The Severud Wildlife Ecology Lab at South Dakota State University (SDSU) is seeking a highly motivated PhD student to study Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep population ecology and restoration in the Greater Badlands ecosystem of South Dakota.

Bighorn sheep in and around Badlands National Park experienced a severe respiratory disease outbreak beginning in 2021, resulting in substantial adult mortality, prolonged recruitment failure, and an estimated 80% population decline. Following several years of intensive disease surveillance and management, Badlands National Park and its partners are transitioning from disease management to active population recovery.

A major component of this recovery effort will be augmentation of the population with bighorn sheep from disease-free source populations. The successful applicant will have the unusual opportunity to begin a PhD at the outset of this large-scale restoration effort and evaluate how resident and translocated bighorn sheep respond to population augmentation.

Research
The PhD project will focus broadly on the demographic and ecological response of bighorn sheep to population augmentation and recovery. The student will work with GPS/VHF telemetry, population surveys, recruitment monitoring, mortality investigations, GIS data, and existing long-term datasets.

Potential research topics include:

        Survival and causes of mortality of resident and translocated bighorn sheep

        Post-translocation movements, establishment, and integration with resident subherds

        Habitat use and factors associated with successful establishment

        Reproduction, lamb recruitment, and population growth

        Demographic responses to augmentation

        Development of monitoring and analytical approaches to inform future augmentation and long-term bighorn sheep management

The project will also include continued disease surveillance and collection of biological samples that may support complementary genetic or other analyses. These activities are important components of the broader restoration program but are not intended to prescribe separate dissertation chapters.

Specific dissertation questions will be developed collaboratively by the student, SDSU, National Park Service, and project partners based on the student’s interests, available data, and management needs.

Collaboration and Fieldwork
This is a highly collaborative and applied project involving South Dakota State University, Badlands National Park, South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks, Oglala Sioux Parks and Recreation Authority, and other state, Tribal, federal, and academic partners.

The student will participate in bighorn sheep capture and translocation activities, telemetry and population monitoring, mortality investigations, data management and analysis, and communication of results to project partners. The student will work closely with experienced agency biologists and field personnel while taking the lead on research and analyses contributing to their dissertation.