FW670
Wildlife Ecology Modeling
(Fall 2026)

Course Stuff

Schedule Course Overview

Readings: Come prepared to discuss the assigned reading on the next class after the readings were assigned.

  • What was interesting and useful? What did not make sense? What did you disagree with? What did you learn? Bring points to highlight and bring questions (make a list). Check each week’s link to see if there are listed reading questions.

Labs: are started in class on the day they are listed under and any relevant lab assignment is due one week later, unless otherwise stated.

Schedule

Week Day Date Lecture Topic Assignments Readings Background Materials
1 Mo 24-Aug Class Intro Discussion Post Zitomer et al. 2022; Wolcott et al. 2019
  Fr 28-Aug Big Picture Lab 1: Sampling Betts et al. 2022; Dumelle et al. 2021; Williams and Brown 2019 Shmueli 2010; Arif and MacNeil 2022
2 Mo 31-Aug Probability Functions Probability Quiz Kery and Kellner Ch. 2.0-2.4 Hobbs and Hooten Ch.3; Bolker Ch. 4
  Fr 4-Sep Probability Functions Lab 2: Simulation & Prob. Functions Dushoff et al. 2019; Fieberg, Ch. 1.10; Kery and Kellner Ch. 2.5-2.6 Fieberg Ch. 1 and 10; Bolker Ch. 6 and 7; Zurr et al. Ch. 2
3 Mo 7-Sep
  Fr 11-Sep Likelihood / Optimization /Regression Lab 3: Regression Fieberg Ch. 14
4 Mo 14-Sep GLM I Zurr and Iano, 2016
  Fr 18-Sep GLM II Lab 4: GLM Fieberg, Ch. 8; Tredennick et al. 2021
Week 5 Mo 21-Sep Modeling Strategies Gelman and Hill Ch. 11 and 12
  Fr 25-Sep Hierarchical Models / GLMM Lab 5: GLMM Kery and Kellner Ch. 2.7-2.10
Week 6 Mo 28-Sep Bayesian Inference Ellison 2004 Hobbs and Hooten Ch.5.;Fieberg Ch. 11 & 12
  Fr 2-Oct Bayesian Inference and Computation Lab 6: Bayes;
Bayes Quiz		 Kurz, 2023
Week 7 Mo 5-Oct Hierarchical Bayesian
  Fr 9-Oct Hierarchical Bayesian Lab 7 Widmer et al 2021; Guillera-Arroita et al. 2015 Soley-Guardia et al. 2024; Valavi et al. 2021
Week 8 Mo 12-Oct Species Distribution Modeling Kery and Schaub Ch 7
  Fr 16-Oct Mark Recapture Lab 8: CJS Royle et al. 2018
Week 9 Mo 19-Oct Spatial Capture Recapture Kery and Schaub Ch 13
  Fr 23-Oct Hierarchical Bayesian Occupancy Lab 9:
HB Occu.		 Zipkin and Saunders 2018; Zipkin et al. 2021; Powell and Gale Ch 18
Week 10 Mo 26-Oct N-Mixture and Integrated Data Models McCaffery et al. 2016; Kery and Kellner Ch20
  Fr 30-Oct Integrated Data Models Lab 10: ISDM Wittemyer et al. 2019; Huggler et al. 2022
Week 11 Mo 2-Nov Animal Movement Nathan et al 2008 and 2022; Signer et al 2018; and more
  Fr 6-Nov Animal Movement Lab 11: AMT;
Nothing to submit		 Smith et al. 2022; Northrup et al. 2022
Week 12 Mo 9-Nov Habitat Selection Draft guidance paper
  Fr 13-Nov Habitat Selection Lab 12: HabSel Wright et al 2020
Week 13 Mo 16-Nov Community Modeling
  Fr 20-Nov Lab 13:
Week 14 Mo 23-Nov No Class
  Fr 27-Nov No Class
15 Mo 30-Nov Group Project work
  Fr 4-Dec Group Project work
Week 16 Mo 3-Dec Present Group Project
  Fr 6-Dec Present Group Project