Madelon Van de Kerk

Dr. Van de Kerk is a dedicated wildlife ecologist who focuses on quantitative tools and methods that can be applied to advance wildlife management and conservation. She has worked on projects all over the world and the United States, from remote tropical islands in Indonesia to large game reserves in South Africa, and from Everglades National Park in Florida to the remote wilderness of Alaska. She has researched and published on species in a variety of ecosystems, including mule deer, dall sheep, mountain lions, macaques, black bears, green sea turtles, coral reef fish and brown shrimp. Born and raised in the Netherlands, Dr. Van de Kerk originally moved to the United States in 2011 to study Florida panthers, and fell in love with the Intermountain West soon after. She has been at Western since the summer of 2021, where she teaches students about quantitative techniques in wildlife research and advises graduate students in the M.S. in Ecology program.

Publications

• M. van de Kerk, S. Arthur, M. Bertram, B. Borg J. Herriges, J. Lawler, B. Mangipane, C. Lambert Koizumi, B. Wendling, L. Prugh, 2020. ‘Environmental influences on Dall’s sheep survival’. Journal of Wildlife Management 84:1127-1138.
• M. van de Kerk, B. McMillan, K. Hersey, A. Roug, R. Larsen, 2020. ‘Effect of net-gun capture on survival of mule deer’. Journal of Wildlife Management 84:813-820.
• D. Smedley, M. van de Kerk, B. McMillan, K. Hersey, J. Whiting, R. Larsen, 2019. ‘Movements, space use and site fidelity of translocated and resident mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus)’. Wildlife Research 46:509-517.
• M. van de Kerk, D. Onorato, J. Hostetler, B. Bolker, M. Oli, 2019. ‘Dynamics, persistence, and genetic management of the endangered Florida panther’. Wildlife Monographs 203:3-35. **The Wildlife Society Award Winner**
• D. Karelus, W. McCown, B. Scheick, M. van de Kerk, B. Bolker, M. Oli, 2019. ‘Incorporating movement patterns to discern habitat selection: black bears as a case study’. Wildlife Research 46:76-88.
• L. Prugh, K. Sivy, P. Mahoney, T. Ganz, M. Ditmer, M. van de Kerk, S. Gilbert, R. Montgomery, 2019. ‘Designing studies of predation risk for improved inference in carnivore-ungulate systems’. Biological Conservation 232:194-207.
• J. Anderson, M. van de Kerk, W. Pine, M. Hostetler, D. Heard, S. Johnson, 2019. ‘Population estimate and management options for an introduced rhesus macaque population’. Journal of Wildlife Management 83:295-303.
• M. van de Kerk, D. Verbyla, A. Nolin, K. Sivy, L. Prugh, 2018. ‘Range-wide variation in the effect of spring snow phenology on Dall sheep population dynamics’. Environmental Research Letters 13:075008.
• M. Criffield, M. van de Kerk, E. Leone, M. Cunningham, D. Land, M. Lotz, M. Oli, D. Onorato, 2018. ‘Assessing impacts of intrinsic and extrinsic factors on Florida panther movements’. Journal of Mammology 99:702-712.
• D. Verbyla, T. Hegel, A. Nolin, M. van de Kerk, T. Kurkowski, L. Prugh, 2017. ‘Remote sensing of 2000–2016 alpine spring snowline elevation in Dall sheep mountain ranges of Alaska and western Canada’. Remote Sensing 9:1157-1175.
• D. Karelus, W. McCown, B. Scheick, M. van de Kerk, B. Bolker, M. Oli, 2017. ‘Effects of environmental factors and landscape features on movement patterns of Florida black bears’. Journal of Mammalogy 98:1463–1478.
• C. Littles, M. van de Kerk, O. Saucedo, K. Lorenzen, 2017. ‘A framework for exploring how density dependence early in the life history can affect Louisiana’s brown shrimp fishery’. Marine and Coastal Fisheries 9:419-431.
• M. van de Kerk, C. Littles, O. Saucedo, K. Lorenzen, 2016. ‘The effect of latitudinal variation on shrimp reproductive strategies.’ PloS ONE 11(5):e0155266.
• D. Karelus, W. McCown, B. Scheick, M. van de Kerk, M. Oli. 2016. ‘Home ranges and habitat selection by black bears in a newly colonized population in Florida’. Southeastern Naturalist 15:346–364.
• M. van de Kerk, D. Onorato, M. Criffield, B. Bolker, S. McKinley, M. Oli, 2015. ‘Hidden semi-Markov models reveal multiphasic movement of the endangered Florida panther’. Journal of Animal Ecology 84: 576–585.
• M. van de Kerk, D. Onorato, M. Oli, 2015. ‘The Florida panther: past, present and future.’ WEC357, Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Department, UF/IFAS Extension paper.
• M. Christianen, P. Herman, T. Bouma, L. Lamers, M. van Katwijk, T. van der Heide, P. Mumby, B. Silliman, S. Engelhard, M. van de Kerk, W. Kiswara, J. van de Koppel, 2014. ‘Habitat collapse due to overgrazing threatens turtle conservation in marine protected areas’. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 281:20132890.
• M. van de Kerk, H. de Kroon, D. Conde, E. Jongejans, 2013. ‘Carnivora population dynamics are as slow and as fast as those of other mammals: implications for their conservation’. PloS ONE 8(8):e70354.
• C. Huijbers, I. Nagelkerken, L. Govers, M. van de Kerk, J. Oldenburger, J. de Brouwer, 2011. ‘Habitat type and schooling interactively determine refuge-seeking behavior in a coral reef fish throughout ontogeny’. Marine Ecology Progress Series 437:241-251.