Jake was born and raised in Lubbock, Texas, and attended university at Texas Tech University. He was introduced to the field of ecology through the Natural Resource Management program at the university, where he graduated with a BS in natural resources management. Jake worked as an undergraduate research technician throughout his undergrad, gaining experience with big game species, game birds, and birds of prey. Jake is extremely excited to be a part of all the great work being done at the Borderlands Research institute and is excited to see where it leads.

Black bears, a once common feature of the Trans-Pecos, were extirpated from the state by the early 1950s due to predator control efforts, overharvest, and habitat degradation. Shifts in land-use and protection for the species has allowed black bears to begin recolonization of the Trans-Pecos. Due to this absence of Trans-Pecos bears for such an extended period of time we have little information on den timing and habitat characteristics that influence den selection. Jake’s project seeks to find relationships between habitat, climate, den selection, and den timing which will be used to model future den selection and den entrance/emergence.