Ruby Harris-Gavin

As a community ecologist with an anthropology background, Ruby is broadly interested in how humans affect ecosystems through culture and domesticated animals. Born and raised in Galway, Ireland, but settled in Southern California, Ruby's two homes have played a huge role in guiding her research interests. Her current Ph.D. work looks at how different cattle breeds, and people's movement of cattle, interact with wildlife, soil, and plant communities in Ireland. Ruby is also working on a meta-analysis of global ungulate diet that she began in the Hillary Young Lab as a master's student, and plans to start a local grazing project to study the functional role of large herbivores in California's grasslands.