Kyle J. Shaney, PhD

I am a lifelong outdoorsman, explorer of wildlands, and scientist. I am currently an Assistant Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at Texas A&M University-Kingsville and AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow working for the Division of Environmental Biology at the National Science Foundation. I am a member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Crocodile Specialist Group and was awarded a National Geographic Young Explorer grant for my work with crocodilians in Sumatra. I received my PhD in Quantitative Biology from the University of Texas at Arlington in 2017 and worked as a postdoctoral researcher for two years in Mexico between 2018 and 2020 at the National Autonomous University in Mexico.

After growing up and exploring the high deserts of Northern Nevada, I worked and studied in multiple regions. My experience includes mountain lion ecology in northern Utah, Black bear population ecology in the Atchafalaya Basin of central Louisiana, crocodile ecology and conservation in Indonesia’s peat swamp forests, Wood bison restoration ecology along remote tributaries of the Yukon River in Alaska, and two seasons of wildland firefighting for the Bureau of Land Management in Nevada and Idaho in 2012 and 2018.