My name is Matthew Ewing, and I’m a fourth year Biology student with a concentration in Ecology. Through the Siegele Internship, I had the opportunity to work with a team on a prairie dog plague study over the summer. My summer was largely spent in the Central Plains Experimental Range in Pawnee National Grassland, where we set up long term sites to monitor and trap prairie dog colonies. With the trapped prairie dogs, we were able to take important data, such as genetic samples which will be analyzed to identify a possible genetic component to plague resistance. Besides the long term sites in Colorado, we spent two weeks in Thunder Basin, Wyoming and Conata Basin, South Dakota. In these locations, we set up temporary sites, just hoping to produce as many genetic samples as possible, as both the sites were experiencing plague outbreaks.
I was able to learn so many valuable field work skills this summer, from trapping, to administering anesthesia, drawing blood, and countless others. I also learned so much about the ecology of prairie dogs in the central plains and the animals that rely on the ecosystems these rodents hold together. From setting traps at 4:00 in the morning, to being woken up to bison surrounding my tent, to dodging rattlesnakes, cacti, and thunderstorms, this internship made for an incredibly exciting summer. It was also immensely valuable, as I learned so much about what goes into designing field research, carrying out that research, and the prairie ecosystem in general. Not to mention that I got to photograph some awesome animals!
