Wesley Sarmento

Wesley is currently a National Science Foundation Fellow at the University of Montana where he is studying bison reintroduction on the Blackfeet Reservation and Glacier International Peace Park for his PhD project with the Boone and Crocket program. He started his PhD program in 2024 and is focused on studying how bison restoration will influence the land and how predators and climate change will influence bison reintroduction success. Specifically, he will test if bison restoration causes a trophic cascade across multiple species at wetlands. Secondly, he will look at three pathways of how extreme heat will impact bison – thermoregulation, insect harassment, and reduced forage. Finally, he will experimentally test how bison respond to predation risk. Prior to his fellowship, he was a grizzly bear manager for Montana, Fish, Wildlife and Parks on the East Front of the Rockies where he developed new techniques to keep people safe and bears out of trouble. For his master’s research, he studied mountain goat response to shrinking snowpack and their interactions with bears and people. Beyond that, he lived in Mongolia for a year as a National Geographic Young Explorer and worked on a number of other projects as a field technician. He is a Blackfeet Descendent and grew up in Colorado. Both his master’s and bachelor’s degrees were from the University of Montana. In his free time, Wesley enjoys hunting, spending time with family, exploring new places, working with dogs/horses, and tinkering on his small farm.