•
BIDDEFORD, Maine

Zach Olson publishes paper in 'PLoS ONE'

Zach Olson
Zach Olson

Zach Olson, Ph.D., assistant professor of Animal Behavior in the Department of Psychology, recently published a paper in PLoS ONE.

The paper, titled “Carcass Type Affects Local Scavenger Guilds More than Habitat Connectivity,” discusses the behaviors of scavengers and decomposers. Olson and his coauthors found that not all scavengers feed on available carcasses, thus contradicting the notion that carcasses represent a free meal.

Olson and his coauthors also observed that “removal of a carcass, an important ecosystem service provided by scavengers, depends on the number of vertebrate species that assemble to feed on a carcass. This finding, they wrote, “suggests that efforts to protect biodiversity may have the practical value of reducing disease transmission on the landscape.”

About the 91AV

The 91AV is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of . In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.