The majority of ecology research investigating habitat concealment of animals has focused on visual aspects of concealment. Yet, many vertebrates are mostly depredated by predators that hunt using scent (e.g., snakes and most mammals). Just as habitat can provide visual concealment, recent research shows that habitat can also provide olfactory concealment by altering airflow patterns (e.g., turbulence and updrafts) that influence how predators find prey. We have taken the novel approach of studying whether wildlife use habitat to conceal their scent.

Led by master's student Dillon Fogarty (below left), we conducted a study that was published in Ecology assessing how olfactory cover varies with vegetation type and how this variation affects predator detection of prey (below right). Dillon also studied whether ground-nesting birds use habitat to conceal their scents at nest sites (right). This work was conducted on the McFarlin-Ingersoll Ranch near Inola, Oklahoma, where we focused on the Northern Bobwhite and other grassland bird species.

We also mentored an undergrad researcher Riley Lawson, who led a side study evaluating which cues (olfactory vs. visual vs. both) an apex predator (coyote) uses to detect prey in deciduous forests. This project led to a paper that Riley first-authored and published in Canadian Journal of Zoology.