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behavior of the North American Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) and nest ... I graduated from Monarch High School in 2010 with Cum Laude honors, and as a  ...
MATT  ABERLE     PROFILE  AND     RESEARCH   INTERESTS  

SKILLS  &  ABILITIES    

I  am  a  graduate  of  the  University  of  Colorado  with  a  B.A.  in  Ecology  and   Evolutionary  Biology.  My  interests  include  animal  behavior  and  how   behavior  may  or  may  not  be  influenced  by  disease  and  parasitism.  My   honors  thesis  research  looked  at  the  relationship  between  parental  feeding   behavior  of  the  North  American  Barn  Swallow  (Hirundo  rustica)  and  nest   ectoparasites,  which  is  currently  in  review  at  the  Journal  of  Avian  Biology.     •

Passerine  Banding  and  Identification  



Mist  netting    



Blood  and  Feather  sampling  



Nest  searching  



Predator  surveys  



Small  mammal  trapping  and  handling  



Vegetation  Surveying  



Setting  up  and  operating  video  cameras  in  the  field  



Spectroscopy  



DNA  extraction  



PCR  



Data  organization  and  entry  



Behavioral  Observation  



Monitoring  of  multiple  research  field  sites  



Programming  in  R  

WORK  AND    

RESEARCH  ASSISTANT,  SAFRAN  LAB  

RESEARCH   EXPERIENCE  

University  of  Colorado  at  Boulder,    Department  of  Ecology  and  Evolutionary  Biology   May  2012  –  May  2014,  May  2015  –  August  2015   As  a  research  assistant  in  the  Safran  lab,  I  was  a  full  time  member  of  the  summer  field   research  crew  banding  and  monitoring  populations  of  Barn  Swallows  around  Boulder   County.  I  learned  how  to  properly  band  and  collect  morphological  data,  feather  samples,   and  blood  samples  from  wild  birds.  This  position  also  required  collecting  extensive   observational  data.  In  the  lab,  I  worked  about  20  hours  per  week  doing  tasks  including:  data   organization  and  entry,  organization  and  analysis  of  feather  samples  using  spectroscopy,   extracting  DNA  from  blood  samples,  and  running  PCR  to  determine  the  sex  of  nestlings.  I   also  helped  manage  and  care  for  the  lab’s  captive  population  of  Zebra  Finches.  In  my  second   field  season  I  also  designed  and  carried  out  my  own  independent  field  study  to  write  an   honor’s  thesis.  Beginning  in  the  May  of  2015  I  will  be  collaborating  with  the  Safran  lab  as  a   research  associate  on  a  new  study  using  proximity  loggers  in  order  to  construct  social  

networks  for  the  barn  swallows.  We  will  then  conduct  phenotypic  manipulations  by   darkening  some  of  the  males  and  seeing  how  their  social  networks  change.     FIELD  TECHNICIAN,  CHALFOUN  LAB   University  of  Wyoming   June  2014  –  August  2014   As  a  full  time  field  technician  in  Pinedale,  WY  for  Dr.  Tracey  Johnson,  a  post-­‐doc  in  the   Chalfoun  lab  at  the  University  of  Wyoming,  I  was  in  charge  of  three  different  plots  of   sagebrush  that  are  being  actively  used  for  natural  gas  extraction  by  fracking.  On  each  of   these  plots  I  searched  for  nests  of  several  different  bird  species,  and  once  I  found  the  nests,  I   then  monitored  them  to  see  if  they  were  predated  or  not  to  see  if  there  is  a  correlation   between  fracking  and  nest  predation.  This  research  has  implications  for  future  conservation   work  and  policy.  On  some  of  these  nests  I  also  set  up  and  monitored  video  cameras  that   were  used  to  try  and  catch  some  of  these  predation  events  on  film.    As  part  of  this  research  I   also  did  predator  surveys  to  monitor  animals  like  ground  squirrels  and  chipmunks  who   typically  predated  our  monitored  nests.  I  also  did  small  mammal  trapping  where  I  would  set   and  bait  traps  and  then  process  captured  mammals  by  getting  morphological   measurements,  pit-­‐tagging,  and  sometimes  collecting  blood  samples.  The  last  part  of  the   field  season  involved  doing  vegetation  surveys  around  shrubs  that  contained  nests.  This   involved  determining  shrub  densities,  estimating  shrub  heights  and  vigor,  as  well  as   conducting  line  intercepts  to  estimate  shrub  cover.    

EDUCATION    

MONARCH  HIGH  SCHOOL   Louisville,  CO   Cum  Laude  Honors   I  graduated  from  Monarch  High  School  in  2010  with  Cum  Laude  honors,  and  as  a  member  of   the  National  Honor  Society.     UNIVERSITY  OF  COLORADO  AT  BOULDER   Boulder,  CO   Cum  Laude  Honors   I  am  a  graduate  of  CU  as  an  Ecology  and  Evolutionary  Biology  major.  I  finished  my  honors   thesis  in  spring  2014  and  graduated  with  a  3.2  GPA  and  Cum  Laude  honors  in  May  2014.  On   the  GRE  I  scored  a  158  on  Verbal  Reasoning,  150  on  Quantitative  Reasoning,  and  a  5  on   Analytical  Writing.    

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PUBLICATIONS    

 Aberle,  M.A.,  Hund,  A.K.,  Safran,  R.J.  “Do  parents  alter  provisioning  rates  across  the  nestling   period  in  response  to  ectoparasites:  an  experimental  study  in  the  North  American  barn   swallow  Hirundo  rustica  erythrogaster”  Journal  of  Avian  Biology.  In  Review    

 HONORS  AND     GRANTS  

Cum  laude  honors,  Monarch  High  School   National  Honor  Society  

University  of  Colorado  UROP  Research  Grant   NSF  REU  grant     Cum  Laude  honors,  University  of  Colorado  at  Boulder  

TEACHING     EXPERRIENCE  

TEACHING  ASSISTANT   University  of  Colorado  at  Boulder   I  served  as  an  undergraduate  TA  for  the  General  Biology  course  EBIO  1220   where  I  attended  lectures  and  provided  assistance  during  in  class  activities   and  discussions,  in  addition  to  helping  proctor  tests.  I  also  held  regular   office  hours  to  answer  questions  about  lectures  and  homework.  I  also   helped  run  exam  review  sessions.    

OUTREACH    

REFERENCES    

As  a  member  of  the  Safran  Lab  I  took  part  in  an  outreach  program  with   Manhattan  Middle  School  in  Boulder.  We  took  the  school’s  science  club  out   to  a  field  site  where  we  demonstrated  how  to  catch  and  band  Barn   Swallows  and  also  taught  them  about  the  basic  reproduction  and  migration   of  the  Barn  Swallows.     REBECCA  SAFRAN   P.I.,  Safran  Lab   Phone:  303-­‐735-­‐1495   Email:  [email protected]   Website:  http://safranlab.weebly.com/  

  AMANDA  HUND   PhD  Student,  Safran  Lab   Phone:  320-­‐905-­‐5040   Email:  [email protected]   JOEY  HUBBARD   PhD  Student,  Safran  Lab   Phone:  303-­‐905-­‐8706   Email:  [email protected]  

  TRACEY  JOHNSON   Post-­‐Doc,  Chalfoun  Lab   Phone:  503-­‐539-­‐1076   Email:  [email protected]  

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