carolina with various population surveys.

I am very excited and grateful to start working at St. Mark’s and learning new skills and perspectives I have never experienced before. St. Mark’s will be the perfect internship for me to prepare for graduate school and beyond with all of the opportunities that are offered as part of this internship. Thank you for giving me this chance to continue finding my path as a wildlife biologist!