Free lecture with Zoe Zilz

Co-hosted by Solvang Library

See the Zoom recording link below.

In 2021, UCSB doctoral student Zoe Zilz was shown photos taken along the Gaviota coast by local residents, surprisingly revealing terrestrial wildlife near and in intertidal areas. Intrigued, Zoe set up 40 trail cameras in that area and further west, including Vandenberg Space Force Base and the Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve. The diversity of wildlife the cameras revealed caused her research interests to veer from purely intertidal subjects to wondering about the ecological significance of beach and intertidal visits by terrestrial animals. She established Project ECOTONE to collect more data, which now include camera-recorded visits by many of our area’s land mammal species, large and small. Scat analyses by project colleagues suggest that coyotes, especially, may be important members of our intertidal ecosystem.

In her talk, Zoe will share trail cam photos and other data to show the the diversity of land animals that utilize local oceanic resources, and the role of energy  exchange between oceanic and land habitats in our county. This information can be used to protect wildlife through data-informed policy.

Zoe graduated from UCSB, has a Masters of Science degree from Western Washington University, and is now a 6 th year doctoral student in UCSB’s Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, studying who eats whom in California’s intertidal zones and how human activities affect those interactions. A key goal is understanding the effects of wildlife loss and human disturbance to inform coastal management and conservation policies.

How to View the Zoom Recording

View the Zoom webinar at this link: Mammals Hit the Beach!

This event occurred: Wednesday, November 20, 2024, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.

Live lecture location: The courtroom adjacent to the Solvang Library, 1745 Mission Drive, Solvang.
The lecture was followed by a question-and-answer period.