Celebrating Boise State’s first cohort of raptor biology alums: meet Eric Atkinson

When the program launched in 1987, Boise State was the only university in the U.S. with a Master in Raptor Biology. Today, it is still the only program of its kind in the country.

The 113 students who have matriculated through the program have changed the landscape of raptor and wildlife biology and conservation as educators, researchers and leaders in institutions and organizations such as the Bureau of Land Management, the United States Geologic Survey, The Peregrine Fund, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and countless universities and colleges across the country.

With over 30 years of active research and numerous published studies on various raptor species, including barn owls, burrowing owls, and his personal favorite, the screech owl, raptor biology professor and former director of the Raptor Research Center Jim Belthoff takes his greatest pride in the successes of his students.

"I think what I get the most satisfaction from is seeing the successes of all of the students that have come through, and all that they've been able to achieve. It's incredible when you put the list together of what our students have been able to do, the fact that many of our students are in high leadership positions for a variety of entities. Boise State, in regards to raptor biology, has a record of achievement that is literally amazing."

Catch up with the students who were part of that very first cohort and hear their stories.

Meet Eric Atkinson

"By the time I was five, I knew that I would either be a biologist or I would be Glen Campbell, because True Grit had just come out. By the time I was seven I was banding Brewer's blackbird nestlings with bread bag twist ties," Eric Atkinson said with a laugh.

Eric Atkinson with a pinyon jay. Photo retrieved from the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.

Atkinson is an associate professor of biology at Northwest College in Wyoming, but he grew up in Montana's idyllic Gallatin Valley and still lives in Montana's Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem today with his wife, Melonie, and their herd of Galloway Cattle-an ancient and fluffy, hornless Scottish cow breed.

Surrounded by beautiful nature and wildlife as a child, he "spent every waking hour outside, fishing, hunting, hiking." These formative years shaped a desire to engage in the biological and ecological study of all creatures.

To pursue an education in these topics, Atkinson began at Montana State University in Bozeman, and then completed a Bachelor of Science in Zoology at Oregon State University. There he fell in love with the undergraduate research experience and even stayed an extra year so that he could delve deeper into the world of research.

Atkinson holds all species as unique and intrinsically marvelous, but over time he began to devote extra attention to birds, such as songbirds and raptors, and a fascinating bird that straddles the line between them: shrikes.

If species of birds can be compared to genres of musicians, the shrike is definitely a hard rock or metal sort of bird. When it isn't making beautiful melodies, it is hunting and catching other birds or rodents and impaling them on barbed wires fences, thorns or branches to eat later.

Atkinson's interest in shrikes led him to a man who also found them quite marvelous, and ultimately to Boise State. A shared acquaintance suggested that if Atkinson was so interested in shrikes, he should speak with Tom Cade, CEO of The Peregrine Fund.

Atkinson loaded his golden retriever into his pick-up truck and set off from a marshy field site in Washington to meet Cade in Boise. Cade was serving as the Director of the Raptor Research Center in the newly formed Boise State Master in Raptor Biology program, and they spoke for over an hour about these incredible songbirds.

"I am holding an Ord's Kangaroo Rat as part of my small mammal trapping exercises in my Wildlife Management and Field Ecology classes. This is in Badger Basin in the Bighorn Basin, WY. My students learn to safely and ethically live trap, mark (nail polish or sharpie), and release small mammals like Kangaroo Rats and deer mice to learn about Mark-Recapture Modeling," said Atkinson. Photo provided by Eric Atkinson.

It was the start of a beautiful friendship and mentorship that Atkinson recalls fondly.

"My interaction with Tom Cade, that's what clinched it. Tom had this laugh that was just like a falcon. He was quiet, but he laughed a lot, and his eyes sparkled. He gave me so much respectful, responsible freedom. He let me bounce ideas off of him and he was always very supportive. In hindsight it really, really helped me grow as a biologist and a person."

Atkinson began his degree in the Fall of 1988 and again pushed off graduation so that he could finish the meaningful research that he'd begun in the program. He then came back multiple times to participate in various studies.

"When I look back at Boise State, it was an amazing experience," said Atkinson. "They were just phenomenal times in my life, and I really feel that it helped me, skill-wise, credential-wise, to really do anything I wanted to do."

"On my back is my granddaughter Kaycee Olmstead as we are looking for aquatic macroinvertebrates in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming, fall of 2022. I love stream ecology and kids often are as enthusiastic as I! " said Atkinson. "Plecopterans (stoneflies) are my favorite and I strongly recall Dr. Charlie Baker, an entomologist at Boise State and an amazing mentor. He gave my daughters Madagascar hissing cockroaches for a going away present when we moved to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, PA, where I was a research biologist in the mid-90s." Photo provided by Eric Atkinson.

When asked about how many species of birds and raptors he has worked with, Atkinson's eyes grow wide.

"Do you want a list?" he asked. He begins rattling off species like letters of the alphabet.

Ferruginous hawks, Swainson's hawk, great gray qwls, shrikes (northern and loggerhead), peregrine falcons,saw-whet owls, merlins, red-tailed hawks, rough-legged hawks, harlequin ducks. The list goes on.

Atkinson recalls surveying harlequin ducks as the most challenging field research he's ever done. The laborious task of walking upstream mountain river systems, over or through jams of branches and logs, slipping on wet stones and falling, and keeping ears and eyes constantly in tune for grizzlies is enough to frazzle the most field-hardened researcher. He conducted this work for Idaho Fish and Game as well as The Nature Conservancy, U.S. Forest Service, National Parks Service, and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks.

But for Atkinson, it was worth it to be part of the fowl's miraculous migration process.

"Harlequin ducks are the most wondrous ducks that breed in the Tetons, Glacier National Park, the Beartooths. The males depart after the female starts incubation and they go out to the [west] coast. The female then rears these young, and then she and her mate rendezvous on the Oregon or Washington coast in the surf. How do they do this?" Atkinson asked, perpetually in awe of nature's patterns.

This is a photo from when we stuck the NWC Suburban in the mud on our DeerDronesDisease project in a mule deer migration corridor. From left, me, Dylan Cordes, Heather Hoffman, Yosuke Kariya, and University of Wyoming doctoral student Anne Scholle. This was an INBRE supported project in the Spring 2022. My students ran the drone-mounted video cameras while Anne piloted. They also learned about very high frequency (VHF) radio telemetry and behavioral observations documenting aspects of decision making of mule deer herds when crossing barriers (roads, streams, fences) on migration and how Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) might spread at that time.

Now, in addition to teaching 18 years worth of students first-hand research skills in the Yellowstone Ecosystem - and serving as a freelance ecological researcher and consultant - Atkinson takes enormous pride in serving as the college's project lead on The IDeA Networks for Biomedical Research Excellence program, an NIH-funded endeavor that supports hands-on experiential research for undergraduates .

While at the Northwest College of Wyoming, Atkinson has prepared students for continuing education and professional opportunities by giving them field experience in avian disease research, as well as studying the antimicrobial characteristics of native aromatic plants like sagebrushes, the microbiome of Hymenoptera (ants, bees and wasps), and so much more.

"As community college faculty, we can invest funds and opportunities and experiences in undergraduates. That's what I'm really most pleased about," Atkinson said.

• By Brianne Phillips

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