Janet Wright
Professor, Department of Biology
Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA 17013 
Office (717) 245-1292
FAX (717) 245-1130
wright@dickinson.edu
http://www.dickinson.edu/~wright
B.S. North Carolina State U. 1970
PhD Cornell University 1983
 
Teaching Links [being updated]
Vertebrate Biology (Bio 334)
Ecology (Bio 314)
Evolution (Bio 414)
Woodrat Links & Research with Students
Other Links when I get around to them

I decided to become a research biologist when my junior high guidance counselor told me girls couldn't be forest rangers. I spend as much time as possible in the field, often with students, and I think it would be a better world if everybody did.

I teach courses in Ecology, Population Genetics and Evolution, Vertebrate Biology, and Introductory Biology. My students and I conduct research on the population ecology of a threatened mammal, the Allegheny woodrat (Neotoma magister). We're attempting to explain why this formerly common species is declining, and how such factors as parasite infestation and a fragmented population structure contribute to its decline.

In the photo, I'm using radiotelemetry to locate Roswell, one of our free-ranging woodrats. I'm not getting his signal. We suspect alien abduction.
Recent Publications and Presentations (most with student collaborators):

Wright, J. and G. L. Kirkland. 2000. A possible role for chestnut blight in the decline of the Allegheny woodrat. Journal of the American Chestnut Foundation 8(2): 30-35

Wright, J. and G.L. Kirkland. 1999. Mammals: Review of status in Pennsylvania. p. 121-135 in Inventorying and Monitoring of Biotic Resources in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Biological Survey.

Latchford, J., V. Latchford, and J. Wright. 1999. Monitoring metapopulation dynamics from real data: the case of the threatened Allegheny woodrat. Journal of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science 72:170 (abs.)  

Wright, J. Could Frankenstein live among us today? 1998. [Introduction]. Dickinson Magazine, Summer 1998.

Corbett, J.P., B.W. Shinkle, and B.J. Corbett and J. Wright. 1998. Artificial recolonization of an Allegheny woodrat (Neotoma magister) population: Implications for metapopulation conservation. Northeast Fish and Wildlife Conference, April 1998

 
Shinkle, B.W., J. P. Corbett, B. J. Corbett and J. Wright. 1998. Den affinity and movement distances in an artificially recolonized Allegheny woodrat (Neotoma magister) population. Journal of The Pennsylvania Academy of Science 71:194 (abs.)
 
Wright, J. 1997. Telling science [Introduction]. Dickinson Magazine, Summer 1997.
 
Harrison, S., C. Bierly, and J. Wright. 1996. Space and resource use by Allegheny woodrats (Neotoma magister): Foraging movements and scarce resources. Journal of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science 69:171 (abs.)
 
Stein, K.S., S. Mullen, and S. White. 1994. The Raccoon roundworm (Baylisascaris procyonis) as a cause for decline of Allegheny woodrat (Neotoma magister) populations in central Pennsylvania. American Society of Mammalogists, Washington DC, June, 1994.
 
Franke, M., R. Turin, and K. Urban, and J. Wright. 1993. Contents of Allegheny woodrat (Neotoma magister) caches in relation to the abundance and accessibility of vegetation. Pennsylvania Academy of Science 66:184 (abs.)