Hilary Swarts is a

wildlife biologist A wildlife biologist studies animals and their behavior along with the role each animal plays in its natural habitat. The duties of a wildlife biologist can include: developing and conducting experiments/studies on animals in their natural habitats, ...

who works for the

United States Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...

at the

Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge is the largest protected area of natural habitat left in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The refuge is located almost entirely in Cameron County, Texas (near Harlingen), although a very small part of its n ...

in southern Texas, where she is known for her work with

ocelot The ocelot (''Leopardus pardalis'') is a medium-sized spotted wild cat that reaches at the shoulders and weighs between on average. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. Two subspecies are recognized. It is native to the southwes ...

Early life and education

Swarts was born in Paris; her family moved to Connecticut when she was a toddler. She did her undergraduate studies at

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became ...

. Her plan going into college was to work with animals; at Pomona, professors James J. McKenna and Rachel N. Levin showed her alternative tracks for this than zookeeping and veterinary science. She graduated in 1994, majoring in

biological anthropology Biological anthropology, also known as physical anthropology, is a scientific discipline concerned with the biological and behavioral aspects of human beings, their extinct hominin ancestors, and related non-human primates, particularly from an e ...

, a self-designed plan of study combining the fields of her two mentors. Before her work with ocelots in Texas, she also studied " bay wrens in

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

howler monkey Howler monkeys (genus ''Alouatta'', monotypic in subfamily Alouattinae) are the most widespread primate genus in the Neotropics and are among the largest of the platyrrhines along with the muriquis (''Brachyteles''), the spider monkeys (''Ateles' ...

s in

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

, monkeys in

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

island fox The island fox (''Urocyon littoralis'') is a small fox that is endemic to six of the eight Channel Islands of California. There are six subspecies, each unique to the island it lives on, reflecting its evolutionary history. They are generally do ...

es in California and

mountain gorilla The mountain gorilla (''Gorilla beringei beringei'') is one of the two subspecies of the eastern gorilla. It is listed as endangered by the IUCN as of 2018. There are two populations: One is found in the Virunga volcanic mountains of Central/ ...

s in

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

". In one incident during this period, a silverback gorilla sat on her head for ten minutes. Returning to graduate study, she completed a Ph.D. in

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

, specializing in

conservation biology Conservation biology is the study of the conservation of nature and of Earth's biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction and the erosion of biotic interactions. It is an int ...

, at the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

Work with the Fish and Wildlife Service

After completing her doctorate, Swarts took a desk job with the Fish and Wildlife Service. She transferred to her current position at Laguna Atascosa in October 2013. Although ocelots can be found in 22 countries, their available habitat has been reduced by development. The south of Texas, where Swarts works, and the south of Arizona are the only parts of the United States where ocelots live and breed in the wild, both in parklands and on private property. However, as Swarts has documented, many have died from automobile collisions. Swarts has worked with the

Texas Department of Transportation The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT ) is a government agency in the American state of Texas. Though the public face of the agency is generally associated with the construction and maintenance of the state's immense state highway system ...

in the establishment of underpasses beneath the roadways, so that ocelots and other wildlife can cross in safety. Her work with the ocelots also involves tracking them with GPS collars, and trapping them to give them their collars. In 2016, she was involved in the discovery of a den of ocelot kittens, the first such den to be found in the US in 20 years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swarts, Hilary Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American biologists American women biologists Pomona College alumni University of California, Davis alumni Scientists from Paris People from Connecticut United States Fish and Wildlife Service personnel 21st-century American women scientists