Emilie’s love for wildlife sprung at an early age while growing up along the Mississippi River. Almost immediately after high school graduation, she left home and served nine years in the Marine Corps, where she obtained resilience, a strong work ethic, and professionalism. Afterwards, she earned a BS in Biology from the University of Texas at San Antonio. During her undergraduate years, she discovered the significance of hunting as a conservation tool while deepening her passion for protecting wild places and wild things. She is excited to be studying at Borderlands Research Institute, where she is gaining valuable knowledge and skills for a successful career in wildlife management.

Montezuma quail are a cryptic, secretive bird species that is difficult to capture and study. Previous research has relied on low-success capture techniques, anecdotal observations, or harvested samples; thus, information is severely lacking in their population dynamics. More importantly, research on this species lacks a methodology to determine and monitor population estimates, which are required for proper management. By using passive acoustic monitoring, Emilie’s project hopes to utilize vocalization data to estimate Montezuma quail density across the Trans-Pecos. By deploying autonomous recording units year-round, she hopes to capture data throughout the full range of breeding and non-breeding seasons, which may provide the information needed to establish the first population estimate of Montezuma quail in Texas.