Video Transcript
[Caitlyn Davis, BSU Raptor Biology Program alum and current raptor biologist]: The room I grew up in had high windows, and I had a loft bed because it was so small. I could see the highway from my window and hear it every night. Definitely nothing like where I live now. I didn’t really even imagine it honestly ‘cause nobody talked about the West. Nobody I knew like was from the West. I was like, how did nobody tell me about this! Nobody told me about this growing up, this is insane! All I wanted to do like starting college, even in high school and stuff, I was like I want to be an ecologist. So like I didn’t even know what that was and I wrote it down: I was like I know that has to do with animals and their environment.
After college, I was a little bit lost and didn’t know what I was gonna do, and my friend and I decided to go on a road trip. We started some backpacking trips and they were amazing, and saw mountains for the first time. The pack I had was my stepdads external frame giant pack and this one is that first one of my first backpacking trips. And we were just like: what is this, what is this place, like I had no idea and I just fell in love with it and I couldn’t leave I just couldn’t.
I would tell people I just wanna be Jane Goodall and live in the rainforest, learn about the world myself, not just from reading or watching movies but like actually figuring it out.
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I have had to deal with feeling inferior as a woman in this field. Just like assuming that you can’t hike as far you can’t carry as much weight, you can’t ride an ATV.
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The sage steppe ecosystem – so the ecosystem we’re in right now – is one of the most heavily imperiled ecosystems due to these multiple increasing anthropogenic impacts. Habitat degradation, human activity, invasive species, climate change – all of these impacts are affecting species at lower levels of the food chain which then also impacts Golden Eagles. A golden eagle up close is so incredible. They’re about two and a half feet, all dark bird with this amazing golden nape and these huge yellow eyes that are marbled with like black and brown swirls.
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What we are trying to figure out is how these impacts are working together. So how is eagle reproduction and productivity affected by the changes that are made in this ecosystem by human impacts.
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Babies right there, we’re gonna set up rappel. Feel free to set up – well, you want to be really, really careful. I wouldn’t stand right here because these are loose rocks, and that could kill the baby. But the baby’s right there, there’s a baby bunny right there too. They’re so calm and just like calming to you. You’re just like in awe of their presence but also like know that as long as top predators exist something’s going right in the ecosystem.
Okay, I’m in here. No that’s actually good. Hey buddy. I’m gonna look in his mouth – oh man, he does have trick! My dad called me today when I was in the nest, I don’t know if you guys heard that but I was just like I have to answer this real quick just to tell him like, hey can’t talk I’m in an eagle nest, ‘cause I hadn’t talked to him in a little while and I was like “Hey, I’m in an eagle nest.” and he was like “Oh, okay.” like I don’t think he really knows how great, like if he was watching it he’d be like, “Oh my god, this is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen!” but because he’s like “Oh, this is normal, my daughter does weird things in places I’ve never seen and I don’t know about.” so it’s just like, out of sight out of mind kind of thing. It’s like oh oh yeah she’s in eagle nests, whatever. But if he actually saw it, it would be like “What?!”
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I do feel like I’m living my dream, for sure. If I had to give one piece of advice to my twelve-year-old self: this world exists and you can do it and you can start now. The women that came before us had to overcome a lot more and they kind of paved the way for us.
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