About

Wayne Getz is a Professor Emeritus of Environment Science, Policy and Management. His research interests focus on the application of hybrid dynamical systems and agent-based models to address problems in disease, wildlife, movement, and evolutionary ecology, as well as global change and conservation biology. His lab works on a broad range of theoretical and applied questions in population and biology, with specific applications to epidemiology and conservation biology.

Research topics

• Environmental resource management
• Ecology
• Environmental planning
• Geography
• Political Science
• Biology
• Environmental science
• Medicine
• Economics
• Business
• Agroforestry

Selected publications

• Wild canids and felids differ in their reliance on reused travel routeways

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2025-09-29 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  Diverse factors, including environmental features and cognitive processes, can drive animals' movements and space use, with far-reaching implications. For example, repeated use of individual-level travel routeways (directionally constrained but imperfectly aligned routes), which results in spatial concentration of activity, can shape encounter-based processes including predation, mate finding, and disease transmission. However, how much variation in routeway usage exists across species remains unknown. By analyzing GPS movement tracks for 1,239 range-resident mammalian carnivores-representing 16 canid and 18 felid species from six continents-we found strong evidence of a clade-level difference in species' reliance on repeatedly used travel routeways. Across the global dataset, tracked canids had a 15% (±7 CI) greater density of routeways within their home ranges than did felids, rising to 33% (±16 CI) greater in landscapes shared with tracked felids. Moreover, comparisons within species across landscapes revealed broadly similar home range routeway densities despite habitat differences. On average, canids also reused their travel routeways more intensively than did felids, with hunting strategies and spatial contexts also contributing to the intensity of routeway usage. Collectively, our results suggest that key aspects of carnivore routeway-usage have an evolutionary component. Striking interspecific and clade-level differences in carnivores' reliance on reused travel routeways within home ranges identify important ways in which the movement patterns of real-world predators depart from classical assumptions of predator-prey theory. Because such departures can drive key aspects of human-wildlife interactions and other encounter-based processes, continued investigations of the relationships between movement mechanisms and space use are critical.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• An information theory framework for hierarchical path segmentation and analysis of animal movement

  Ecological Informatics · 2025-09-24

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Improved animal tracking technologies provide opportunities for novel segmentation of movement tracks/paths into both behavioral activity modes (BAMs; e.g., foraging, resting, commuting) and finer segments critical to our understanding of the movement ecology of individuals and, hence, the functioning of ecosystems. Current BAM segmentation methods include biological change point analysis (BCPA) and hidden Markov models (HMM). Here we use a bottom-up approach providing a two-tier sub-BAM fixed-length segmentation of animal tracks into μ-step-long “base segments” (ultra-fine tier, “letters” or “symbols”) and m-base-segment-long “words” (fine tier). The base segments are clustered into n statistical movement element (StaME) categories. The word segments, consisting of m base segments, are clustered into k “raw” canonical activity mode (CAM) categories. A rectification process is then implemented so that all word segments coded by the same sequence of m StaMEs are identified with the same “rectified” CAM type. These fixed-length CAM-type segments on being given behavioral interpretations such as “fast, medium or slow directed movement”, “fast or slow random movements”, or “stationary” then provide insight into how different, larger, variable length BAM-type segments, such as “resource gathering” or “bee-line commuting” are made up of a characteristic mix of smaller, fixed-length sequences of CAM types. The percentage of reassignment errors, along with information theory measures associated with our method, is used to compare the efficiencies of coding both simulated and empirical barn owl movement tracks for a selection of parameter values and approaches to clustering at the StaME (ultra-fine “letters”) and CAM (fine) tiers. Once implemented, our methods can be used to provide a refined scale coding scheme for BAMs that themselves have been segmented using BCPA, HMM, and other methods. Our approach thus complements and enriches rather than replaces current animal track segmentation methods to provide a magnifying lens on how different types of BAMs are themselves constituted by various types of CAMs.

  PublisherDOI

• Navigating the complexities of “One Health”

  BioScience · 2025-04-22 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Mathematical Perspectives on Rewilding

  2025-07-16 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen access

  Achieving sustainable human-wildlife coexistence in well-functioning ecosystems is a vitally important and major challenge under global change. In response, rewilding is an emerging paradigm in ecosystem service provision through the re-establishment of natural ecological processes in self-sustaining ecosystems. Effective prediction of ecological changes in rewilding projects requires tools integrating quantitative methods with social-economic dimensions and thinking. We consider the current state of such quantitative treatments, highlighting opportunities for harnessing mathematics and statistics. We present an emerging quantitative framework, encompassing four key areas of the rewilding process: design and planning, ecological modelling, metrics for assessment, and coupled social-ecological systems, informed by recent progress in mathematical, statistical, and ecological modelling. The adaptive cycle concept is used to integrate these four key areas. Dynamical systems modelling informed by empirical knowledge allows us to address trans-disciplinary feedbacks, nonlinearities, and anticipate the potential for emerging properties and critical transitions/regime shifts during rewilding, predicting the range and likelihood of alternative scenarios. Our framework provides a possible foundation and new opportunities for a more robust quantitative and predictive methodology for rewilding. We argue that a project is more likely to achieve its goals, and in a more cost-effective way, if mathematical scientists are included from the beginning.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Mathematical Perspectives on Rewilding

  2025-07-08

  preprintOpen access

  Achieving sustainable human-wildlife coexistence in well-functioning ecosystems is a vitally important and major challenge under global change. In response, rewilding is an emerging paradigm in ecosystem service provision through the re-establishment of natural ecological processes in self-sustaining ecosystems. Effective prediction of ecological changes in rewilding projects requires tools integrating quantitative methods with social-economic dimensions and thinking. We consider the current state of such quantitative treatments, highlighting opportunities for harnessing mathematics and statistics. We present an emerging quantitative framework, encompassing four key areas of the rewilding process: design and planning, ecological modelling, metrics for assessment, and coupled social-ecological systems, informed by recent progress in mathematical, statistical, and ecological modelling. The adaptive cycle concept is used to integrate these four key areas. Dynamical systems modelling informed by empirical knowledge allows us to address trans-disciplinary feedbacks, nonlinearities, and anticipate the potential for emerging properties and critical transitions/regime shifts during rewilding, predicting the range and likelihood of alternative scenarios. Our framework provides a possible foundation and new opportunities for a more robust quantitative and predictive methodology for rewilding. We argue that a project is more likely to achieve its goals, and in a more cost-effective way, if mathematical scientists are included from the beginning.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Using wild-animal tracking for detecting and managing disease outbreaks

  Trends in Ecology & Evolution · 2025-06-13 · 6 citations

  reviewOpen access

  Zoonotic diseases increasingly threaten human and wildlife populations, driving a global rise in mass-mortality outbreaks, including the ongoing avian influenza panzootic in wildlife and zoonotic spillovers such as the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic in humans. We introduce a new general framework for detecting and managing pathogen outbreaks using animal movement and sensory biologging data to enhance early outbreak detection, provide near-real-time updates on sentinel host health and mortality, and reveal infection-induced behavioral changes. Integrating past and near-real-time biologging with disease surveillance data also enables prospective assessments of spatiotemporal outbreak dynamics, informs management decisions, helps to mitigate spillover risks, and supports both disease control and wildlife conservation.

  PublisherDOI

• Mammals show faster recovery from capture and tagging in human-disturbed landscapes

  Nature Communications · 2024-09-15 · 24 citations

  articleOpen access

  Wildlife tagging provides critical insights into animal movement ecology, physiology, and behavior amid global ecosystem changes. However, the stress induced by capture, handling, and tagging can impact post-release locomotion and activity and, consequently, the interpretation of study results. Here, we analyze post-tagging effects on 1585 individuals of 42 terrestrial mammal species using collar-collected GPS and accelerometer data. Species-specific displacements and overall dynamic body acceleration, as a proxy for activity, were assessed over 20 days post-release to quantify disturbance intensity, recovery duration, and speed. Differences were evaluated, considering species-specific traits and the human footprint of the study region. Over 70% of the analyzed species exhibited significant behavioral changes following collaring events. Herbivores traveled farther with variable activity reactions, while omnivores and carnivores were initially less active and mobile. Recovery duration proved brief, with alterations diminishing within 4-7 tracking days for most species. Herbivores, particularly males, showed quicker displacement recovery (4 days) but slower activity recovery (7 days). Individuals in high human footprint areas displayed faster recovery, indicating adaptation to human disturbance. Our findings emphasize the necessity of extending tracking periods beyond 1 week and particular caution in remote study areas or herbivore-focused research, specifically in smaller mammals.

  PublisherDOI

• Sensitivities of mammals to capture and tagging: faster recovery in human-disturbed landscapes

  Research Square · 2024-02-27

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Cranes soar on thermal updrafts behind cold fronts as they migrate across the sea

  Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · 2024-01-17 · 9 citations

  articleOpen access

  Thermal soaring conditions above the sea have long been assumed absent or too weak for terrestrial migrating birds, forcing obligate soarers to take long detours and avoid sea-crossing, and facultative soarers to cross exclusively by costly flapping flight. Thus, while atmospheric convection does develop at sea and is used by some seabirds, it has been largely ignored in avian migration research. Here, we provide direct evidence for routine thermal soaring over open sea in the common crane, the heaviest facultative soarer known among terrestrial migrating birds. Using high-resolution biologging from 44 cranes tracked across their transcontinental migration over 4 years, we show that soaring performance was no different over sea than over land in mid-latitudes. Sea-soaring occurred predominantly in autumn when large water-air temperature difference followed mid-latitude cyclones. Our findings challenge a fundamental migration research paradigm and suggest that obligate soarers avoid sea-crossing not due to the absence or weakness of thermals but due to their low frequency, for which they cannot compensate with prolonged flapping. Conversely, facultative soarers other than cranes should also be able to use thermals over the sea. Marine cold air outbreaks, imperative to global energy budget and climate, may also be important for bird migration.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• An Information Theory Treatment of Animal Movement Tracks

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2024-03-24

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Position recordings of the two-dimensional tracks of animals moving over landscapes has progressed over the past three decades from hourly to second-by-second locations. Track segmentation methods for analyzing the behavioral information in such relocation data has lagged somewhat behind, with scales of analysis currently at the sub-hourly to minute level. A new approach is needed to bring segmentation analysis down to a second-by-second level. Here, a fine-scale approach is presented that rests heavily on concepts from Shannon's Information Theory. In this paper, we first briefly review and update concepts relating to movement path segmentation. We then discuss how cluster analysis can be used to organize the smallest viable statistical movement elements (StaMEs), which are $μ$ steps long, and to code the next level of movement elements called ``words'' that are $m μ$ steps long. Centroids of these word clusters are identified as canonical activity modes (CAMs). Unlike current behavioral change point analysis and hidden Markov model segmentation schemes, the approach presented here allows us to provide entropy measures for movement paths, compute the coding efficiencies of derived StaMEs and CAMs, and to assess error rates in the allocation of strings of $m$ StaMEs to CAM types. In addition our approach allows us to employ the Jensen-Shannon divergence measure to assess and compare the best choices for the various parameters (number of steps in a StaME, number of StaME types, number of StaMEs in a word, number of CAM types), as well as the best clustering methods for generating segments that can then be used to interpret and predict sequences of higher order segments. The theory presented here provides another tool in our toolbox for dealing with the effects of global change on the movement and redistribution of animals across altered landscapes.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Worker Policing in Social Hymenoptera

  NSF · $205k · 1990–1994

• NIH Grant R01GM083863

  NIH · $1.7M · 2013

• Dissertation Research: Catch-per-unit-effort as an indicator of "bushmeat" sustainability

  NSF · $14k · 2011–2014

• Workshop on Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Disases; University of California, Berkeley; June, 26-30, 2018

  NSF · $100k · 2018–2020

• Metapopulation Models and Control of Tuberculosis in African Buffalo

  NSF · $1.8M · 2000–2007

Frequent coauthors

• Wendy C. Turner

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  73 shared

• Colin J. Carlson

  Georgetown University

  64 shared

• Sadie J. Ryan

  St. James's Hospital

  57 shared

• Paul C. Cross

  United States Geological Survey

  55 shared

• Richard Salter

  Oberlin College

  52 shared

• James O. Lloyd‐Smith

  University of California, Los Angeles

  50 shared

• Rauri C. K. Bowie

  Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

  47 shared

• Pauline L. Kamath

  University of Maine

  45 shared