Eleanor Gnam
she/her
MSc Student
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Discipline
Behaviour, Conservation, Population Dynamics, Reproductive Biology & Life History, Migration & Movement Ecology
Regional Focus
Witless Bay, Newfoundland
Years Active
3-5 years
Species Focus
Storm-Petrels (Hydrobatidae & Oceanitidae)
Tell us about your work with seabirds.
I study prospecting behaviour in pre-breeding Leach's storm-petrels. I started studying Leach's storm-petrels on Great Duck Island in Maine, where my undergraduate thesis focused on population monitoring and census methods. I am now a graduate student at Memorial University of Newfoundland in the Cognitive and Behavioural Ecology program, where I am supervised by Dr. David Wilson. I am interested in why and how Leach's storm-petrels prospect at colony sites prior to breeding and in how population monitoring and conservation tactics can account for pre-breeding birds. My fieldwork will involve a combination of radio telemetry, acoustic monitoring, and mist-netting.
What advice would you offer to individuals aspiring to pursue a career as seabird scientists?
I think science is driven by broad-reaching curiosity about the world. My undergraduate education was very interdisciplinary, and it taught me that you can learn a lot from and be inspired by talking to lawyers, artists, writers, politicians, and other non-scientists if you approach them with curiosity. Understanding and thinking critically about those other perspectives and how they relate to your research can make you a better scientist.
Eleanor holding two Herring Gull chicks, standing on a rocky berm with the ocean in the background. This picture was taken during chick banding efforts on Great Duck Island in the Gulf of Maine, and these chicks were two of more than a hundred banded that day.
Email:
Website:
Twitter:
Instagram: