Patrick Cross

Patrick Cross

Bozeman, MT

Yellowstone Ecological Research Center

Ecologist

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Published on Nov 27, 2018

Cover Story in High Country News!

Check out Wudan Yan's excellent article about our project that was the feature story in the latest High Country News! We've already received four new Beartooth otter reports since the magazine hit ...

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Published on May 30, 2018

Citizen Science Success!!!

Despite a rapidly melting snowpack and difficult snow tracking conditions, the 16 volunteers who participated in our Alpine Otters project in the Beartooth Mountains on May 20, 2018, recorded four ...

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Published on Apr 19, 2018

Can you pass the wildlife tracker quiz?

Just wanted to give all of our experiment.com backers a quick update on our upcoming citizen science project, which is only one month away on Sunday, May 20.We recruited 48 potential volunteers at ...

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Published on Jan 12, 2018

THANK YOU!!!

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Published on Jan 09, 2018

What's Next: Defining Methods, Recruiting Volunteers, and Finishing Fundraising

As our crowdfunding campaign comes to a close, we would first like to thank the 46 backers who helped us exceed our funding goal. Along with fully funding the citizen science part of our project an...

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Published on Dec 29, 2017

Who We Are: The Yellowstone Ecological Research Center (YERC)

In 1995, when grey wolves were released in Yellowstone National Park as part of their U.S. Endangered Species Act recovery plan, coyotes were among the residents hearing their first howls. So were ...

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Published on Dec 20, 2017

Alpine Otters... Now Arctic Beavers!

Great story in the New York Times today about beavers moving into the Arctic, most likely as a result of climate change. Like our upcoming Alpine Otters project, this research sheds light on nature...

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Published on Dec 18, 2017

Study Area Profile: The Beartooth Plateau

The Beartooth Plateau is a distinctive piece of topography on numerous fronts. For one, it is the largest landmass over 10,000' in the contiguous United States, home to the 40 tallest peaks in Mont...

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Published on Dec 13, 2017

Bringing Space Age Technology to the Beartooth Plateau

Our project will use snow tracking and scat analysis, two of the oldest, simplest, and most effective techniques devised for learning more about animals like river otters. But how can we learn more...

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Thanks Jason: sorry we couldn't make it work out last summer, but yes I'd be more than happy to come down next summer if possible. Always looking for reasons to make a trip to Red Lodge!
Hi Steve, Good to hear from you. Yes, this is the last year for the ol' A-Frame: I tried to enjoy it as much as possible this winter (200% of average snowpack! - literally had to dig down to access the front door in March!), and we are putting it to good use this summer with the field crew that ...more
Reply to:Angie NanesAngie Nanes
Hi Angie, We will be working on the analysis this summer and fall. Unfortunately, our sample size ended up being pretty small and it might be hard to make any strong conclusions from it. We need more data, and trying to collect it all in one day in one big sweep just might not work: for example,...more
Cool photos, and congrats on getting funded! In the weasel photo, is that a hunk of black bear hanging in the tree? And for your wolverine traps, interesting to see you use dimensional lumber instead of more natural materials like Copeland's original log cabin trap design (although I do recogni...more
Reply to:Angie NanesAngie Nanes
You're welcome, Angie! For effective research (as in, to make the most of limited time and limited funding), we usually need to focus on a very specific set of questions. Yet to actually have an important impact, we need to make sure to place those questions in the context of the bigger picture (...more