2nd Wednesday Lecture: Chicago’s Urban Wildlife

Once considered to be devoid of nature, cities are now recognized as richly biodiverse and ecologically unique. Since 2010, Lincoln Park Zoo’s Urban Wildlife Institute has been monitoring animals and their habitats in Chicago using camera traps and acoustic detectors as part of the largest study of urban wildlife to date. Lehrer will highlight findings from this groundbreaking research, and present information on how the public can get involved through Chicago Wildlife Watch, an online platform for citizen scientists.

About the Presenter: Liza Lehrer holds a B.A. in Zoology from Washington University in St. Louis and an M.S. in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she studied the effects of urbanization on woodchucks (a.k.a. groundhogs). Liza has worked at the Urban Wildlife Institute since 2010, where her research focuses on behavioral and landscape ecology, and understanding solutions to managing human-wildlife conflict. She coordinates the Urban Wildlife Biodiversity Monitoring Project, the Bat Monitoring Project, and has lead research examining the effects of relocation on nuisance wildlife.