FW670
Wildlife Ecology Modeling
(Fall 2026)

Course Stuff

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	Tu	25-Aug	Class Intro	Discussion Post	Zitomer et al. 2022; Wolcott et al. 2019	Rafiq et al. 2025; Ellison and Dennis 2010
	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	Tu	1-Sep	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	Tu	8-Sep	Likelihood and Optimization	Fieberg Ch. 1
	Fr	11-Sep	Regression	Lab 3: Regression	Fieberg Ch. 14
4	Tu	15-Sep	GLM I		Zurr and Iano, 2016
	Fr	18-Sep	GLM II	Lab 4: GLM	Fieberg, Ch. 8; Tredennick et al. 2021
5	Tu	22-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
6	Tu	29-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
7	Tu	6-Oct	Hierarchical Bayesian
	Fr	9-Oct	Hierarchical Bayesian	Lab 7: HBayes	Student Assigned
8	Tu	13-Oct	Hierarchical Bayesian		Betts et al. 2020, 2022; Latif et al. 2024
	Fr	16-Oct	Dr. Latif and Betts Discussion	Discussion Post	Student Paper and Kery and Schaub Ch13 (sections 13.1 to 13.4)
9	Tu	20-Oct	Hierarchical Bayesian Occupancy
	Fr	23-Oct	Hierarchical Bayesian Occupancy	Lab 8: HB Occu.	Student Assigned & Guillera-Arroita et al. 2015	Soley-Guardia et al. 2024; Valavi et al. 2021
10	Tu	27-Oct	Species Distribution Modeling		Manica et al. 2019 & Kery and Kellner Ch20	Madsen and Royle 2023
	Fr	30-Oct	N-Mixture / ISDM	Lab 9: IMLAB	Student Assigned
11	Tu	3-Nov	Discussion		Kery and Schaub Ch 7
	Fr	6-Nov	Mark Recapture	Lab 10: CJS	Student Assigned
12	Tu	10-Nov	Discussion		Royle et al 2018	Borchers and Marques 2017; Royle et al 2011
	Fr	13-Nov	Spatial Capture Recapture	In class lab
13	Tu	17-Nov	Animal Movement	In class lab
	Fr	20-Nov	Habitat Selection	In class lab
14	Tu	24-Nov	No Class
	Fr	27-Nov	No Class
15	Tu	1-Dec	Group Project work
	Fr	4-Dec	Group Project work
16	Tu	8-Dec	Present Group Project
	Fr	11-Dec	Present Group Project