Museum of Southwestern Biology - Division of Mammals

The Three Master-teers!

Patricia Sotelo Chavira is studying Sky Islands in the Southwest. Tenley Housler is investigating the circulation of prions (chronic wasting disease) in cervid and rodent populations in Utah, NM, and Texas. Samantha Bonawitz is helping us better understand PFAS (forever chemical) concentrations in New Mexico's environments through surveys of small mammals at sites that we suspect may be contaminated. All are master's students at UNM using specimens to better understand the world around us.

Congratulations to Eve Rowland on the successful defense of her doctoral dissertation entitled "From Computer Simulations to Channel Island Foxes: Life in the Face of Environmental Change". Nice work Dr. Rowland! Her third chapter investigated microplastic accumulation in Channel Island foxes over a period of 20 years using MSB specimens.

UNM Mammal Class 2025!
First field trip, this one to the southern San Mateo Mountains, just below Springtime Canyon. Nice mentorship and contributions from Lexi Baca (TA), Connor Burgin, Mariel Campbell, and Robert Nofchissey!

Congratulations to Connor Burgin for this excellent addition to our understanding of mammalian diversity worldwide (and look Schuyler Liphardt is on there too!). Just out this week.

These TWO!

Lexi and Connor---both doctoral students now analyzing their genomic datasets from collared lemmings and jerboas while navigating the complexities and uncertainties of a graduate degree at a time in the US when science has taken a back seat. Fortunately, they're headed to Vietnam soon for reinvigorating fieldwork as they study the bats and associated parasites of two national parks. Looking forward to the tales they will tell upon return!

6 am Tuesday, late June 2025--MSB Field Crew monitoring New Mexico's incomparable mammal fauna. Michael, Kane, Rae, Jose, Connor, Sam, Dale, and Audrey!

Wahooo!

Congratulations to Destiny Gonzalez who just defended her MS in Museum Studies at the University of New Mexico. Destiny focused on how specimen-based approaches are needed to make One Health whole. In addition to bringing a large Chilean mammalian hantavirus survey into the digital world, she built a new set of webpages that delve into how MSB collections have been used in hantavirus identification, discovery, mitigation, and monitoring.

Thesis entitled: Unraveling the history of zoological collections and emerging pathogens: a look into the
Museum of Southwestern Biology and Hantaviridae

Enrique Lessa is here from Montevideo for two weeks to teach an intensive two week grad course in population genetics. Here he is holding a ctScanned 3D printed tuco-tuco specimen.

A wonderful end to this year’s Research Day celebration at UNM! 🎉 Big cheers to all the presenters and award winners!

The UNM Museum of Southwestern Biology is spearheading efforts to strengthen scientific infrastructure, with a particular focus on supporting low and middle-income countries.

Read more here:
https://news.unm.edu/news/unm-museum-of-southwestern-biology-leads-efforts-to-build-science-infrastructure

Mammalogy 2024 – That’s a wrap! 🎉

This semester, we had the largest group of students in UNM’s Mammalogy program in quite a while! Here are a few snapshots from our field trips where students got hands-on with the fascinating world of small mammal capture and processing. They learned the ins and outs of proper field techniques, from setting traps to making beautiful museum skins to add to the collection.

Our hardworking students prepped over 350 mammals for the Museum of Southwestern Biology! From shrews and bats to otters, bears, and even wolves, this group truly made their mark on our collections.

Thank you to all the students for their hard work throughout this course!