
Graduate Student Spotlight: Sam Helle
Sam Helle, Environment and Resources Ph.D. candidate advised by Dr. Tim Van Deelen in F&WE, has been researching social and ecological aspects of Bengal tiger conservation in Nepal since 2014. Sam’s dissertation research is a community-based camera trap and scat collection study to investigate tigers dispersing between the two largest tiger populations in Nepal, Chitwan and Bardia National Parks. In the last decade, Nepal’s tiger numbers have grown by nearly 20%, resulting in dispersal beyond protected areas into community-managed forests. However, due to sparce sampling efforts little is known about these individuals, particularly in this region connecting Bardia and Chitwan populations. Sam, Nepal’s National Trust for Nature Conservation, and Community Conservation Inc. are working with a number of Community Forest User Groups to (1) identify and develop individual profiles of tigers occupying community forests, (2) examine gene flow between protected area populations and genetic background individuals, (3) understand socio-ecological facilitators to tiger expansion in Nepal, and (4) build capacity of local communities to monitor tigers and other wildlife independently by training them to use camera traps and collect scat samples. As 30% of forests in Nepal are managed by local communities, capacity building in wildlife monitoring techniques in these areas is essential for the creation of wildlife corridors and protection of tigers and other wildlife. Genetic and photo profiles of tigers will be entered into the national database to aid in long-term monitoring. This research is supported by a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Award and the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.
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