B&C Fellow - Matt Nelson

Michigan State University - Ph.D. Fisheries and Wildlife - Projected to Graduate 2026 Project Title: Remote Cameras as a Tool for Estimating Wolf Abundance and White-Tailed Deer Winter Habitat Use in the Upper Peninsula, MI

I was raised in South Carolina at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains where I fostered a love for wildlife and the outdoors. It was not until halfway through my undergraduate degree at Clemson University that I decided to pursue a career in wildlife biology. While at Clemson, I worked on a variety of field projects that included studying bats in the southeast and a summer spent in Montana. I earned my B.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology and a minor in Creative Writing in 2016. From there, I spent the next three years working with a variety of wildlife ranging from sea turtles, to Greater Sage-Grouse, to wolves. In 2019, I continued my academic career at the University of Idaho under the supervision of Dr. David Ausband with a Masters thesis focused on testing novel approaches to estimate black bear populations in Idaho using remote cameras and comparisons to yearly huckleberry crops. After finishing my M.S. in Natural Resources Wildlife Sciences in 2022, I accepted a position with Dr. Jerry Belant at Michigan State University.

Remote cameras as a tool for estimating wolf abundance and white-tailed deer winter habitat use in the Upper Peninsula, MI

Traditional population survey techniques such as mark-recapture and track surveys are both time intensive and expensive and are difficult to scale to a larger extent. Remote cameras are increasingly used to monitor wildlife populations over large scales, but the models used in these approaches are relatively new and require further testing. Additionally, the volume of data they collect is a mostly untapped source for other aspects of ecology such as seasonal movements. The focus of my PhD research is to test the feasibility, precision, and long-term monitoring capabilities of remote camera data for estimating wildlife populations. Additionally, I hope to use a Upper Peninsula (UP) wide camera grid to understand how winter severity affects white-tailed deer abundance changes and winter habitat use.