Freake has Article Published by PLOS ONE
PLOS ONE, an open-access international science research journal, published a research article by Lee University’s Dr. Michael Freake, professor of biology, in collaboration with researchers from Tennessee State University and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
The article, “Evaluating translocation success of wild eastern hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) in Blue Ridge Ecoregion streams using pre- and post-translocation home range sizes and movement metrics,” was based on a study conducted by Freake and the other collaborators. Their research’s focus was eastern hellbenders, giant aquatic salamanders that live in high-quality streams and rivers with abundant rocks under which to hide. Focusing on the conservation of the endangered species, their research aimed to assess whether they could take adult hellbenders from thriving populations and translocate them to rivers with good habitat but where hellbenders had declined or been lost due to historic human impacts.
“Translocations are an important tool in wildlife conservation, and our study highlights some of the critical features in designing a successful program for rescuing and restoring hellbenders in eastern Tennessee,” said Freake.
The study showed that movement and survival of hellbenders to one of the target streams was very similar to that observed prior to translocation while hellbenders that were moved to another target stream moved a lot more and had lower survival rates, likely due to higher risks of predation with less continuous areas of cover rocks under which to refuge.
Freake joined Lee’s Department of Natural Sciences in the fall of 2001. He received his doctorate from Flinders University of South Australia on lizard homing behavior in 1996 and continued his research on animal navigation as a post-doctoral research fellow with the Department of Biology at Indiana University. His current research on conservation biology and genetics of eastern hellbenders has been published in journals, including PLOS ONE and Conservation Genetics. Freake holds a professional membership with the Wildlife Society and is an associate editor for the international herpetology research journal Herpetologica.
PLOS ONE is an inclusive journal community working together to advance science for the benefit of society, now and in the future. Founded with the aim of accelerating the pace of scientific advancement and demonstrating its value, it holds that all rigorous science deserves to be published and should be discoverable, widely disseminated, and freely accessible to all.
For more information about hellbenders, visit Help the Hellbender.
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