Dr. David S. Jachowski, Associate Professor

David Jachowski is an Associate Professor of Wildlife Ecology in the Department of Forestry Environmental Conservation at Clemson University.  His research explores how environmental change is impacting wildlife populations, and our ability to manage and restore them.  In addition to research close to home in the southeastern US, David created and directs the Clemson University Prairie Ecology Lab located in the Northern Great Plains, where he has worked as a federal biologist and now researcher for the past 23 years.  He is also active internationally, conducting research in South Africa since 2007, and having served as  US Peace Corps Volunteer and visiting scientist in the Philippines.

Affiliations:
Dr. Jachowski can be reached via email at:  djachow@clemson.edu

Stephen Harris, Research Coordinator / Lab Manager

​Stephen is originally from Florida and has spent much of his life in the Sunshine State. He has always enjoyed the outdoors and has had a strong interest in wildlife since he was a child. In 2012 Stephen graduated from the University of Florida with his B.S. in Wildlife Ecology & Conservation. In the time since, he has traveled around the country and worked on a multitude of wildlife research projects. He has worked with many different taxa, from giant salamanders and gopher tortoises to fox squirrels and songbirds. He is passionate about wildlife conservation and always loves to learn about the natural world around him. Stephen earned his MS at Clemson University studying the ecology of eastern spotted skunks in the dry prairies of central Florida.  Currently, as lab manager, Stephen assists on a variety of research projects.

Elizabeth Saldo, Research Associate

Elizabeth grew up in Los Angeles County and became fascinated with wildlife by exploring the Santa Monica Mountains. She pursued this interest at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, graduating in 2015 with a BS in Biological Sciences and a concentration in Field and Wildlife Biology. An internship monitoring endangered ocelots in South Texas then led to a string of positions focused on carnivores, most notably mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, and endangered black-footed ferrets. Through later positions working with deer and bighorn sheep, she also became enthusiastic about ungulate research. Elizabeth earned her MS from Clemson University in 2022 by studying wild pig influences on other wildlife in the Piedmont region of South Carolina. She is currently assisting with multiple projects within the lab as a full-time research associate.

Graduate Students

Graduate students in the lab are encouraged to conduct sound, applied, collaborative science that both addresses the needs of partners and allows the student to develop their own unique interests and questions.  The overall goal is to help students develop the skill sets that will set them up to excel in their future careers.  To achieve this, students are encouraged to take themselves seriously, while also leaving their egos at the door and remaining humble and open to new ideas from diverse perspectives.  In general we learn from, challenge and support each other as we attempt to address a variety of pressing conservation issues.  On campus, in addition to collaborating within the lab, we often collaborate with colleagues within our department, as well as the interdisciplinary Clemson Ecology Group and Clemson Institute for Parks. 

Alex Jensen, PhD Candidate

​​Alex is studying coyote ecology in South Carolina for his PhD research. The overall goal is to better understand the top-down effects of coyotes in relation to prey species and smaller carnivores. To this end, Alex is using GPS collars, camera traps, and scat surveys to quantify coyote resource selection, behavior, and diet. More generally, Alex is passionate about conducting robust science to better understand how wildlife and people can best coexist in a rapidly changing world. He thinks it’s critical to make his findings digestible for everyone, which is why he sets time aside for outreach, both in person and through his YouTube channel. Alex also thinks that diversity, equity, and inclusion are important topics to talk about and work towards improving in Wildlife and Conservation. Alex can be reached through email at ajense2@clemson.edu, and more information can be found at his website here.

Meghan Keating, PhD student

Meghan is a PhD student studying coastal bobcat ecology in the southeastern U.S., with a focus on non-target anticoagulant rodenticide exposure. Her research aims to shed light on bobcat populations across islands with differing levels of human development, including comparisons of survival, movement patterns, and prey composition. Meghan earned her B.S. in Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology at Colorado State University, after which she spent three years as a field technician at the USGS’s Western Ecological Research Center focusing on duckling brood pond use and survival, and mesopredator interactions with nesting waterfowl. She earned her M.S. at the University of Nevada, Reno, by developing statistical models to describe the ecological drivers of animal movement. She is passionate about collaborative research, strong methodology, and mesopredator conservation. More information can be found on her website, and feel free to reach out if you are a current or aspiring researcher!

Mike Muthersbaugh, PhD Candidate

​Originally from upstate New York, Mike graduated from Gordon College in 2012 with a B.S. in Biology. Shortly thereafter, Mike worked as an ecotourism guide on the Georgia coast before acquiring a graduate position at Virginia Tech. His M.S. research focused on the fall and spring ecology of bats in the central Appalachians, including threatened and endangered species impacted by white-nose syndrome, as well as migratory species impacted by wind energy development. For his PhD research at Clemson, Mike is studying the ecology of white-tailed deer in the piedmont of South Carolina. This research aims to provide insight into doe-fawn movement patterns and improve our current understanding of fawn mortality. The results of this study will help to inform deer management in the upstate region of South Carolina.   

Dana Nelson, PhD Student

​Dana grew up on a family farm in Kansas and earned a B.S. in Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology at Kansas State University.  She earned a M.S. degree in Wildlife Science at Purdue University, where she used spatial capture-recapture methods to learn about small mammal population responses to forest management.  Dana has coordinated and conducted fieldwork on a variety of small mammals and mesocarnivores since 2013, including a role managing recovery efforts for black-footed ferrets in Wyoming.  She is passionate about conservation of grassland ecosystems and is motivated to conduct collaborative, applied research that benefits prairie wildlife management and conservation decisions.  For her dissertation, Dana is studying movements, habitat relationships, and demography of swift foxes reintroduced to the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana.  

Brianna Pruitt, MS student

Brianna has been passionate for wildlife and the outdoors her entire life. Growing up in the middle of the Great Smoky Mountains gave her endless opportunities to enjoy unspoiled nature and observe wildlife in its natural habitat. Those experiences fostered her love and respect for the natural world. After graduating high school, Brianna pursued a degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Management with minors in Forestry and Watershed at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, graduating in 2021. Most of her field work has been as a volunteer with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian Fish and Wildlife department and in her classes at UT, especially in the Fall Camp they offer. Her experience ranged from collecting data and taking samples from white-tailed deer in East Tennessee to identify Chronic Wasting Disease to surveying for Hellbenders with the EBCI Fish and Wildlife in the waters of North Carolina's Great Smoky Mountains. Brianna has a wide range of interests, but her greatest ones are the conservation of native species and the preservation of their environments. As an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians she hopes her research will also benefit the management of tribal lands. It's important for her work to honor the Cherokee heritage that fostered her fundamental belief that humanity should coexist with nature and inspires her to find ways to protect them and their natural habitats while doing the least harm possible to all. ​

Eduardo Rosales, MS Student

​Eduardo grew up in Allentown, PA and earned an A.S. in Environmental Science at Northampton Community College before moving on and earning a B.S. in the same field at California University of Pennsylvania. Throughout his career he has had the opportunity to work with many taxa ranging from birds, squirrels, deer, salamanders, to even butterflies. His stints with the U.S. Forest Service have taken him from the Monongahela, to the Huron-Manistee National Forests. His M.S. now brings him to the Sumter National Forest where he studies the ecology of Tri-colored bats in northwestern South Carolina. He hopes to gain new conservation and management strategies in order to help the Tricolored bat combat white-nose syndrome.

Keifer Titus, PhD Candidate

​Keifer grew up in southwestern Virginia and received his B.S. in Environmental Biology with a minor in Geospatial Science from Radford University in 2016. While at Radford, Keifer worked with a variety of taxa including endangered bats, crested anole lizards, and small Indian-mongoose. Following his B.S., Keifer began an M.S. in Biology with a minor in GIScience at Ball State University in Indiana. His thesis research focused on the community level impacts of various timber harvesting techniques on bat populations in southern Indiana. This work was a part of a 100-year ecological study known as the Hardwood Ecosystem Experiment. For his PhD research at Clemson, Keifer is studying carnivore coexistence in the Northern Great Plains of Montana. Keifer enjoys hunting, climbing, and playing guitar in his free time. More information about Keifer and his research can be found here. 

Lab Alumni

Post-doctoral Fellows
Courtney Marneweck, Post-doctoral Fellow (2019-2021).  Currently the Conservation Science Data Coordinator for the Giraffe Conservation Foundation.

Sara Bombaci, Post-doctoral Fellow (2018-2019). Currently an Assistant Professor at Colorado State University.
Graduate students
Elizabeth Saldo, MS (2019-2022), "Effects of wild pigs and supplemental feeding on wildlife in the piedmont region of South Carolina."  Currently a research associate with University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Anna Siegfried, MS (2019-2021), "Mesopredator detection and eastern spotted skunk den site selection."  Currently a Law Enforcement Officer with the U.S. Forest Service.

Sze Wing Yu, MS (2018-2021), "American bison impacts on riparian and wallow vegetation communities."  Currently a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Kyle Shute, MS (2018-2020), "Habitat relationships of bat species of conservation concern in coastal South Carolina."  Currently a biologist with the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy.

Laura Gigliotti, PhD (2015-2020), "Individual, population and community-level drivers of cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) population dynamics."  Currently an Assistant Unit Leader of the West Virginia Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit (USGS).

Blaise Newman, MS (2018-2020), "Winter torpor and roosting ecology of tri-colored bats (Perimyotis subflavus) in trees and bridges."  Currently a PhD student at University of Georgia.

Andrew Butler, MS (2016-2019), "Behavior and population ecology of swift fox in northeastern Montana."  Currently a PhD student at University of New Hampshire.

Pallavi Sirajuddin, MS (2016-2018), "Vulnerability of tri-colored bats (Perimyotis subflavus) to white-nose syndrome in the southeastern United States."  Currently a Bat Biologist/Field Coordinator for Western EcoSystems Technology.

Katie Teets, MS (2016-2018), "Assessment of Data Collection Techniques and White-nose Syndrome effects on Bat Communities of South Carolina."  Currently a biologist with Florida Fish and Wildlife Resources Commission.

Stephen Harris, MS (2016-2018), "Florida spotted skunks in a dry prairie ecosystem."  Currently the Lab Research Coordinator at Clemson University.

Robin Eng, MS (2015-2018), "Eastern spotted skunk occupancy and rest site selection in hardwood forests of the southern Appalachians"  Currently an Ecologist with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy.

Jennifer Froehly, MS (2016-2018), "Loggerhead shrike habitat selection in South Carolina."  Currently a biologist with US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Ben Neece, MS (2015-2017), "North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABAT) in South Carolina: acoustic detection and landscape occupancy by bats."   Currently the Southeast Bat Hub Coordinator.

​Nic McMillan, MS (2015-2017), "Plant community responses to bison reintroduction within Montana's Northern Great Plains."  Currently an Assistant Professor of Grazing Lands Ecology at University of Nebraska - Lincoln.

Shefali Azad, MS (2014-2016), "Population dynamics of black bears in northwestern South Carolina."  Currently with Archbold Biological Station.

Undergraduate Researchers

Each year we have 15-25 undergraduates undertake independent or collaborative research projects with our lab.  Currently this involves 3-4 dedicated "Creative Inquiry" courses that lab members runs each semester.  More information on these courses and how to get involved in our research can be found under the "Prospective Students" tab..