Northwest College Associate Professor Eric C. Atkinson.

Photo courtesy of Melonie Atkinson

A shocking number of birds have disappeared from North America’s landscape. In Powell, there’s a dedicated scientist on the case.

“Since 1970, North America has lost approximately 3 billion birds. Three billion. That's three-eighths of our population in the world,” said Northwest College Associate Professor Eric Atkinson last Thursday during a Lunchtime Expedition at the Draper Natural History Museum in Cody.

Atkinson has devoted his entire life to studying birds, beginning at a young age, and has been at NWC for the past 15 years. By age 7 he was affixing color twisty-ties to the legs of Brewer's blackbirds in hopes of studying them again the following year. Then he discovered ecologists actually studied birds in the same way and his life’s mission was set. He never looked back and now uses Geographic Information Systems to model hazards for wind power deployment, and has developed conservation strategies for several vulnerable species across the continent.

For years, Atkinson has been researching avian diseases, sharing field studies and lab work with hundreds of his students and introducing his lifelong fascination of everything avian with those taking his classes — many of whom never intended to make wildlife biology an avocation, let alone a career. Students graduating from his classes have gone on to be doctors and scientists, landing jobs as wildlife biologists for federal agencies and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and working on doctorates in important fields such as molecular immunology.

“One of my students just reached out to me not that long ago; she landed a job as a swift fox biologist in Montana. So they really go everywhere,” he said in a Tuesday interview while he was collecting paperwork for the upcoming Christmas Bird Count at Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area near Lovell.

He has developed somewhat of a fan club in the region. At the Lunchtime Expedition event, which usually lasts an hour, he joked that his lecture would be about four hours long. He expected a good laugh, but more than a few in the crowd of passionate birders weren’t offended by the statement and would have stayed for the entire afternoon and still asked multiple questions at the end of the speech.

“He is one of the best educators in Wyoming,” said Corey Anco, curator at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West’s Draper Natural History Museum. “He’s an anomaly in what he is offering his students.”

Yet, the teacher is also a student. He has spent the past nine years working on his doctoral thesis, with the goal of finishing by 2025, for a Ph.D. through the University of Wyoming.

His work includes researching several types of bird diseases, including deadly diseases such as West Nile virus, avian flu and malaria. The diseases aren’t limited to birds, but extends to mammals, including humans. In Wyoming, officials have identified four Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza positive mountain lions and one red fox (based on passive surveillance on carcasses from dead animals), according to Wyoming Game and Fish Wildlife Veterinarian Dr. Samantha Allen.

All scavenging mammals, including pets, are in danger of contracting the disease according to state officials.

Last winter, for the first time, three grizzly bears suffering from the virus were “humanely euthanized” by Montana officials. Game and Fish large carnivore program manager Dan Thompson said, during an interview in January, he wouldn’t be surprised if bears were found with the virus in Wyoming in the future due to their scavenging nature, but had yet to see the species being affected here at the time. He explained most avian flu outbreaks in Wyoming have happened outside known grizzly habitat.

However, a map of documented avian flu outbreaks in the state now extends from the west in the Teton National Forest to the eastern border and includes documented cases in birds and mammals in the Big Horn Basin. Species of mammals (including pets) in Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Utah and Colorado have all been reported.

The total number of human cases of HPAI known to have occurred from handling wild birds is seven — in Azerbaijan from plucking dead swans, Atkinson said.

Although Atkinson’s work is directed toward other diseases affecting songbirds (HPAI has a large contingent of dedicated scientists across the U.S.), he is driven by the importance of research into avian diseases and how they affect wildlife populations and the lives of people living in the ecosystems in which they live.

“Even a virus like West Nile virus can be fatal to humans,” he said. “It certainly affects ranchers and people that have horses here, because horses are quite susceptible to West Nile virus.”

Interestingly, Atkinson wasn’t overly interested in studying diseases and “avoided diseases” when he started his career. He had assisted with research with diseases in snails and collected fleas for plague analysis on prairie dog colonies in Montana during undergraduate work. But it took a while for him to develop his quest for understanding diseases affecting wildlife.

“Now I recognize that there are so many aspects of disease ecology that are really running many of our wildlife populations,” he said, promising his research won’t end when he receives his doctorate. “I’ll be working on avian disease until I die.”

To view a recording of Atkinson’s speech: youtube.com/watch?v=sBpJ9xOPejQ.