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Media

Episode 1 - Into the Brush
06:43
Episode 2 - Flight of the Prairie Falcons
05:50
Episode 3 - The Search for Golden Eagles
05:57

A crew of undergraduate videographers joined the Quantitative Conservation Lab and the Heath Lab in the field to create the following documentary series showcasing some of the current research on raptors and their prey

Publications

See Google Scholar Page 

  1. Corsini, Michela, Chiara Paniccia, Jose Hernandez, Jennyffer Cruz. In Review. Dealing with a landscape of fear: Fox squirrels’ behavior changes across the urban mosaic. Behavioral Ecology.

  2. Wilson, Jessica M.*, Julie A. Heath, Jennyffer Cruz, Jesse L. Watson, and M. David Oleyar. In Review. Nesting in urban areas affects Falco sparverius (American Kestrel) home range size and adult female health. Ornithological Applications.

  3. Bontrager, David Roman*, Jennifer D. McCabe, Paul W. Juergens, Brian D. Mutch, Catherine Isaak*, and Jennyffer Cruz. In Review. Woody plant encroachment in grasslands benefits two predatory owl species, reducing productivity of endangered Aplomado Falcons. Journal of Animal Ecology

  4. Baker, Andrew*, Zoe Bonerbo*, Jennyffer Cruz. In Review. Photographic evidence of American Barn Owl agonism causing a Prairie Falcon nest failure. Wilson Journal of Ornithology.

  5. Santiago, Ashley*, Jennyffer Cruz, Donna M. Delparte; Michael N. Kochert; Karen Steenhof; Joseph M. Weldon; Julie A. Heath. In Press. Landscape Changes and Declines in Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) Territory Occupancy in Southwestern Idaho Ornithological Applications.

  6. Barber, Cristina*, Jennyffer Cruz, Sarah J. Graves, Stephanie A. Bohlman, Pieter A. Zuidema, Gregory P. Asner, Aaron Carignan, Vicente Vasquez, Jodi Brandt, T. Trevor Caughlin 2025. Large, isolated trees have higher mortality than smaller trees in forest fragments across a tropical pastoral landscape Ecological Applications 35 (4):e70046. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/eap.70046

  7. Gustafson, Michaela*, Jennifer D. McCabe, Brian W. Rolek, Travis L. Booms, Michael T. Henderson*, Leah Dunn, David L. Anderson, and Jennyffer Cruz. 2025. “Gyrfalcon Prey Abundance and Their Habitat Associations in a Changing Arctic.” Ecology and Evolution 15 (1): e70763. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.70763

  8. Zaiats, Andrii*, T. Trevor Caughlin, Jennyffer Cruz, David S. Pilliod, Megan E. Cattau, Rongsong Liu, Richard Rachman*, Maisha Maliha*, Donna Delparte, and John D. J. Clare. 2024. “Propagating Observation Errors to Enable Scalable and Rigorous Enumeration of Plant Population Abundance with Aerial Imagery.” Methods in Ecology and Evolution 15 (11): 2074-2086. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.14421

  9. Bontrager, David Roman*, Jennifer D. McCabe, Paul W. Juergens, Brian D. Mutch, and Jennyffer Cruz. 2023. “Using Camera Traps to Inform Reintroduction Success and Recovery of the Northern Aplomado Falcon (Falco Femoralis Septentrionalis).” Food Webs 37: e00314. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fooweb.2023.e00314

  10. Cruz, Jennyffer, Steve Windels, Wayne Thogmartin, Shawn Crimmins, and Benjamin Zuckerberg. 2023. “Survival of Common Loon Chicks Appears Unaffected by Bald Eagle Recovery in Northern Minnesota.” Avian Conservation and Ecology 18 (1): 7. https://doi.org/10.5751/ACE-02395-180107

  11. Orrock, John L., Lars A. Brudvig, Ellen I. Damschen, W. Brett Mattingly, Jennyffer Cruz, Joseph W. Veldman, Philip G. Hahn, and Angela L. Larsen-Gray. 2023. “Long-Term, Large-Scale Experiment Reveals the Effects of Seed Limitation, Climate, and Anthropogenic Disturbance on Restoration of Plant Communities in a Biodiversity Hotspot.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120 (7): e2201943119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2201943119

  12. Sauer, Erin L., Jennyffer Cruz, Erin Crone, Catherine Lewis, Ethan Plumier, Blake Cwynar, David Drake, Bradley M. Herrick, and Daniel L. Preston. 2022. “Multiscale Drivers of Amphibian Community Occupancy in Urban Ponds.” Urban Ecosystems 25 (5): 1469–79. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-022-01239-2

  13. Brown, Peter R., Steve Henry, Roger P. Pech, Jennyffer Cruz, Lyn A. Hinds, Nikki Van De Weyer, Peter Caley, and Wendy A. Ruscoe. 2022. “It’s a Trap: Effective Methods for Monitoring House Mouse Populations in Grain-Growing Regions of South-Eastern Australia.” Wildlife Research 49 (4): 347–59. https://doi.org/10.1071/WR21076

  14. Perrig, Paula L.*, Sergio A. Lambertucci, Jennyffer Cruz, Pablo A.E. Alarcón, Pablo I. Plaza, Arthur D. Middleton, Guillermo Blanco, José A. Sánchez-Zapata, José A. Donázar, and Jonathan N. Pauli. 2020. “Identifying Conservation Priority Areas for the Andean Condor in Southern South America.” Biological Conservation 243:108494. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108494

  15. Shipley, Amy A. *, Jennyffer Cruz, and Benjamin Zuckerberg. 2020. “Personality Differences in the Selection of Dynamic Refugia Have Demographic Consequences for a Winter-Adapted Bird.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 287 (1934): 20200609. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.0609

  16. Cruz, Jennyffer, Steve K. Windels, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Shawn M. Crimmins, Leland H. Grim, James H. Larson, and Benjamin Zuckerberg. 2019. “Top‐down Effects of Repatriating Bald Eagles Hinder Jointly Recovering Competitors.” Edited by Dave Koons. Journal of Animal Ecology 88 (7): 1054–65. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.12990

  17. Cruz, Jennyffer, Steve K. Windels, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Shawn M. Crimmins, Leland H. Grim, and Benjamin Zuckerberg. 2018. “Managing Individual Nests Promotes Population Recovery of a Top Predator.” Edited by Richard Fuller. Journal of Applied Ecology 55 (3): 1418–29. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13062

  18. McCabe, Jennifer D., He Yin, Jennyffer Cruz, Volker Radeloff, Anna Pidgeon, David N. Bonter, and Benjamin Zuckerberg. 2018. “Prey Abundance and Urbanization Influence the Establishment of Avian Predators in a Metropolitan Landscape.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 285 (1890): 20182120. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.2120

  19. Latham, A. David M., M. Cecilia Latham, Dan Herries, Mandy Barron, Jennyffer Cruz, Dean P. Anderson 2018. “Assessing the efficacy of aerial culling of introduced wild deer in New Zealand with analytical decomposition of predation risk.” Biological Invasions 20 (1): 251–266. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-017-1531-0

  20. Cruz, Jennyffer, Caroline Thomson, John P. Parkes, Ingrid Gruner, and David M. Forsyth. 2017. “Long-Term Impacts of an Introduced Ungulate in Native Grasslands: Himalayan Tahr (Hemitragus Jemlahicus) in New Zealand’s Southern Alps.” Biological Invasions 19 (1): 339–349. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-016-1283-2

  21. Allen, W., Jennyffer Cruz, Bruce Warburton 2017. “How decision support systems can benefit from a theory of change approach.” Environmental Management 59 (5):956-965. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-017-0839-y

  22. Latham, A. David M., M. Cecilia Latham, Dean P. Anderson, Jennyffer Cruz, Dan Herries, and Mark Hebblewhite. 2015. “The GPS Craze: Six Questions to Address before Deciding to Deploy GPS Technology on Wildlife.” New Zealand Journal of Ecology 39 (1): 143–52.

  23. Cruz, Jennyffer, Chris Woolmore, M. Cecilia Latham, A. David M. Latham, Roger P. Pech, and Dean P. Anderson. 2014. “Seasonal and Individual Variation in Selection by Feral Cats for Areas with Widespread Primary Prey and Localised Alternative Prey.” Wildlife Research 41 (8): 650. https://doi.org/10.1071/WR14234

  24. Glen, Alistair, Bruce Warburton, Jennyffer Cruz, and M. Coleman. 2014. “Comparison of Camera Traps and Kill Traps for Detecting Mammalian Predators: A Field Trial.” New Zealand Journal of Zoology 41 (3): 155–60. https://doi.org/10.1080/03014223.2014.898667

  25. Cruz, Jennyffer, Roger P. Pech, Philip J. Seddon, Simone Cleland, Dean Nelson, Mark D. Sanders, and Richard F. Maloney. 2013. “Species-Specific Responses by Ground-Nesting Charadriiformes to Invasive Predators and River Flows in the Braided Tasman River of New Zealand.” Biological Conservation 167:363–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2013.09.005

  26. Cruz, Jennyffer, Duncan R. Sutherland, Dean P. Anderson, Alistair S. Glen, Paul J. de Tores, and Luke K.-P. Leung. 2013. “Antipredator Responses of Koomal (Trichosurus Vulpecula Hypoleucus) against Introduced and Native Predators.” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 67 (8): 1329–38. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-013-1561-2

  27. Cruz, Jennyffer, Alistair S. Glen, Roger P. Pech. 2013. “Modelling landscape-level numerical responses of predators to prey: the case of cats and rabbits.” PLoS ONE 8: e73544. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0073544

  28. Cruz, Jennyffer, Duncan R. Sutherland, and Luke K.-P. Leung. 2012. “Den Use, Home Range and Territoriality of the Koomal (Trichosurus Vulpecula Hypoleucus) with Implications for Current Forest Management Strategies.” Australian Journal of Zoology 60 (3): 141. https://doi.org/10.1071/ZO12051

  29. Cruz, Jennyffer, Duncan R. Sutherland, Gary R. Martin, and Luke K.-P. Leung. 2012. “Are Smaller Subspecies of Common Brushtail Possums More Omnivorous than Larger Ones?” Austral Ecology 37 (8): 893–902. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-9993.2011.02346.x

  30. Glen, Alistair S., Andrea E. Byrom, Roger P. Pech, Jennyffer Cruz, Astrid Schwab, Peter J Sweetapple, Ivor Yockney, Graham Nugent, Morgan Coleman, and Jackie Whitford. 2012. “Ecology of Brushtail Possums in a New Zealand Dryland Ecosystem.” New Zealand Journal of Ecology 36 (1): 9.

  31. de Tores, Paul J., Duncan R. Sutherland, Judy R. Clarke, Robert F. Hill, Sean W. Garretson, Lenny Bloomfield, Lauren Strümpher, Alistair S. Glen, Jennyffer Cruz. 2011. “Assessment of risks to non-target species from an encapsulated toxin in a bait proposed for control of feral cats.” Wildlife Research 38 (1): 39-50. https://doi.org/10.1071/WR10105

  32. Alistair S. Glen, A. Wayne, M. Maxwell, and Jennyffer Cruz. 2010. “Comparative Diets of the Chuditch, a Threatened Marsupial Carnivore, in the Northern and Southern Jarrah Forests, Western Australia: Comparative Diets of Chuditch.” Journal of Zoology 282 (4): 276–83. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.2010.00738.x

  33. Alistair S. Glen, Duncan R. Sutherland, Jennyffer Cruz. 2009. “An improved method of microhabitat assessment relevant to predation risk.” Ecological Research 25: 311-314. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-009-0653-y

  34. Cruz, Jennyffer, Luke K.-P. Leung, Allan Lisle, Dario F. Rivera, Linton Staples, and Michelle Smith. 2008. “Grain, Pellet and Wax Block Bait Take by the House Mouse (Mus Musculus) and Non-Target Species: Implications for Mouse Eradications on Coral Cay Islands.” Integrative Zoology 3 (3): 227–34. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-4877.2008.00087.x

Posters

Baker, Andrew, Zoe Bonerbo, Eden Ravecca, Kevin Myers, Kevin Warner, Zoe Duran, Megan Yrazabal, Charles Baun, and Jennyffer Cruz. 2024. "Prairie Falcon Predation Continues on Dwindling Prey Populations." Undergraduate Research Showcase 19 April 2024, Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA.

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Fuller, Kirsten, Miranda Terwilliger, and Jennyffer Cruz. 2022. "Mexican Spotted Owl Long-Term Occupancy in a Highly Visited National Park". Raptor Research Foundation Conference 4-9 Oct 2022, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.

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Bontrager, David R., Jennifer D. McCabe, Paul W. Juergens, Brian D. Mutch, Trevor Caughlin, Clint Boal, and Jennyffer Cruz. 2022. "Determining Limitations to Northern Aplomado Falcon Nest Occupancy and Productivity in Coastal Texas." Graduate Student Showcase Feb 2022, Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA.

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Camacho, Leticia M., Jennifer Forbey, Donna Delparte, Julie Heath, and Jennyffer Cruz. 2022. "Developing Rigorous Approaches to Estimating Abundance of Black-tailed Jackrabbits in the Sagebrush Steppe." Graduate Student Showcase Feb 2022, Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA.

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Ramirez, Vanessa, Kirsten Fuller, Emily Salciccia, and Jennyffer Cruz. 2021. "Factors Affecting Acoustic Detection of Mexican Spotted Owls at Grand Canyon National Park." Raptor Research Foundation Conference 8-12 Oct 2021, Boise, ID, USA.

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Salciccia, Emily, Kirsten Fuller, Vanessa Ramirez, and Jennyffer Cruz. 2021. "Vocal Activity Patterns of Sympatric Owl Species in Grand Canyon National Park."  Raptor Research Foundation Conference 8-12 Oct 2021, Boise, ID, USA.

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Ravecca, Eden S., Todd Katzner, Trevor Caughlin, and Jennyffer Cruz. 2021. "Are Predators Able to Adapt to Landscape Changes in the Sagebrush Steppe?"  Graduate Student Showcase 22 Feb 2021, Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA.

Oral Presentations

Bontrager, David, Jennifer McCabe, Paul Juergens, Brian Mutch, Trevor Caughlin, Clint Boal, and Jennyffer Cruz. 2023. "Limitations to the Successful Reintroduction and Recovery of the Northern Aplomado Falcon in the U.S.". International Conservation Translocation Conference 13-15 Nov 2023, Fremantle, WA, Australia.

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Ravecca, Eden, Todd Katzner, Trevor Caughlin, Steve Alsup, Matt Stuber, Kevin Warner, and Jennyffer Cruz. 2023. "Impacts of Habitat Type on Individual Prairie Falcon (Falco mexicanus) Movement and Foraging Behavior During the Breeding Season". Raptor Research Foundation Conference 17-22 Oct 2023, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.

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Camacho, Leticia, Donna Delparte, Zoe Bonerbo, Andrew Baker, and Jennyffer Cruz. 2023. "Developing Rigorous Approaches to Estimating Habitat Use of Black-tailed Jackrabbits inthe Sagebrush Steppe". Idaho Chapter of The Wildlife Society Conference 14-16 Feb 2023, Boise, Idaho, USA.

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Ravecca, Eden, Todd Katzner, Trevor Caughlin, Steve Alsup, Matt Stuber, Kevin Warner, and Jennyffer Cruz. 2023. "Breeding Prairie Falcon (Falco mexicanus) Foraging Movement and Habitat Selection in Altered Sagebrush Steppe of Southwest Idaho". Idaho Chapter of The Wildlife Society Conference 14-16 Feb 2023, Boise, Idaho, USA.

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Cruz, Jennyffer, Zoe Duran, Zoe Bonerbo, Eden Ravecca, Andrii Zaiats, and Trevor Caughlin. 2023. "Looking Back at Historical Vegetation Changes to Ensure a Resilient Future for our Wildlife". Idaho Chapter of The Wildlife Society Conference 14-16 Feb 2023, Boise, Idaho, USA.

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Camacho, Leticia, Donna Delparte, Zoe Bonerbo, Andrew Baker, and Jennyffer Cruz. 2022. "Developing Rigorous Approaches to Estimating Habitat Use of Black-tailed Jackrabbits inthe Sagebrush Steppe". NCA Conference 25-26 Oct 2022, Boise, Idaho, USA.

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Cruz, Jennyffer, Zoe Duran, Zoe Bonerbo, Eden Ravecca, Andrii Zaiats, and Trevor Caughlin. 2022. "Looking Back at Historical Vegetation Changes to Ensure a Resilient Future for our Wildlife". NCA Conference 25-26 Oct 2022, Boise, Idaho, USA.

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Ravecca, Eden, Todd Katzner, Trevor Caughlin, Steve Alsup, Matt Stuber, Kevin Warner, and Jennyffer Cruz. 2022. "Breeding Prairie Falcon (Falco mexicanus) Foraging Movement and Habitat Selection in Altered Sagebrush Steppe of Southwest Idaho". Raptor Research Foundation Conference 4-9 Oct 2022, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.

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Bontrager, David, Jenny McCabe, Paul Juergens, Brian Mutch, Trevor Caughlin, Clint Boal, and Jennyffer Cruz. 2022. "Determining Limitations to Northern Aplomado Falcon Nest Occupancy and Productivity in Coastal Texas". Raptor Research Foundation Conference 4-9 Oct 2022, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.

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Ravecca, Eden, Todd Katzner, Trevor Caughlin, Steve Alsup, Matt Stuber, Kevin Warner, and Jennyffer Cruz. 2021. "Nesting Prairie Falcon (Falco mexicanus) Movement Ecology: How Individual Predators Use Disturbed Landscapes in Southwest Idaho". Raptor Research Foundation Conference 8-12 Oct 2021, Boise, Idaho, USA.

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Fuller, Kirsten, Miranda Terwilliger, Gavin Jones, and Jennyffer Cruz. 2021. "Occurrence Dynamics of Mexican Spotted Owls at the Grand Canyon". Raptor Research Foundation Conference 8-12 Oct 2021, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.

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