Caroline is completing her undergraduate Honours  degree in the Department of Natural Resource Science.  She is examing the persistence of rattlesnake rookeries following the large Nk’Mip wildfire that ripped across our Osoyoos study site in 2021.   More specifically, she is using the project’s database (drawing heavily from Dana Eye’s work) to revisit rookeries and determine if gravid females are continuing to use the same locations, despite the fact the vast majority of rookeries were burnt over.  She also will be using our historic  mark/recapture data to ascertain whether the females she found during her 2023 field season were previously located at the same or different rookery sites.

Caroline can be reached at lafondc22[at]mytru.ca.   Her field work is conducted on the traditional, unceded lands of the Osoyoos Indian Band, in partnership and logistical support by the Desert Cultural Centre.  Financial support has come from the Aboriginal Fund for Species At Risk.