After spending two seasons counting migrating Golden Eagles on the Bridger Ridge Hawk Watch, Bret Davis and Kalon Baughan have fostered a relationship geared towards wildlife conservation, with special focus on non-invasive methods of monitoring rare and elusive carnivores. Now they have teamed up again to form their own company, Wild Ideas, LLC, and this time the animals of focus are Wolverines and Lynx, two of Montana’s most iconic and threatened species. Their talk will discuss the novel ways they identify and monitor individual wolverine and lynx with photographs. Three years of work in the mountains along the Continental Divide in central Montana have given them a unique view into the world of these wild creatures, which they are excited to share with you. The animal’s natural life histories, camera trap photographs (with both traditional game cameras and professional DSLR equipment), and perspectives on current issues in conservation and preservation of Montana’s wild ecosystems will be presented.

Bret currently works in Bozeman as a research scientist in a physics laboratory. He has worked on numerous conservation projects, primarily with birds, throughout the state of Montana and from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to the wild woods of Alaska. Kalon lives outside Helmville, Montana along the shore of Nevada Creek Reservoir and works as a professional artist and photographer. On the side, he has dedicated the past 12 years to wildlife conservation developing non-invasive methods integrating trail camera technology for monitoring rare forest carnivores.