Don Church, Ph.D.
Board of Directors
Our People
Board of Directors
Our People
Dr. Church works to identify global conservation priorities and conducts fieldwork with local partners to develop projects aimed at conserving globally threatened species and their habitats. Many of these priority sites are known, and more are being discovered, as GWC and partner organizations explore the planet’s most remote locations. Once a site has been identified as important to the persistence of one or more species, Don and his colleagues look for and create opportunities to protect the key habitats, and develop long-term programs that ensure conservation of the site’s biodiversity. Opportunities typically arise through active engagement with local conservationists, governments, and organizations. While taking steps to catalyze and act on conservation opportunities, GWC works with local partners to build the capacity necessary to implement and sustain projects.
Education
- Ph.D., Biology, University of Virginia
- M.S., Biology, Southeastern Louisiana University
- B.S., Zoology, University of Washington
- Conservation Biology
- Herpetology
- Establishing Protected Areas
Don Church is a wildlife biologist with specialties in herpetology and establishing new protected areas. He works to identify global conservation priorities and conducts fieldwork with local partners to develop projects aimed at conserving globally threatened species and their habitats. His primary focus is to protect the last remaining habitats for the world’s most threatened species. Many of these key sites are known and more are being discovered as GWC and partner organizations explore the planet’s most remote locations. Once a site has been identified as critical to the persistence of one or more species, Don and his colleagues look for and create opportunities to protect the key habitats, and develop programs that ensure the conservation of the site’s biodiversity. Opportunities typically arise through active engagement with local conservationists, government, and organizations. While taking steps to catalyze and act on conservation opportunities, GWC works with local partners to build the capacity necessary to implement and sustain projects.
Don’s research focuses on applying methods in population ecology to help design species management plans, and address broader conceptual problems in understanding population dynamics. The goal of this research is always to aid the conservation of threatened wildlife populations. Together with GWC colleagues and local partners, Don typically conducts field studies to acquire natural history data from which demographic parameters, such as survival rates, can be estimated. Then, these demographic estimates are used in matrix population models to explore the viability of populations and how they are likely to respond to different management scenarios. Whenever possible, environmental forecasts, such as predicted changes in climate and landscape, are integrated to see how populations will respond to future conditions. The goal of these studies is to design protected areas and conservation programs that will be effective over the long-term.
In addition, Don works with captive breeding facilities, particularly zoos in the US and Europe, to further the conservation of amphibians and reptiles. He has been maintaining and breeding reptiles for 25 years and has recently specialized in breeding Knobtail Geckos, Gila Monsters, and Emerald Tree Boas. In the mid-1990's he managed a large collection of pythons for the US government and studied how they sense infrared radiation. Together with other colleagues at GWC, he now works to integrate captive breeding programs with field studies, reintroduction programs, and protected area management to maximize the conservation impact for threatened species of amphibians, reptiles, and other animals.
Church, D. R., C. Gascon, M. Van Fossen, A. Grisel, and C., L. A. Solorzano. 2009. Testing the efficiency of global-scale conservation planning using data on Andean amphibians. In: Setting conservation targets for managed forest landscapes. Editors: M. A. Villard and B. D. Jonsson.
Bailey, L. L., W. L. Kendall, and D. R. Church. 2009. Exploring extensions to multi-state models with multiple unobservable states. Pages 693-709 in David L. Thomson, Evan G. Cooch, and Michael J. Conroy, editors. Modeling demographic processes in marked populations. Environmental and ecological statistics 3. Springer, New York and London. xxiv, 1136 pp.
Morris, W.F., C.A. Pfister, S. Tuljapurkar, C.V. Haridas, C. Boggs, M.S. Boyce, E.M. Bruna, D.R. Church, T. Coulson, D.F. Doak, S. Forsyth, J.M. Gaillard, C.C. Horvitz, S. Kalisz, B.E. Kendall, T.M. Knight, C.T. Lee, and E.S. Menges. 2008. Longevity determines sensitivity of plant and animal populations to changing climatic variability. Ecology 89:19-25.
Church, D. R. 2008. Role of current versus historical hydrology in amphibian species turnover within local pond communities. Copeia:115-125.
Church, D. R., H. M. Wilbur, L. L. Bailey, W. L. Kendall, and J. Hines. 2007. Iteroparity in the variable environment of the salamander Ambystoma tigrinum. Ecology 88:891-903.
Ricketts, T., E. Dinerstein, T. Boucher, T. M. Brooks, S. H. M. Butchart, M. Hoffmann, J. Lamoreux, J. Morrison, M. Parr, J. D. Pilgrim, A. S. L. Rodrigues, W. Sechrest, G. E. Wallace, K. Berlin, J. Bielby, N. D. Burgess, D. R. Church, N. Cox, D. Knox, C. Loucks, G. W. Luck, L. L. Master, R. Moore, R. Naidoo, R. Ridgely, G. E. Schatz, G. Shire, H. Strand, W. Wettengel, and E. Wikramanayake. 2005. Pinpointing and preventing imminent extinctions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 102:18497-18501.
Mittermeier, R. A., and e. al. 2004. Introduction: Global Priority Setting for Biodiversity Conservation. Pages 19-68 in R. A. Mittermeier, P. Robles Gil, M. Hoffmann, J. Pilgrim, T. Brooks, C. G. Mittermeier, J. Lamoreux, and G. A. B. da Fonseca, editors. Hotspots Revisited: Earth's Biologically Richest and Most Endangered Terrestrial Ecoregions. Conservation International, Washington, D.C.
Bailey, L.L., W.L. Kendall, D.R. Church, and H.M. Wilbur. 2004. Estimating survival and breeding probabilities for pond-breeding amphibians using a modified robust design. Ecology 85: 2456-2466.
Church, S.A., J. M. Kraus, J. C. Mitchell, D. R. Church, and D. R. Taylor. 2003. Evidence for multiple Pleistocene refugia in the postglacial expansion of the eastern tiger salamander, Ambystoma tigrinum tigrinum. Evolution 57:372-383.
Church, D. R., H. M. Wilbur, S. M. Roble, F. C. Huber, and M. W. Donahue. 2003. Observations on breeding by eastern spadefoots (Scaphiopus holbrookii) in Augusta County, Virginia. Banisteria 20:21-24.
Church, D. R. and J. C. Mitchell. 2003. Coluber constrictor constrictor. Winter activity. Herpetological Review 34:62-63.
Grace, M. S. and D. R. Church. 2003. Ambystoma maculatum. Vernal migration. Herpetological Review 34:44-45.
Mitchell, J. C. and D. R. Church. 2003. Leucistic marbled salamanders (Ambystoma opacum) in Virginia. Banisteria 19:8-10.
Church, D. R. and R. K. Okazaki. 2002. Seasonal variation of plasma testosterone titres in male redback salamanders, Plethodon cinereus. Amphibia-Reptilia 23:93-97.
Grace, M. S., O. M. Woodward, D. R. Church, and G. Calisch. 2001. Prey targeting by the infrared-imaging snake Python molurus: effects of experimental and congenital visual deprivation. Behavioural Brain Research 119(1):23-31.
Campbell, A. L., T. A. Bunning, M. O. Stone, D. R. Church, and M. S. Grace. 1999. Surface ultrastructure of pit organ, spectacle, and non-pit organ epidermis of infrared-imaging boid snakes: A scanning probe and scanning electron microscopy study. Journal of Structural Biology 126:105-120.
Grace, M. S., D. R. Church, C. Kelley, and T. M. Cooper. 1999. The Python pit organ: immunocytochemical and imaging analysis of a sensitive natural infrared detector. Biosensors and Bioelectronics 14:53-59.
Sever, D. A., J. S. Doody, C. A. Reddish, M. M. Wenner, and D. R. Church. 1996. Sperm storage in spermathecae of the Great Lamper Eel (Amphiuma tridactylum). Journal of Morphology 230:79-97.
Dunlap, K. D. and D. R. Church. 1996. Interleukin-1β reduces daily activity level in male lizards, Sceloporous occidentalis. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity 10:68-73.
Doody, J. S., D. R. Church, R. A. Anderson, A. Meier, and P. Connelly. 1995. Geographic distribution extension of the salamander Amphiuma means in Louisiana. New Parish record. Herpetological Review 26:150.
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