Amanda Veals, PhD

Research Associate at the Borderlands Research Institute at Sul Ross State University

Amanda Veals is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at the Ceasar Kleberge Wildlife Research Institute with Texas A&M University-Kingsville. Her research interests include wildlife-habitat relationships as well as how behavior informs this relationship. Amanda’s current research is on the resource selection and landscape connectivity of the ocelot in south Texas. The critically endangered ocelot only occurs on Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge and several Texas ranches, including the East Foundation’s El Sauz Ranch. Amanda is using a 35-year telemetry dataset to examine spatial and temporal variation in resource selection to gain insights into ocelot behavior. She hopes that her work can be used to inform the placement of future road crossing structures to mitigate ocelot-vehicle collisions.

Amanda is originally from Phoenix, Arizona. Amanda earned a Bachelor of Science in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology  at University of Arizona. She stayed at the University of Arizona t pursue a Master of Science in Natural Resources: Wildlife Conservation and Management, where she studied the habitat use, home range, and occupancy of gray foxes to inform rabies management in the southwestern United States. Amanda’s long term goals are to continue a career in research in order to provide insights for management issues with a science-based approach.