PHX Zoo – Thinking like a River: Wildlife and Water in the Lower Verde Watershed

Thinking like a river: Wildlife and water in the lower Verde watershed

Jan Schipper, Ph.D.
Conservation Research Post-doctoral Fellow,
ASU School of Life Sciences and the Phoenix Zoo

Please join us for an Arizona Center for Nature Conservation lecture
presented by the Arthur L. and Elaine V. Johnson Foundation

Surface water is vital to wildlife, especially in arid environments. The habitats created by rivers and streams form natural movement and dispersal corridors for many species. However, drier climates and increased groundwater pumping are reducing surface water and directly affecting the ecosystem processes and environmental services provided. Using camera-traps, Dr. Schipper and his team are investigating the relationship between species and water availability along ephemeral, intermittent and perennial streams on the lower Verde watershed.

Dr. Jan Schipper is a conservation biologist with over 20 years of research experience across a wide variety of species and ecosystems from deserts to rainforests. Jan’s work includes a global status assessment of the world’s mammals, evaluation of the importance of conservation corridors for mammal dispersal and movement, impacts of traditional hunting practices on wildlife, effectiveness of protected areas at conserving species and development of conservation tools for jaguar and other area-sensitive species. Ongoing research projects include evaluating bridges and barriers to wildlife dispersal in Sky Islands and southwestern US/Mexico borderlands, developing an effective conservation corridor for jaguar in Costa Rica to link the Osa Peninsula to the Talamanca Mountains, monitoring endangered mammal populations to explore best management practices to prevent extinction, and developing new tools to improve the science of conservation.

Event Information: 

Wednesday, Dec. 7th @ South Mountain Environmental Education Center (SMEEC)

TIME: 5:30 – 7:00 p.m.

Light refreshments provided

RSVP by December 1st to jgreenberg@phoenixzoo.org