Welcome!

My name is Martha Zillig, and I am an ecologist with a focus on how quantitative tools can be used to assess and conserve wildlife populations. Broadly, my research focuses on how climate change will affect an organism’s ability to adapt to their changing environment. My research has allowed me to explore conservation issues effecting birds in the Great Basin, Island Foxes on the Channel Islands, and White-tailed Deer in the midwestern United States. Currently, I am a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Montana where I study how camera traps can be used to estimate abundance and density of wildlife.

Me and my dog Indiana conducting field research in Nevada. Picture taken by my awesome photographer friend Cooper Dodds

My partner, Ken, Indiana, and I setting up data loggers to understand how microclimate impacts avian dispersal

During my graduate research at the University of California, Davis, I contributed to a long-term data set on avian abundance in the Great Basin. This data formed the basis of my dissertation research which examined how bird species distributions changed both spatially and temporally in montane systems. I found that many species of birds moved elevationally both within their breeding season (a little studied phenomenon) and across multiple years, potentially in response to climate change. Check out the research tab to learn more!

Myself and Dr. Erica Fleishman, removing the last of the microclimate monitoring equipment (2019)