TWS Publications Awards recognize outstanding work

From exploring warbler migration to conflicts between carnivores and livestock, recipients of TWS’ 2021 Wildlife Publications Awards covered a wide range of topics in wildlife conservation and management.

Gunnar Kramer, David Andersen, David Buehler, Petra Wood, Sean Peterson, Justin Lehman, Kyle Aldinger, Lesley Bulluck, Sergio Harding, John Jones, John Loegering, Curtis Smalling, Rachel Vallender and Henry Streby earned the award in the article/journal paper category for “Population Trends in Vermivora Warblers Are Linked to Strong Migratory Connectivity,” published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The authors tracked 70 Vermivora warblers across their breeding distribution in eastern North America and found unline blue-winged warblers (Vermivora cyanoptera), breeding populations of golden-winged warblers (Vermivora chrysoptera) exhibited strong migratory connectivity.

The award for authored book went to Richard Sale for The Common Kestrel, published by Snowfinch Publishing. The book examines the declines of the raptors after examining aspects of the kestrel’s life such as plumage, diet, breeding and survival. Sale includes data collected across the bird’s range as well as a four-year study using video cameras to watch breeding behaviors in a barn in southern England.

In the edited book category, Douglas Smith, Daniel Stahler and Daniel MacNulty received the award for their book Yellowstone Wolves: Science and Discovery in the World’s First National Park. The book depicts the story of the wolves’ return to Yellowstone National Park as told by the people responsible for their reintroduction, study and management. The authors discuss what the project has taught them about individual wolves, population dynamics, wolf-prey relationships, genetics, disease, management and policy, behaviors and interactions with other species and the ecosystem effects wolves have had in Yellowstone.

Julie Lee Yee, Timothy Shields and Laura Stockton earned the wildlife publication award in the monograph category for their paper “The Catastrophic Decline of Tortoises at a Fenced Natural Area,” published in Wildlife Monographs. The monograph looks at the decline of Agassiz’s desert tortoises, a threatened species in the southwestern U.S. The authors studied the effectiveness of fencing to protect populations.

In the new category for student paper, Christine Wilkinson, Alex McInturff, Jennifer Miller, Veronica Yovovich, Kaitlyn Gaynor, Kendall Calhoun, Harshad Karandikar, Jeffrey Vance Martin, Phoebe Parker-Shames, Avery Shawler, Amy Van Scoyoc and Justin Brashares earned the award for their paper “An Ecological Framework for Contextualizing Carnivore–Livestock Conflict,” published in Conservation Biology. In the study, the authors developed a framework to describe the ecological drivers of predation on livestock. They then applied that framework to three case studies involving snow leopards, wolves and cougars.

First given in 1940, the Wildlife Publication Award recognizes excellent scientific literature relating to wildlife biology and management that shows originality.

Click here for a complete list of 2021 TWS award winners. For more about this year’s virtual conference, click here.