Hilary (Cruickshank) Cooley (RM ’97) headed west after graduation from the then at ̽̽ and landed in Laramie, Wyoming as a seasonal technician on a mountain lion (cougar) project at the University of Wyoming. The experience gave her direction and changed her life
Since then, Hilary has worked up close with cougars, wolves, polar bears, and grizzly bears throughout the West. She currently leads the based at the University of Montana in Missoula.
In Laramie, she learned to handle hound dogs to track and tree mountain lions for study. Hilary also learned that she wanted to continue working with this charismatic and often controversial species. With her own hound puppy, she headed to Washington State University (WSU), where she spent seven years earning a M.S. and a Ph.D. in wildlife biology with cougar expert Rob Wielgus, professor and director of the Large Carnivore Conservation Lab at WSU.
For her M.S. research beginning in 2002, Hilary studied cougar prey selection in Washington State. She tracked and radio-collared cougars and monitored what they were eating. She determined that cougars prey preferentially on mule deer over white-tailed deer in summer but not in winter.
“While white-tailed deer are more abundant in the ecosystem, cougars follow deer to higher elevations as they migrate to their summer ranges, resulting in a greater overlap with the less abundant mule deer populations and disproportionate predation on mule deer,” said Hilary, who received a National Science Foundation grant to continue her cougar research as a Ph.D. student.
She turned her attention to the impacts of hunting practices on cougar demographics. She found that hunting reduced survival rates and female population growth and contributed to an overall younger-aged population. This population shift resulted in cougars, primarily young males, immigrating into hunting-created vacancies on the landscape, which helped to maintain population densities and overall population growth rates.
“This propensity to disperse long-distances helps cougar populations to be amazingly resilient,” said Hilary.
Graduating with a Ph.D. in 2008, Hilary headed to Utah State University with her husband, Skye Cooley. While he did graduate work in geosciences, Hilary taught courses and consulted on mountain lion projects with the state.
Wolves
Moving to Idaho, Hilary took a job with the state Department of Fish and Game as a regional wolf biologist. With a long-time wolf trapper as her mentor, she trapped and radio-collared wolves to estimate statewide populations and reproductive success, through pup counts, as part of wolf recovery efforts.
In 2011 soon after the federal government de-listed wolves as endangered in Idaho and other northwestern states, Hilary began her tenure with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). As a wolf-carnivore coordinator, she headed up wolf management and recovery monitoring in Idaho and Washington State. She provided technical and policy assistance on conservation and management of not only wolves, but also grizzly bear, wolverine, and lynx.
Polar Bears
Hilary’s expanding expertise in management of large carnivores led to her next position as the polar bear program lead with the USFWS out of Anchorage, Alaska in 2015. She oversaw a polar bear research program on the Chukchi Sea and once again collared and tracked the animals to study the health of the population.
She was also responsible for implementing agreements with Russia for management of polar bear harvests in the Chukchi Sea and with Canada for conservation of polar bears in the Beaufort Sea. She helped to manage human-bear conflicts with gas and oil company workers and with coastal villages and tribal councils.
“All of the animals I work with are controversial, and I have learned to be comfortable with that,” said Hilary, now a recovery coordinator for grizzly bears with the USFWS in Missoula. “I am so lucky to be able to work with each of these species. Employers had faith in me even though I was not an expert in wolves or polar bears or grizzlies. Every job was a challenge, but I enjoyed applying the lessons I learned from previous positions.”
Grizzly Bears
Hilary is now learning how to recover and manage grizzly populations in areas of Idaho, Montana, Washington, and Wyoming that have bear habitat but may or may not have grizzlies. Certain areas have met or are close to grizzly recovery goals, such as the Greater Yellowstone Area, where grizzlies will be de-listed this summer, and the Northern Continental Divide, where populations are expanding beyond the recovery zone. Other locations, such as the North Cascades of Washington, have no grizzly bear populations and re-introduction is currently being evaluated.
“Historically, grizzlies declined along with all other large predators in the 1900s from human-caused mortality and reduction of habitat,” said Hilary, who works with state wildlife agencies, land management agencies, conservation organizations, and Canadian neighbors in Alberta and British Columbia to coordinate the grizzly recovery and de-listing process in the northwestern U.S. “Today, grizzly mortality is manageable, and the Fish and Wildlife Service and its partners have done a pretty good job to reinstate populations. Management agencies have restricted motorized vehicle access to grizzly areas and in Yellowstone, closed a number of livestock areas to prevent human-grizzly bear conflicts and resultant mortality.”
Hilary now spends a lot of her time on the ground talking with ranchers and landowners who are experiencing new conflicts that come with expanding grizzly bear populations. Although she spends less time in the field than she used to, she still manages to accompany other bear biologists on research and monitoring projects to help capture and radio-collar her carnivore subjects.
Hilary’s husband, Skye, a geologist, GIS specialist, and woodworker, who has provided years of support and field assistance on her many carnivore projects, is fond of asking “What has Hilary caught now?” He also renovates their home, wherever that might be at the moment. The couple owns a hound dog named Lucy and enjoys Nordic skiing, hiking, trail running, and biking — when not tracking lions and wolves and bears.