Weber State professor, students research environmental impact on snowy plovers
OGDEN, Utah — For over 15 years, John Cavitt, a respected zoology professor of Weber State University’s College of Science, has been a leading expert in avian ecology and spearheaded critical efforts to study and protect the endangered western snowy plover.
Since 2008, Cavitt has dedicated countless hours to uncovering the mysteries of the “unseen” bird’s unique mating and migration patterns — behaviors that may hold the key to preventing their extinction. Back then, his team counted 5,541 plovers across the shores of the Great Salt Lake. An updated estimate is expected later this fall.
The snowy plover is a small shorebird that has been evading extinction for decades, though vulnerable to threats like natural predators, habitat loss, and destructive human activity.
Their camouflaged appearance and preference for remote nesting sites make them a challenging study, but Cavitt is intrigued by their adaptability.
“They’re living in a very harsh situation,” he said. “A lot of the aspects of their behavior are kind of flexible, so they can respond to these different kinds of changes that are going on, and that is what initially got me started looking at them when I came to Weber in 2003.”
Cavitt is particularly interested in the snowy plovers’ mating pattern. Unlike most other birds, they can be monogamous, polygynous, or polyandrous depending on environmental conditions and mate availability.
He’s also fascinated by their ability to adapt to fast-changing habitats. As their environment shrinks, they scour the area searching for a new home rather than staying put in a single nest as many birds do.
“Back in 2008, we were covering an area of around 900 square miles,” Cavitt said. “That area has dramatically shrunk. It’s now about 500 square miles, and that is due to a whole host of things.”
Among the biggest contributors to habitat loss are receding lake levels and the spread of phragmites, an invasive reed that can disrupt nesting sites and reduce invertebrate populations many birds rely on for food.
Currently, Cavitt and his team, which includes WSU students, continue to make vital contributions to their field as they work with the Utah Division of Wildlife and local land managers to digitally map known habitats in and around the Great Salt Lake.
Using methodology established in their 2008 survey, they estimate the population and sort them into three “bins” based on habitat quality and bird density.
“We’ve had sites we were pretty confident were the best habitat because we’ve seen birds there before, and those are our top priorities,” Cavitt said.
Approximately 70% of the 500 clusters mapped fall into the largest bin, or areas with ideal habitats and higher populations. Around 20% fall into the medium bin, which includes seemingly suitable but uninhabited areas. The remaining 10% are filed in the smallest bin, which is composed of environments that are “kind of iffy, but still something that should be checked out,” according to Cavitt.
Cavitt remains optimistic about the birds’ survival. His team’s latest survey covered the breeding period between May 15 and June 15. They found that environment loss is still a major factor, but saw an “encouraging amount of birds.”
The significance of Cavitt’s research extends beyond saving a single species. As an indicator species, snowy plover health reflects the conditions of their broader ecosystems, with their decline pointing to larger environmental issues that can affect other species, including humans: “The plover warns us in real time,” Cavitt said.
The team’s research underlines the urgent need for habitat protection, sustainable water management, and coordinated conservation efforts to preserve ecological balance across the Great Salt Lake region.
For more information on zoology at Weber State, visit the department website.
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