The work of a UGA doctoral student appeared on the covers of two scientific journals recently.
The latest issues of Animal Conservation and Southeastern Naturalist focused on separate aspects of Tracey Tuberville’s work while she’s been at the university’s Institute of Ecology.
The Princeton research journal Animal -Conservation features an article on Tuberville’s efforts to re-introduce gopher tortoises to areas where they’re no longer found. She worked with a research team that studied whether the endangered animals were more likely to re-inhabit burrows after being penned in the same area with them for a while.
After two years of tracking 38 tortoises, the group found that those forced to remain with the burrows were more likely to return to the area.
The Southern Naturalist article centered on several scientists’ work to inventory amphibians and reptiles in National Parks of the southeastern coastal plain. Tuberville led her colleagues by recording 123 native species over two years.
Tuberville researches at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. She is completing her doctorate on the ecology and history of gopher tortoises.
