Team Squirrel

Amanda N. Robin

Doctoral Candidate
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
UC Los Angeles

Hi! I am a National Science Foundation Graduate Student Research Fellow working in the lab of behavioral ecologist Dr. Peter Nonacs. I am broadly interested in how the environment, personality, and social setting influence decision making particularly when it comes to food-storing choices and space-use. My research seeks to combine traditional field observational methods with new technologies in novel ways to assist in the remote collection of cognitive and behavioral data of wild squirrels.

Cynthia Frausto

Doctoral Student
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
UC Los Angeles

I am a graduate student from the Ecology and Evolutionary department working in the Nonacs lab at UCLA. I graduated in 2020 with a B.A in Anthropology with a focus on biological anthropology and a minor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. I started my squirrelgazing career as a lead field assistant for food-storing research with Western grey squirrels and California ground squirrels. I am currently studying the invasive impact of human-introduced Eastern fox squirrels in the Pacific northwest and exploring how animal personality affects invasive behavior. I am particularly interested in investigating what allows invasive species to proliferate in novel environments and their potential impact on native species. My research will be carried out on Orcas Island in Washington where an introduced Eastern fox squirrel population may pose a threat to the native Douglas squirrel.