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DrTom's Favorite Quote: 'In the end we will conserve only what we love. We love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught'. Baba Dioum, Senegalese environmentalist.
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Who in the heck am I?

I am referred to as DrTom, which is what my students used to call me. I am a conservation biologist and a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. I teach courses on the ecology and conservation of plants and animals, and I conduct research on these topics. My work has taken me to Costa Rica, Kenya, Uganda, Egypt, and Madagascar, as well as Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Arizona, Oklahoma, and New York in the U.S. I love single-malt scotch and a good cigar in the evening, while sitting near my home in the forest. I do some fly-fishing for trout, but not as much as I would like. Been married for 39 years (to the same woman), and we have three children and four grand-children.

I attended Ohio State University, University of Arizona, and Oregon State University. I taught at Oklahoma State University for one year before coming to Cornell in 1980. I claim to be the only wildlife biologist who was at all three OSUs in the country. But this website, and all that goes with it, begins the next phase of my life. So let's have some fun!

Male bobolink, a species I studied in upstate New York

Idaho ground squirrel with Lady Clairol dye mark "OX"
Paul Sherman and I studied this species for many years. Now on the U.S. Endangered Species list.

Wide-Faced Men More Aggressive (LiveScience.com)
Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:05:49 GMT
LiveScience.com - Men with big mugs are more aggressive, a new study of hockey players suggests.
[More]
Galapagos under botanical alert for medfly invasion (AFP)
Wed, 20 Aug 2008 01:10:39 GMT - (AFP)

File photo of Playa Man in San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos Archipelago, Ecuador. The Galapagos Islands, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, were under a botanical alert Tuesday after a destructive Mediterranean fruit fly (medfly) was detected on the archipelago, the Agricultural Health Service (SESA) said.(AFP/File/Rodrigo Buendia)AFP - Ecuador's Galapagos Islands, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, were under a botanical alert Tuesday after a destructive Mediterranean fruit fly (medfly) was detected on the archipelago, the Agricultural Health Service (SESA) said.



[More]
Guess what? Military funds mind-reading science (AP)
Sat, 16 Aug 2008 01:11:01 GMT
AP - Here's a mind-bending idea: The U.S. military is paying scientists to study ways to read people's thoughts. The hope is that the research could someday lead to a gadget capable of translating the thoughts of soldiers who suffered brain injuries in combat or even stroke patients in hospitals.
[More]
Monsters, Ghosts and Gods: Why We Believe (LiveScience.com)
Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:20:27 GMT - (LiveScience.com)
pockets of their purveyors.



[More]
Researchers say numbers aren't needed to count (AP)
Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:01:56 GMT
AP - Answer this without counting: Are there more X's here XXXXXX, or here XXXXX? That's a problem facing people whose languages don't include words for more than one or two. Yet researchers say children who speak those languages are still able to compare quantities.
[More]
NASA fixes moonship shaking with shock absorbers (AP)
Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:21:47 GMT - (AP)

Legendary NASA space suit engineer Joe Kosmo, right, talks with technician Kevin Groenman, in a 300-pound space suit, June 10, 2008, in Moses Lake, Wash. NASA scientists and contractors spent two weeks in Moses Lake field testing some of the vehicles and robots that will be used when humans return to the moon later this century. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)AP - A space-age version of the rusty springs under old pickup trucks will help NASA fix the most pressing technical problem with its high-tech new rocket to send astronauts back to the moon.



[More]
Magpies are no bird-brains, mirror test shows (Reuters)
Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:03:25 GMT - (Reuters)

A magpie with yellow mark used in a mirror self-recognition experiment. Magpies can recognize themselves in a mirror, highlighting the mental skills of some birds and confounding the notion that self-awareness is the exclusive preserve of humans and a few higher mammals. (Institute of Psychology, Goethe University, Frankfurt/Handout/Reuters)Reuters - Magpies can recognize themselves in a mirror, highlighting the mental skills of some birds and confounding the notion that self-awareness is the exclusive preserve of humans and a few higher mammals.



[More]
Birds can't keep up with climate change: study (AFP)
Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:04:50 GMT - (AFP)

A bird flies over the sea after sunset. The habitats of wild bird species are shifting in response to global warming, but not fast enough to keep pace with rising temperatures, according to a study released Wednesday.(AFP/Getty Images/File/David Mcnew)AFP - The habitats of wild bird species are shifting in response to global warming, but not fast enough to keep pace with rising temperatures, according to a study released Wednesday.



[More]
Face Recognition Varies by Culture (LiveScience.com)
Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:25:46 GMT
LiveScience.com - The way people recognize faces might say a lot about what culture they come from, scientists now reveal.
[More]
Church Attendance Boosts Student GPAs (LiveScience.com)
Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:05:52 GMT
activity to involve them in.
[More]
Shock Absorber Plan Set for NASA's New Rocket (SPACE.com)
Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:01:35 GMT
Orion space shuttle replacement.
[More]
Sloshing Inside Earth Changes Protective Magnetic Field (SPACE.com)
Mon, 18 Aug 2008 10:45:37 GMT
high-energy radiation.
[More]
Aboriginal children 'can count without numbers' (AFP)
Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:08:26 GMT - (AFP)

Gumatj Aboriginal children play by a fish net in Arnhem Land, the Northern Territory, Australia, December 2005. Australian Aboriginal children can count even without having words for numbers, according to a study by British and Australian experts.(AFP/File/Torsten Blackwood)AFP - Australian Aboriginal children can count even without having words for numbers, according to a study by British and Australian experts released Tuesday.



[More]
Whale activists vow to fight Japan despite arrest threat (AFP)
Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:57:20 GMT - (AFP)

Activists vowed no let-up in their campaign to stop Japan's whaling as reports said Tokyo was seeking further arrests overseas of people who obstructed a hunt. AFP - Animal rights activists vowed no let-up in their campaign to stop Japan's whaling as reports Tuesday said Tokyo was seeking further arrests overseas of people who obstructed a hunt.



[More]
Keys to Ant Social Status Found (LiveScience.com)
Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:45:55 GMT
LiveScience.com - Whether an ant becomes a dominant queen or a lowly worker is determined by both nature and nurture, it turns out.
[More]
Fay Holds Together as it Treks Across Florida (weather.com)
Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:05:09 GMT
weather.com -
[More]
Cassini Spots Icy Jet Sources on Saturn Moon (SPACE.com)
Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:02:59 GMT
jets erupt from Saturn's icy moon Enceladus.
[More]
Russian Rocket Launches New Communications Satellite (SPACE.com)
Tue, 19 Aug 2008 18:32:31 GMT
(ILS) Proton Breeze M rocket, ILS and Inmarsat announced.
[More]
Fears grow for lost baby whale who thought yacht was mum (AFP)
Tue, 19 Aug 2008 08:07:36 GMT - (AFP)

An ABC TV framegrab shows a baby humpback whale trying to suckle from an yacht near Sydney. Fears were growing Tuesday for the whale(AFP/HO/Abc Tv)AFP - Fears were growing Tuesday for the survival chances of a lost baby humpback whale who tried to suckle from an Australian yacht in the belief it was its mother.



[More]
New Thin Skin to Protect Tiny Spacecraft (SPACE.com)
Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:32:43 GMT
SPACE.com - Fleets of miniature spacecraft may now be closer to liftoff.
[More]
DrTom's Favorite Sites/Bookmarks
BuzZME IN
DrTom's Extended Profiles (1)
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DrTom's Comments (5)
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bidme/Mark
Reply
Posted By: Mark, Aug 05, 2008 | 8:53 pm

I just read that blue whale songs have been getting deeper. This might be old news, but it just got to the Syracuse papers.

Also I saw a bobcat on Fripp Island, SC, and that was pretty much the neatest thing.

bidme/danielle
Reply
Posted By: Danielle, Jul 30, 2008 | 9:25 am

Thanks for inviting me for your community!

Danielle :)
bidme/CaptJack
Reply
Posted By: Capt, Mar 29, 2008 | 7:28 am

BuzZME
Capt Jack's

Royal Order

of the Penguin

bidme/drtom Reply From: DrTom, Mar 29, 2008 | 8:49 am
I love this clip, and "Happy Feet" is probably my all-time favorite movie.
bidme/CaptJack
Reply
Posted By: Capt, Mar 29, 2008 | 2:00 am
bidme/CaptJack
Reply
Posted By: Capt, Mar 25, 2008 | 11:27 pm
Any common interest out there?

Selected DrTom publications:

Ruiz-Gutierrez, V., T.A. Gavin, and A.A. Dhondt. 2008. Does habitat fragmentation influence survival of birds in fragmented tropical forests? Ecological Applications 18:838-846.

Buck, L.E., T.A. Gavin, N.T. Uphoff, and D.R. Lee. 2007. Scientific assessment of ecoagriculture systems. Pp. 20-45, in Farming with nature:The science and practice of ecoagriculture (S.J. Scherr and J.A. McNeely, eds.). Island Press. Washington, D.C.

Rubenstein, D.R., D.I. Rubenstein, P.W. Sherman, and T.A. Gavin. 2006. Pleistocene park: Does re-wilding North America represent sound conservation for the 21st century? Biological Conservation 132:232-238.

Perrings, C., L. Jackson, K. Bawa, L. Brussaard, S. Brush, T. Gavin, R. Papa, U. Pascual, and P. de Ruiter. 2006. Biodiversity in agricultural landscapes: saving natural capital without losing interest. Conservation Biology 20:263-264.

Socci, A.M., M.A. Schlaepfer, and T.A. Gavin. 2005. The importance of soil moisture and leaf-cover in a female lizard’s (Norops polylepis) evaluation of potential oviposition sites. Herpetologica 61:233-240.

Borgella, R. and T.A. Gavin. 2005. Avian community dynamics in a fragmented tropical landscape. Ecological Applications 15:1062-1073.

Brown, L.M., R.R. Ramey II, B. Tamburini, and T.A. Gavin. 2004. Population structure and mitochondrial DNA variation in sedentary Neotropical birds isolated by forest fragmentation. Conservation Genetics 5:743-757.

Bollinger, E.K. and T.A. Gavin. 2004. Responses of nesting bobolinks (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) to habitat edges. Auk 121:767-776.

Smith, W.P., L.N. Carraway, and T.A. Gavin. 2003. Cranial variation in Columbian white-tailed deer populations: implications for taxonomy and restoration. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 116:1-15.

Schlaepfer, M.A. and T.A. Gavin. 2001. Edge effects on lizards and frogs in tropical forest fragments. Conservation Biology 15:1079-1090.

Borgella, R., Jr., A.A. Snow, and T.A. Gavin. 2001. Species richness and pollen loads of hummingbirds using forest fragments in southern Costa Rica. Biotropica 33:90-109.

Mancke, R.G. and T.A. Gavin. 2000. Breeding bird density in woodlots: effects of depth and buildings at the edges. Ecological Applications 10:598-611.

Gavin, T.A., P.W. Sherman, E. Yensen, and B. May. 1999. Population genetic structure of the northern Idaho ground squirrel (Spermophilus brunneus brunneus). Journal of Mammalogy 80:156-168.

Gavin, T.A., R.T. Reynolds, S.M. Joy, D. Leslie, and B. May. 1998. Genetic evidence for low frequency of extra-pair fertilizations in Northern Goshawks. Condor 100:556-560.

University Courses I have Taught
Conservation Biology, Introductory Field Biology, Darwinian Ecology, Ornithology, Population Dynamics, Wetlands Wildlife Ecology