*denotes SPEC Lab graduate student or staff member
Branney, A.B., Yamashita, T.J., Petracca, L.S., Lombardi, J.V., Scognamillo, D.G., Blankenship, T.L., Caso, A., Fischer, C.V., Grassman, L.I., Hiott, A.N., Korn, J.M., Laack, L.L., Leonard, J.P., Locke, V.L., Reeves, A.M., Rulison, E.L., Schofield, L.R., Sergeyev, M., Wardle, Z.M., Wied, J.P., and M.E. Tewes. 2026. Rethinking solitude: 5 decades of data reveal social tolerance in a traditionally solitary felid. Journal of Mammalogy. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyag058
Sousa, L.L., Kotze, R., Fanikiso, L., Young-Overton, K., Overton, J., Stevens, X., Lines, R., Wijers, M., Kesch, K., Bauer, D.T., Seymour-Smith, J., Sibanda, A., Parry, R., Fitt, M., Burger, K., Seyoka, S., McNutt, J.W., Stein, A.B., Pelayo-Malet, V., Petracca, L.S., Funston, P., Henschel, P., Winterbach, C.W., Mbizah, M.M., Chatikobo, S.P., Strampelli, P., Nieman, W.A., Claase, M.J., Macdonald, D.W., Nyambe, N., and A.J. Loveridge. 2026. Multispecies transboundary landscape connectivity in the KAZA TFCA. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-58440-y
Choki, K., Petracca, L.S., Aikens, E.O., and A.E. Cheeseman. 2026. The influence of bottom-up and top-down effects on the distribution and density of common leopards (Panthera pardus) in an Eastern Himalayan landscape. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-58140-7
Madsen, E.K., Eckersley, L., Linden, J.F., Lai, S., Hare, D., Macdonald, D.W., Kimaili, D., Kulunge, S., Mutinhuma, Y., Petracca, L.S., Rono, B.J., Sibanda, L., Sillero-Zubiri, C., Tacey, J., and F. Broekhuis. 2025. What's in a Name? Not All Mesopredators Are Mesocarnivores. Ecology and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.72768
Smith, M.M.*, Veals Dutt, A.M., Lombardi, J.V., Branney, A.B., Reeves, A.M., Scognamillo, D.G., Sergeyev, M., Wardle, Z.M.*, Tewes, M.E., and L.S. Petracca. 2025. Sex-specific resource strategies mediate home range sizes of an endangered carnivore across multiple scales. Scientific Reports. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-15493-9
Slovikosky, S.A., Petracca, L.S., Hunter, L.T.B., and J.L. Frair. 2025. Spatially explicit estimates of global population potential for leopard (Panthera pardus). Biodiversity and Conservation. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-025-03131-9
Petracca, L.S., Converse, S.J., Maletzke, B.T., and B. Gardner. 2025. Forecasting Dynamics of a Recolonizing Wolf Population Under Different Management Strategies. Animal Conservation. https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.70019
Madsen, E.K., Ray, S., Petracca, L.S., and J.F. Kamler. 2025. The potential for subordinate predator release in terrestrial mammalian carnivore assemblages. Mammal Review. https://doi.org/10.1111/mam.70003
Petracca, L.S., Gardner, B., Maletzke, B.T., and S.J. Converse. 2025. Response to Santiago-Avila et al. (2024). Biological Conservation. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2024.110926
Slovikosky, S.A., Petracca, L.S., Hunter, L.T.B., and J.L. Frair. 2024. Scaling issues in the study of livestock depredation by carnivores. Landscape Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-024-01932-x
Petracca, L.S., Gardner, B., Maletzke, B.T., and S.J. Converse. 2024. Merging integrated population models and individual-based models to project population dynamics of recolonizing species. Biological Conservation. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110340
Elbroch, M.L., Petracca, L.S., O'Malley, C., and H.R. Robinson. 2022. Analyses of national mountain lion harvest indices yield ambiguous interpretations. Ecological Solutions and Evidence. https://doi.org/10.1002/2688-8319.12150
Tear, T.H., Wolff, N.H., Lipsett-Moore, G.J., Ritchie, M.E., Ribeiro, N.S., Petracca, L.S., Lindsey, P.L., Hunter, L., Loveridge, A.J., and F. Steinbruch. 2021. A burning question: Can savannah fire management generate enough carbon revenue to restore Africa’s rangelands and fill Protected Area funding gaps? One Earth. doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.11.013
Gálvez, N., Infante, J., Fernandez, A., Díaz, J., and L.S. Petracca. 2021. Land use intensification coupled with free-roaming dogs as potential defaunation drivers of mesocarnivores in agricultural landscapes. Journal of Applied Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14026
Salom-Pérez, R., Corrales-Gutiérrez, D., Araya-Gamboa, D., Espinoza-Muñoz, D., Finegan, B., and L.S. Petracca. 2021.
Forest cover mediates large and medium-sized mammal occurrence in a critical link of the Mesoamerican Biological
Corridor. PLOS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249072
Petracca, L.S., Frair, J.L., Bastille-Rousseau, G., Macdonald, D.W., and A.J. Loveridge. 2021. Harassment-induced changes in lion space use as a conflict mitigation tool. Conservation Science and Practice. https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.373
Powers, K., Petracca, L.S.**, MacDuff, A.J., and J.L. Frair. 2021. A pragmatic approach for determining otter distribution from disparate occurrence records. Journal of Wildlife Management. https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.21968
**corresponding author
Henschel, P., Petracca, L.S., Ekwanga, S., Ryan, S.D., and L. Frank. 2020. Census and distribution of large carnivores in the Tsavo National Parks, a critical East African wildlife corridor. African Journal of Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1111/aje.12730
Petracca, L.S., Frair, J.L., Bastille-Rousseau, G., Hunt, J.E., Macdonald, D.W., Sibanda, L., and A.J. Loveridge. 2019. The effectiveness of hazing African lions as a conflict mitigation tool: Implications for carnivore management. Ecosphere. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.2967
Petracca, L.S., Funston, P.J., Henschel, P., Cohen, J.B., Maclennan, S., and J.L. Frair. 2019. Modeling community occupancy from line transect data: A case study with large mammals in post-war Angola. Animal Conservation. https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.12555
Lindsey, P.A.**, Miller, J.R.B.**, Petracca, L.S.**, Coad, L., Dickman, A.J., Fitzgerald, K.H., Flyman, M.V., Funston, P.J., Henschel, P., Kasiki, S., Knights, K., Loveridge, A.J., Macdonald, D.W., Mandisodza-Chikerema, R.L., Nazerali, S., Plumptre, A.J., Stevens, R., Van Zyl, H.W., and Hunter, L.T.B. 2018. More than $1 billion needed annually to secure Africa’s protected areas with lions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115 (45), 10788-10796. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1805048115
**shared first-authorship
Petracca, L.S., Frair, J.L., Cohen, J.B., Calderón, A.P., Carazo-Salazar, J., Castañeda, F., Corralez-Gutiérrez, D., Foster R.J., Harmsen, B., Hernández-Potosme, S., Herrera, L., Olmos, M., Pereira, S., Robinson, H.S., Robinson, N., Salom-Pérez, R., Urbina, Y., Zeller, K.A., and Quigley, H. 2018. Robust inference on large scale species habitat use with interview data: the status of jaguars outside protected areas in Central America. Journal of Applied Ecology 55 (2), 723-734. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12972
Lindsey, P.A., Chapron, G., Petracca, L.S., Burnham, D., Hayward, M.W., Henschel, P., Hinks, A.E., Garnett, S.T., Macdonald, D.W., Macdonald, E.A., Ripple, W.J., Zander, K., and Dickman. A. 2017. Relative efforts of countries to conserve world’s megafauna. Global Ecology and Conservation 10, 243-252. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2017.03.003
Lindsey, P.A.**, Petracca, L.S.**, Funston, P.J., Bauer, H., Dickman, A., Everatt, K., Flyman, M., Henschel, P., Hinks, A.E., Kasiki, S., Loveridge, A., Macdonald, D.W., Mandisodza, R., Mgoola, W., Miller, S.M., Nazerali, S., Siege, L., Uiseb, K., and Hunter, L.T.B. 2017. The performance of African protected areas for lions and their prey. Biological Conservation 209, 137-149. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2017.01.011
**shared first-authorship, Editor’s Choice
Petracca, L.S., and Frair, J.L. 2017. When methodological flaws limit inference: a response to Caruso et al. (2016). Oryx. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605316000788
Henschel, P., Petracca, L.S.**, Hunter, L., Kiki, M., Sewade, C., Tehou, A., and Robinson. H.S. 2016. Determinants of persistence in a Critically Endangered lion (Panthera leo) population. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 4, 110. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2016.00110
**corresponding author
Di Minin, E., Slotow, R., Hunter, L.T.B., Montesino Pouzols, F., Toivonen, T., Verburg, P.H, Leader-Williams, N., Petracca, L.S., and Moilanen, A. 2016. Global priorities for national carnivore conservation under land use change. Scientific Reports 6, 23814. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep23814
Petracca, L.S., Hernández-Potosme, S., Obando-Sampson, L., Salom-Pérez, R., Quigley, H., and Robinson, H.S. 2014. Agricultural encroachment and lack of enforcement threaten connectivity of range-wide jaguar (Panthera onca) corridor. Journal for Nature Conservation 22(5), 436–444. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnc.2014.04.002
Cuyckens, G.A.E., Falke, F., and Petracca, L.S. 2014. Jaguar Panthera onca in its southernmost range: use of a corridor between Bolivia and Argentina. Endangered Species Research 26:167–177. https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00640
Petracca, L.S., Ramirez-Bravo, O.E., and Hernandez-Santin, L. 2013. Occupancy estimation of jaguar Panthera onca to assess the value of east-central Mexico as a jaguar corridor. Oryx 48(1), 133-140. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605313000069
Jacobson, A.P., Cattau, M.E., Riggio, J.S., Petracca, L.S., and Fedak, D.A. 2013. Distribution and abundance of lions in northwest Tete Province, Mozambique. Tropical Conservation Science 6(1):87-107. https://doi.org/10.1177/194008291300600110
Branney, A.B., Yamashita, T.J., Petracca, L.S., Lombardi, J.V., Scognamillo, D.G., Blankenship, T.L., Caso, A., Fischer, C.V., Grassman, L.I., Hiott, A.N., Korn, J.M., Laack, L.L., Leonard, J.P., Locke, V.L., Reeves, A.M., Rulison, E.L., Schofield, L.R., Sergeyev, M., Wardle, Z.M., Wied, J.P., and M.E. Tewes. 2026. Rethinking solitude: 5 decades of data reveal social tolerance in a traditionally solitary felid. Journal of Mammalogy. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyag058
Sousa, L.L., Kotze, R., Fanikiso, L., Young-Overton, K., Overton, J., Stevens, X., Lines, R., Wijers, M., Kesch, K., Bauer, D.T., Seymour-Smith, J., Sibanda, A., Parry, R., Fitt, M., Burger, K., Seyoka, S., McNutt, J.W., Stein, A.B., Pelayo-Malet, V., Petracca, L.S., Funston, P., Henschel, P., Winterbach, C.W., Mbizah, M.M., Chatikobo, S.P., Strampelli, P., Nieman, W.A., Claase, M.J., Macdonald, D.W., Nyambe, N., and A.J. Loveridge. 2026. Multispecies transboundary landscape connectivity in the KAZA TFCA. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-58440-y
Choki, K., Petracca, L.S., Aikens, E.O., and A.E. Cheeseman. 2026. The influence of bottom-up and top-down effects on the distribution and density of common leopards (Panthera pardus) in an Eastern Himalayan landscape. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-58140-7
Madsen, E.K., Eckersley, L., Linden, J.F., Lai, S., Hare, D., Macdonald, D.W., Kimaili, D., Kulunge, S., Mutinhuma, Y., Petracca, L.S., Rono, B.J., Sibanda, L., Sillero-Zubiri, C., Tacey, J., and F. Broekhuis. 2025. What's in a Name? Not All Mesopredators Are Mesocarnivores. Ecology and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.72768
Smith, M.M.*, Veals Dutt, A.M., Lombardi, J.V., Branney, A.B., Reeves, A.M., Scognamillo, D.G., Sergeyev, M., Wardle, Z.M.*, Tewes, M.E., and L.S. Petracca. 2025. Sex-specific resource strategies mediate home range sizes of an endangered carnivore across multiple scales. Scientific Reports. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-15493-9
Slovikosky, S.A., Petracca, L.S., Hunter, L.T.B., and J.L. Frair. 2025. Spatially explicit estimates of global population potential for leopard (Panthera pardus). Biodiversity and Conservation. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-025-03131-9
Petracca, L.S., Converse, S.J., Maletzke, B.T., and B. Gardner. 2025. Forecasting Dynamics of a Recolonizing Wolf Population Under Different Management Strategies. Animal Conservation. https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.70019
Madsen, E.K., Ray, S., Petracca, L.S., and J.F. Kamler. 2025. The potential for subordinate predator release in terrestrial mammalian carnivore assemblages. Mammal Review. https://doi.org/10.1111/mam.70003
Petracca, L.S., Gardner, B., Maletzke, B.T., and S.J. Converse. 2025. Response to Santiago-Avila et al. (2024). Biological Conservation. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2024.110926
Slovikosky, S.A., Petracca, L.S., Hunter, L.T.B., and J.L. Frair. 2024. Scaling issues in the study of livestock depredation by carnivores. Landscape Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-024-01932-x
Petracca, L.S., Gardner, B., Maletzke, B.T., and S.J. Converse. 2024. Merging integrated population models and individual-based models to project population dynamics of recolonizing species. Biological Conservation. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110340
Elbroch, M.L., Petracca, L.S., O'Malley, C., and H.R. Robinson. 2022. Analyses of national mountain lion harvest indices yield ambiguous interpretations. Ecological Solutions and Evidence. https://doi.org/10.1002/2688-8319.12150
Tear, T.H., Wolff, N.H., Lipsett-Moore, G.J., Ritchie, M.E., Ribeiro, N.S., Petracca, L.S., Lindsey, P.L., Hunter, L., Loveridge, A.J., and F. Steinbruch. 2021. A burning question: Can savannah fire management generate enough carbon revenue to restore Africa’s rangelands and fill Protected Area funding gaps? One Earth. doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.11.013
Gálvez, N., Infante, J., Fernandez, A., Díaz, J., and L.S. Petracca. 2021. Land use intensification coupled with free-roaming dogs as potential defaunation drivers of mesocarnivores in agricultural landscapes. Journal of Applied Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14026
Salom-Pérez, R., Corrales-Gutiérrez, D., Araya-Gamboa, D., Espinoza-Muñoz, D., Finegan, B., and L.S. Petracca. 2021.
Forest cover mediates large and medium-sized mammal occurrence in a critical link of the Mesoamerican Biological
Corridor. PLOS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249072
Petracca, L.S., Frair, J.L., Bastille-Rousseau, G., Macdonald, D.W., and A.J. Loveridge. 2021. Harassment-induced changes in lion space use as a conflict mitigation tool. Conservation Science and Practice. https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.373
Powers, K., Petracca, L.S.**, MacDuff, A.J., and J.L. Frair. 2021. A pragmatic approach for determining otter distribution from disparate occurrence records. Journal of Wildlife Management. https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.21968
**corresponding author
Henschel, P., Petracca, L.S., Ekwanga, S., Ryan, S.D., and L. Frank. 2020. Census and distribution of large carnivores in the Tsavo National Parks, a critical East African wildlife corridor. African Journal of Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1111/aje.12730
Petracca, L.S., Frair, J.L., Bastille-Rousseau, G., Hunt, J.E., Macdonald, D.W., Sibanda, L., and A.J. Loveridge. 2019. The effectiveness of hazing African lions as a conflict mitigation tool: Implications for carnivore management. Ecosphere. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.2967
Petracca, L.S., Funston, P.J., Henschel, P., Cohen, J.B., Maclennan, S., and J.L. Frair. 2019. Modeling community occupancy from line transect data: A case study with large mammals in post-war Angola. Animal Conservation. https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.12555
Lindsey, P.A.**, Miller, J.R.B.**, Petracca, L.S.**, Coad, L., Dickman, A.J., Fitzgerald, K.H., Flyman, M.V., Funston, P.J., Henschel, P., Kasiki, S., Knights, K., Loveridge, A.J., Macdonald, D.W., Mandisodza-Chikerema, R.L., Nazerali, S., Plumptre, A.J., Stevens, R., Van Zyl, H.W., and Hunter, L.T.B. 2018. More than $1 billion needed annually to secure Africa’s protected areas with lions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115 (45), 10788-10796. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1805048115
**shared first-authorship
Petracca, L.S., Frair, J.L., Cohen, J.B., Calderón, A.P., Carazo-Salazar, J., Castañeda, F., Corralez-Gutiérrez, D., Foster R.J., Harmsen, B., Hernández-Potosme, S., Herrera, L., Olmos, M., Pereira, S., Robinson, H.S., Robinson, N., Salom-Pérez, R., Urbina, Y., Zeller, K.A., and Quigley, H. 2018. Robust inference on large scale species habitat use with interview data: the status of jaguars outside protected areas in Central America. Journal of Applied Ecology 55 (2), 723-734. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12972
Lindsey, P.A., Chapron, G., Petracca, L.S., Burnham, D., Hayward, M.W., Henschel, P., Hinks, A.E., Garnett, S.T., Macdonald, D.W., Macdonald, E.A., Ripple, W.J., Zander, K., and Dickman. A. 2017. Relative efforts of countries to conserve world’s megafauna. Global Ecology and Conservation 10, 243-252. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2017.03.003
Lindsey, P.A.**, Petracca, L.S.**, Funston, P.J., Bauer, H., Dickman, A., Everatt, K., Flyman, M., Henschel, P., Hinks, A.E., Kasiki, S., Loveridge, A., Macdonald, D.W., Mandisodza, R., Mgoola, W., Miller, S.M., Nazerali, S., Siege, L., Uiseb, K., and Hunter, L.T.B. 2017. The performance of African protected areas for lions and their prey. Biological Conservation 209, 137-149. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2017.01.011
**shared first-authorship, Editor’s Choice
Petracca, L.S., and Frair, J.L. 2017. When methodological flaws limit inference: a response to Caruso et al. (2016). Oryx. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605316000788
Henschel, P., Petracca, L.S.**, Hunter, L., Kiki, M., Sewade, C., Tehou, A., and Robinson. H.S. 2016. Determinants of persistence in a Critically Endangered lion (Panthera leo) population. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 4, 110. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2016.00110
**corresponding author
Di Minin, E., Slotow, R., Hunter, L.T.B., Montesino Pouzols, F., Toivonen, T., Verburg, P.H, Leader-Williams, N., Petracca, L.S., and Moilanen, A. 2016. Global priorities for national carnivore conservation under land use change. Scientific Reports 6, 23814. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep23814
Petracca, L.S., Hernández-Potosme, S., Obando-Sampson, L., Salom-Pérez, R., Quigley, H., and Robinson, H.S. 2014. Agricultural encroachment and lack of enforcement threaten connectivity of range-wide jaguar (Panthera onca) corridor. Journal for Nature Conservation 22(5), 436–444. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnc.2014.04.002
Cuyckens, G.A.E., Falke, F., and Petracca, L.S. 2014. Jaguar Panthera onca in its southernmost range: use of a corridor between Bolivia and Argentina. Endangered Species Research 26:167–177. https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00640
Petracca, L.S., Ramirez-Bravo, O.E., and Hernandez-Santin, L. 2013. Occupancy estimation of jaguar Panthera onca to assess the value of east-central Mexico as a jaguar corridor. Oryx 48(1), 133-140. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605313000069
Jacobson, A.P., Cattau, M.E., Riggio, J.S., Petracca, L.S., and Fedak, D.A. 2013. Distribution and abundance of lions in northwest Tete Province, Mozambique. Tropical Conservation Science 6(1):87-107. https://doi.org/10.1177/194008291300600110
