By Ronica Stromberg
Jake Harvey took home a 2025 Meritorious Graduate Student Award from the School of Natural Resources at its annual spring banquet. What he took to the banquet was an easy-in for such mixers and cocktail parties. When people ask him what he does, he says he researches mountain lions.
"It's a good conversation starter," he said.
Originally from Pennsylvania, Harvey studied elk, bobcats, bighorn sheep, coyotes and mountain lions on summer projects while an undergraduate at Paul Smith's College in upstate New York. When considering master's programs, he wavered between studying ungulates or carnivores, hooved animals or those with big teeth. Big teeth won out.
Harvey came to University of Nebraska–Lincoln in January 2022 to research mountain lions in North Bay, California, with John Benson as his advisor. He is finishing his master’s work this month and published his first two papers this semester, in Biological Conservation and Canadian Wildlife Biology & Management.
"That was really exciting to get those out, and then I fell into a little slump once those were published. I was panicking like, 'Oh, did I make any errors? Was there something wrong?' So, this award was at a good time to be uplifting and motivating like, 'OK, I must be doing something right.'
Benson, the Nebraska professor of wildlife ecology advising him, confirmed Harvey has been doing several things right.
“Aside from always being a positive and fun person to be around and work with, I think what I respect most about Jake is that he is so well-rounded," Benson said. "A lot of wildlife biologists enjoy fieldwork and being outside. Fewer excel at the intellectual sides of research, including asking questions, analyzing data and writing. Jake brings the same high level of motivation to all these tasks and does them all very well."
See images of Jake's work and read the rest of the story at https://snr.unl.edu/aboutus/what/newstory.aspx?fid=1248