Northland College

Northland College
  • Academics
  • Campus Life
  • Admissions
  • Athletics
  • Centers
  • Sustainability
Search
  • Contact Us
  • Campus Map
  • Calendar
  • Alumni
  • Giving
  • News
More...
  • Academics
    • Undergraduate
    • Faculty
    • Resources
    • Opportunities
      • Internships
      • Undergraduate Research
      • Study Abroad
      • Off-campus Learning
      • Student Jobs
    • Graduate Success
    • Course Catalog
    • Transcript Request
    • Commencement
  • Campus Life
    • Dining
    • Housing
    • Outdoor Orientation
    • Diversity & Inclusion
      • Indigenous Cultures Center
        • Native Student Offerings
        • Powwow & Awareness
        • Community Outreach
        • Native American Museum
    • Get Involved
    • Bicycles & Gear Rental
    • Fitness Center
    • Services
      • Counseling Services
      • Accommodations
      • Health Services
      • Safety & Security
  • Admissions
    • Visit Campus
    • Tuition
    • Financial Aid
      • Scholarships
      • Grants
      • Loans
      • FAFSA
      • Veterans
    • Enroll
    • Meet Your Admissions Counselor
    • Virtual College Fairs
    • High School Counselor Visits
  • Athletics
    • Athletic Website
    • Athletic Facilities
    • Varsity Club Membership
    • Buy Team Gear
    • Hall of Fame
    • Annual Golf Classic
    • Camps, Leagues, Tournaments
      • 3on3 Basketball Tournament
      • Basketball Camps & Leagues
      • Men’s Soccer ID Camp
      • Youth Soccer Camp
      • Softball Camp
      • Volleyball Camps & Leagues
    • Give to Athletics
  • Centers
    • Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation
      • Our Work
      • Student Research Opportunities
      • Lab Services
      • Burke Center in the News
      • Water Summit
    • Center For Rural Communities
      • Rural Livelihood Initiatives
        • Quality of Life Database
        • Northwoods Community Survey
        • Opinion Polls
        • Local Food Systems
      • Human-Environment Connection
      • Great Lakes Islands Alliance
      • Publications
      • Data Visualizations
      • Student Opportunities
    • Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute
      • LoonWatch
        • About Loons
        • Protect Loons
        • Get Involved
        • Loon Appreciation Week & Poster
      • Timber Wolf Alliance
        • Wolf Awareness Week & Poster
        • Learn About Wolves
        • Wolf Status Reports
        • Vision for Wolves
        • Great Lakes Wolf Symposium
      • Youth Outreach Programs
      • SONWA Book Awards
        • Sonwa Press Kit
      • Sigurd Olson Legacy
      • Apostle Islands Stewardship Symposium
      • Intangible Magazine
      • Forest Lodge Educational Campus
        • Rental Information
    • Hulings Rice Food Center
      • Compost Center
      • Larson Food Lab
      • Campus Gardens
      • Student Opportunities
  • Sustainability
  • Alumni
    • Events & Awards
    • Leadership
    • Transcript Request
    • Campus Store
  • Giving
    • Your Gifts at Work
    • Planned Giving
    • Northland College Face Mask
    • Christopher T. Morgan Scholarship
    • Meet Our Team
  • About Northland
    • President Karl I. Solibakke
    • Northland Magazine
    • Campus Sculpture Tour
    • Advocacy & Public Discourse
    • Consumer Information

Tracking Peccaries, Primates

Northland College-Costa Rican Wildlife Project

May 17, 2019

Share

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • email
  • Starting in 2015, Northland College researchers began collecting data on primates in Costa Rica.
    Starting in 2015, Northland College researchers began collecting data on primates in Costa Rica.
  • 2019. Jen Franke and Costa Rican research partner Alejandro Azofeifa.
    2019. Jen Franke and Costa Rican research partner Alejandro Azofeifa.
  • Howler monkeys start making noise at 3 a.m. but Franke didn’t mind—howler monkeys were actually the point.
    Howler monkeys start making noise at 3 a.m. but Franke didn’t mind—howler monkeys were actually the point.
  • 2018. "The six weeks I spent camera trapping for large cats in Costa Rica's national parks was the highlight of my Northland career," said Max Beal.
    2018. "The six weeks I spent camera trapping for large cats in Costa Rica's national parks was the highlight of my Northland career," said Max Beal.
  • The poaching of peccaries is hypothesized to be responsible for the decline in jaguars.
    The poaching of peccaries is hypothesized to be responsible for the decline in jaguars.
  • 2015. Parker Matzinger spent three months in Costa Rica establishing cameras and learning the best and most efficient ways to monitor wildlife.
    2015. Parker Matzinger spent three months in Costa Rica establishing cameras and learning the best and most efficient ways to monitor wildlife.

For five weeks, Jennifer Franke hiked the pathways of a Costa Rican park, checking trail cams and looking for signs of wildlife. She slept at ranger stations, awoken each morning by the noisy chorus of howler monkey troupes. “Alpha males making their roaring vocal displays,” she said.

This usually started at 3 a.m. but Franke didn’t mind—howler monkeys were actually the point.

With $2,500 in funding from the Parker Matzinger Internship of Impact Award and the Robert Rue Parsonage Fund for Student Opportunities, Franke traveled to Costa Rica to assist with a long-term wildlife monitoring project and to do her own research on primates.

Franke is a biology major and the third student to participate in a five-year project between Professor Erik Olson’s Wildlife Research Laboratory and the Costa Rican National Parks Service to collect data on animals including two species of peccaries, a pig-like mammal. In Costa Rica, the poaching of peccaries has led to a decline in the jaguar population.

Franke said she first heard about this research from the first student to participate—Parker Matzinger ‘16. He presented his 2015 research at her prospective student scholarship dinner.

“I remember being in awe of all he had experienced and accomplished as an undergrad student and wished, without any expectation of doing so, that I could someday follow in his footsteps,” she said.

Matzinger died in 2017 of natural causes, doing field research in Panama. His family established the Parker Matzinger Internship of Impact Award to honor his legacy. Max Beal became the first recipient of the award in 2018, spending six weeks in Costa Rica to continue the research.

“Parker is continuing to have positive impacts on this project and on the lives of students,” Olson said. “Max and Jen’s experiences are a great example of that.”

Like Olson, Matzinger, and Beal before her, Franke checked trail cameras, organized and entered camera trap data. She also focused on primate population densities. Parker and Olson conducted the first primate survey; Beal the second. “Primates are very rarely captured on trail cameras since they are usually above the camera’s view,” Franke said. “So you need your eyes and observations skills to document them.”

Costa Rica has four species of primates—Geoffroy’s spider monkeys, listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation Nature, squirrel monkeys, white-faced capuchins, and those rowdy, early morning risers, the howler monkeys. Franke says she had time and opportunity to record data on the primates’ presence and group compositions.

“Franke’s survey will help us better document the distribution and abundance of the primate species of Corcovado,” Olson said.

Franke, who has studied Spanish, says one of the highlights of her five weeks was assisting a wildlife veterinarian outfit white-lipped peccaries with GPS collars. “I spoke with her about her career path and it gives me a thrill to think that I could possibly be a part of the wildlife research realm in my future, helping to create and perpetuate positive change for the environment and our fellow inhabitants,” Franke said.

She’s off to a good start. After returning from Costa Rica, Franke packed her bags for Florida where she’ll be interning at the Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge in Navarre this summer, learning and assisting in wildlife rehabilitation of terrestrial animals and marine mammals.

Meet More of Our Students

  • Northland College student Emma Holtan

    The Chequamegon Bay Region Spoke and the IJC Listened

    In September of 2019, the Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation…

    The Chequamegon Bay Region Spoke and the IJC Listened
  • Northland College student Adrian Bethel

    A Winning Combination

    Hometown: Eau Claire, Wisconsin Year: Junior Major: Forestry Position: Pitcher, Right Field Did…

    A Winning Combination
  • Northland College student Bailey Givens

    Reflections of a First Year Student

    Hometown: Portland, Oregon Year: Freshman Major: Sustainable Community Development Sport: Cross Country…

    Reflections of a First Year Student
  • Northland College students search for orchids as part of research project.

    The Orchid Hunters

    Last summer, students Adrian Bethel and recent graduate Lauren Sloyer ’19 battled…

    The Orchid Hunters
  • Northland College students Aaron and Sarah Houle stand in the Fitness Center

    Houle Siblings Play Ball

    Aaron and Sarah Houle of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, grew up around basketball—their…

    Houle Siblings Play Ball
  • Northland College student Jimmy Moore in downtown Ashland.

    Ashland Is Home

    Just west of where the Missouri meets the Mississippi lies a growing…

    Ashland Is Home
  • Visit
  • Info
  • Apply
  • Enroll

News

  • Walking in Sigurd Olson’s Footsteps

    About the time Sigurd F. Olson was crafting his first book, The…

  • COVID Campus Communication

    » Read our COVID Campus Plan » Read our Campus COVID FAQ…

  • Your Family Veterinarian

    Margaret Koosmann ’10 grew up on a five-generation beef farm, twenty minutes…

  • Embracing the North

    Robert Rue Parsonage, Northland’s president from 1987-2002, made an imprint as indelible…

  • IJC Releases Recommendations

    The United States and Canada should work together to eliminate blue-green algae…

  • All You Have to Do Is Ask

    At a small school, connections are easily made, and countless doors can…

  • Platypuses Capture Worldwide Imagination

    Northland faculty and alumni have created a well-needed bit of fun in…

  • Alumni Sew Masks for Incoming Students

    When the pandemic hit, Nancy Carey Mullenbrock ’78 got to work doing…

  • Rethinking Plantation Tourism 

    I remember the first time I was invited to visit a plantation…

  • Peter Annin Recognized for Excellence

    The Great Lakes Protection Fund—the world’s first ecosystem endowment—named three individuals and…

News Archive »

1411 Ellis Avenue
Ashland, WI 54806
(715) 682-1699 | Map
  • About Northland
  • Consumer Information
  • Privacy Policy
  • Take a Class
  • Employment
  • Campus Store

my.northland.edu

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2021 Northland College. All rights reserved.

https://www.northland.edu/news/biology-news/tracking-peccaries-primates

Our website uses cookies for necessary functions and to enhance your browsing experience. Learn more in our Privacy Policy.

Accept & Continue