Dillon Sapena

Dillon Sapena is a master’s student and Boone and Crockett Fellow at the University of Montana. Beginning in 2022, he worked with Colorado Parks and Wildlife as a technician to collect statewide occupancy data on White-tailed Ptarmigan. These secretive alpine grouse are sensitive to heat and recent increases in summer temperatures, along with changes to their tundra habitats and annual snowfall patterns, may be influencing female survival and reproductive behaviors. Dillon is integrating radio-collar data from 91 collared females, temperature and habitat measurements, and behavioral observations to evaluate how female White-tailed Ptarmigan are responding to these environmental changes. So far, he has spent two seasons collecting field data in the mountains of central and southern Colorado and analyses are now under way. These data intend to illuminate potential mechanisms driving population changes recently observed in Colorado, and to inform the harvest management and conservation of White-tailed Ptarmigan within the state.