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Contact Information:
Ryan Wagner School of Environment and Natural Resources The Ohio State University Email: Wagner.1286<at>buckeyemail.osu.edu Twitter: @weekly_wildlife (personal) @mudpuppy_love (research project) 
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RESEARCH INTERESTS & BACKGROUND:
I received a B.S. in Wildlife Biology and Conservation from Ohio University in May, 2020. As an undergraduate, I worked on a variety of ecological projects, including the impacts of a newly constructed bypass on eastern box turtles, under passage use by amphibians in Ohio’s Wayne National Forest, Spring salamander corticosterone levels in New Hampshire, and Hellbender Mark recapture in Pennsylvania. My senior Honor’s Thesis focused on the impacts of roads on snake populations in Southeastern Ohio. This project used a long-term snake road mortality data set to understand what landscape predictors influence patterns in snake road mortality. We found that high-traffic, high-speed roadways (State Routes) and edge habitat are associated with increased mortality across 14 snake species.
I am broadly interested in anthropogenic impacts on herpetofauna, conservation biology, and habitat management. My M.S. project is centered on the status of the Common Mudpuppy (Necturus maculosus) in Ohio’s streams and rivers. I am conducting a mark/recapture study to understand the impacts of the TFM lampricide on mudpuppy survival and demographics as well as a state-wide eDNA survey to understand their current distribution. My hope is that this research will help inform management decisions to promote healthy mudpuppy populations in the state.
I received a B.S. in Wildlife Biology and Conservation from Ohio University in May, 2020. As an undergraduate, I worked on a variety of ecological projects, including the impacts of a newly constructed bypass on eastern box turtles, under passage use by amphibians in Ohio’s Wayne National Forest, Spring salamander corticosterone levels in New Hampshire, and Hellbender Mark recapture in Pennsylvania. My senior Honor’s Thesis focused on the impacts of roads on snake populations in Southeastern Ohio. This project used a long-term snake road mortality data set to understand what landscape predictors influence patterns in snake road mortality. We found that high-traffic, high-speed roadways (State Routes) and edge habitat are associated with increased mortality across 14 snake species.
I am broadly interested in anthropogenic impacts on herpetofauna, conservation biology, and habitat management. My M.S. project is centered on the status of the Common Mudpuppy (Necturus maculosus) in Ohio’s streams and rivers. I am conducting a mark/recapture study to understand the impacts of the TFM lampricide on mudpuppy survival and demographics as well as a state-wide eDNA survey to understand their current distribution. My hope is that this research will help inform management decisions to promote healthy mudpuppy populations in the state.
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