Julie K. Young
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drjuliekyoung.bsky.social
Julie K. Young
@drjuliekyoung.bsky.social
1.5K followers 130 following 120 posts
Scientist. Associate Professor & Institute Director. I research wildlife ecology & animal behavior, primarily studying carnivores, their prey, & beavers to reduce conflicts and increase coexistence | she, her
https://drjuliekyoung.weebly.com
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drjuliekyoung.bsky.social
Morning panel at the Red Wolf workshop. 🧪🐺
Joe, Lovin, Emily, and Julie behind Red Wolf SAFE sign.
July 17, 2025 at 6:07 PM
drjuliekyoung.bsky.social
Meet Patches, as the cemetery staff call him.
Ref fox laying in grass at a cemetery, missing 1 eye
June 28, 2025 at 2:42 PM
drjuliekyoung.bsky.social
Back to urban wildlife work 🧪🦊🤞
Hanging lure in a box trap for red fox 🦊
June 27, 2025 at 1:20 PM
drjuliekyoung.bsky.social
Our original design was primitive (I'm a biologist not an engineer!) but an engineer made a slick new design and a private company has agreed to produce them!!! 👨‍🔬🧪🐑🐺🐄
Beta design of Flashtag on domestic sheep
May 28, 2025 at 9:34 PM
drjuliekyoung.bsky.social
OK, not exactly but we made FlashTags for livestock and it works! 🧪🐺🐑🐄
Check out the paper here:
digitalcommons.usu.edu/hwi/vol18/is...

And footage here:
May 28, 2025 at 9:34 PM
drjuliekyoung.bsky.social
The bears like our [duct tape] hair snare! 😍🧪🐻
Mother and 2 black bear cubs at a hair snares made of duct tape Black Bear cub hugging hair snare tree with mom in foreground
May 19, 2025 at 3:22 PM
drjuliekyoung.bsky.social
Anna Miller and I spent this week with MS student Sara and her fantastic techs building hair snares in Michigan for our Baldwin Black Bear Project. Hoping for lots of samples! 🐻🤞🐻
Sara Fischer at hair snares for bears in Michigan
May 9, 2025 at 3:23 AM
drjuliekyoung.bsky.social
Apparently we get mistaken for one another (why?). But it's fun to have a gang of female biologists who study carnivores!
Marcella Kelly, Dana Morin, and me at the Eastern black bear workshop
April 9, 2025 at 2:29 AM
drjuliekyoung.bsky.social
Last week I visited a grad student at her field site in California where we are testing nonlethal deterrents to prevent livestock depredation by mountain lions. Glad so many livestock owners will participate in our research!
Dan Macon & Julie Young build a visual barrier.
March 4, 2025 at 8:51 PM
drjuliekyoung.bsky.social
Special issue on mountain lions is out and includes our article on experimentally testing hazing of mountain lions with hounds. You can download it for free here: cwbm.ca/evaluating-t...
three hound dogs, two are brown and one is black, at a base of a tree, baying and looking up. A mountain lion is out of sight, higher up in the tree, but was treed by these dogs. The sun is shining through the trees at an angle typical of early morning light.
December 27, 2024 at 2:01 AM
drjuliekyoung.bsky.social
We are meeting with a lot of county agriculture commissioners right now as we prepare to launch a new study (in January) on reducing livestock🐂🐑🐐🦙depredation by cougars🐱 in California. I hope we can get lots of #LivestockOwners to participate!
One-page announcement describing a new research project to assess non-lethal tools for reducing depredation by mountain lions. The one-pager describes and shows the tools to be used (pursuit with hounds and hazing, turbo fladry, barrier fences, and radio-/motion-activated scare devices) and gives details on people to contact. Email julie.young@usu.edu if you want this as a word doc.
December 7, 2024 at 8:01 PM
drjuliekyoung.bsky.social
Our new paper was just published on the survival of feral pigs 🐖in the presence of cougars 🦁. Juvenile mortality was mostly due to predation & road kill, not so for adults.

This is part of Mitch's PhD work with CDFW, NWRC, & DoD. We should have more soon! 🧪
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Camera trap image of 3 baby feral pigs, all are brown and foraging.
November 27, 2024 at 4:42 PM
drjuliekyoung.bsky.social
Livestock Guardian Dogs 🐶are another non-lethal deterrent. Here's how they:
1. do @ protecting sheep
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
2. behave
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
3. move
www-jstor-org.dist.lib.usu.edu/stable/27316...
4. impact wildlife
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Karakachan dog standing in front of a herd of domestic sheep.
November 22, 2024 at 8:26 PM
drjuliekyoung.bsky.social
Co-authors include people from Wildlife Services AND a lawyer for a NGO (that sues WS regularly). Bottom line - find common goals and accomplish them together. We were able to connect with more resources 💰🤑 and ranchers this way, which resulted in fewer dead livestock and fewer dead wolves.
Example of turbo fladry on a ranch in Idaho (pic by the NGO). Shows red flags (think of flag football tassles) blowing in wind off a line of poly wire for electric current to make this turbo fladry. Mountains and person in background - person is walking the fladry line to check on it and for scale.
November 20, 2024 at 3:57 PM
drjuliekyoung.bsky.social
Post a picture you took (no description) to bring some zen to the timeline
Hiking trail in AZ, covered in light snow, lined with ponderosa pines
November 16, 2024 at 4:59 PM
drjuliekyoung.bsky.social
New publication on maternal care by cougars and the influence it has on kitten survival rates! TLDR: more experience + more care = better kitten survival. Details @ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 🧪
Female cougar with GPS collar and two kittens at a kill site, caught on a camera trap.
February 11, 2024 at 4:03 PM
drjuliekyoung.bsky.social
Big week for my lab. One PhD student has his oral exam tomorrow and another defends her dissertation Thursday. Today we got a chapter accepted for publication! Plus the cat QR...
PhD talk announcement
November 28, 2023 at 1:13 AM
drjuliekyoung.bsky.social
We're hiring an Assistant Professor in Movement Ecology!!! 🧪 Come to an amazing department and place to live.
careers-usu.icims.com/jobs/7097/job
Page 1 of job description as a pdf. I can send this to you directly via email! Page 2 of the pdf. Happy to email this to anyone interested in applying!
October 8, 2023 at 10:51 PM
drjuliekyoung.bsky.social
Fieldwork went great but puppy breaks were the best part. 🧪
Range rider petting puppies.
October 5, 2023 at 2:50 AM
drjuliekyoung.bsky.social
We did it! Got the last puzzle box and novel object set up for wolves here in the SE of Alaska. Thankful for all the local help to be so efficient and to pick spots wolves visit! Fingers crossed they do! 🧪
Frank and Keenan stand next to a puzzle box attached to a tree at the edge of a muskeg. Novel object, colorful magnet Lego-like tower, set on a log in a muskeg.
September 9, 2023 at 3:20 PM
drjuliekyoung.bsky.social
Getting lucky with the weather and our fieldwork placing puzzle boxes for wolves in SE Alaska. Can't wait to check cameras! 🧪
View of puzzle box attached to a tree and two camera traps on 2 other trees on Pleasant Island, Alaska.
September 6, 2023 at 9:09 PM
drjuliekyoung.bsky.social
Met with the welder who's almost as excited as I am to test this multi access puzzle box on wild wolves soon!
Metal puzzle box with 3 doors.
August 21, 2023 at 8:43 PM
drjuliekyoung.bsky.social
Submitted our final report for cougar work at 3 sites in Utah. End of an era but luckily we continue to work with UDWR on more carnivore work! Now to get the rest of the manuscripts completed and Kristin's defense date set...
Title page for final report to Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (UDWR), showing a newly collared adult female cougar and two ~5-week-old newly collared kittens.
August 2, 2023 at 11:52 PM
drjuliekyoung.bsky.social
Enjoyed spending a long weekend in the field with a PhD student and her techs. It was hot and hard work but smiles the whole time with the carnivore community project in the Nebo Mountains, Utah!
Camille carrying fenceposts from tear down of bear coral. The entire crew + me after setting camera traps Lindsey (PhD student) pulling hair off a rub pad. Sammy pouring cow blood+fish emulsion on a log pile at a bear coral.
July 31, 2023 at 7:41 PM