The Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute has recognized Sul Ross State University graduate student Jesse Ellgren as a recipient of a CDRI Scholarship Award for his research on American black bears and wildlife communities along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Ellgren is a graduate student with Sul Ross State University’s Borderlands Research Institute, where his research focuses on wildlife population and community trends involving Ursus americanus, commonly known as the American black bear.
According to the institute, Ellgren’s work examines black bear occupancy and transboundary wildlife dynamics across three regional counties. His research includes monitoring and analyzing data collected from 50 remote cameras placed on private ranchlands along the Rio Grande.
Ellgren said his research is focused on understanding the factors influencing the natural recolonization of black bears into Southwest Texas. The project also studies how border infrastructure, surveillance activity and landscape resource variation may affect not only black bears, but broader medium- and large-mammal communities, including changes in abundance, species richness and activity patterns.
The Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute said the scholarship supports emerging scientists whose work advances conservation and understanding of the Chihuahuan Desert region.
The institute credited a photo accompanying the announcement to CDRI and identified those pictured as Shirley Powell, CDRI director emerita; Jesse Ellgren; and Justin French, Ph.D., of the Borderlands Research Institute.
