Amy Teffer

Visiting Assistant Professor of Animal Science

Amy is a Western Mass local artist-scientist-mom teaching Animal Behavior at Hampshire College. She earned her BSc and MSc from UMass Amherst in Fisheries Conservation and Management and Marine Science. She pursued her PhD in Biology at the University of Victoria in BC studying how climate change and fisheries influence the disease ecology, survival, and fitness of Pacific salmon during their spawning migration. She has partnered with the DOI Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center, federal and state agencies, Tribal Nations, and others to develop best practices for managing wildlife and fisheries in a changing climate and human-impacted environments. She is passionate about the integration of Art-Science-Identity into education and outreach. She brings her whole self to her work as a teacher, researcher, and mentor.

Recent and Upcoming Courses

  • Animal migrations are a core component of ecosystem functioning and connectivity. Movement of animals across different habitats transfers nutrients, modulates disease processes, and supports dynamic food webs. In this course, we will review and discuss current literature describing animal migrations across terrestrial, marine, and aquatic habitats. Students will learn about the role of animal migration in local and regional ecology and the behaviors that contribute to coordinated movements of populations. We will read and discuss peer-reviewed literature that identifies the array of behavioral mechanisms and environmental and biological stimuli involved in animal migration across taxa. We will contextualize this knowledge within our understanding of climate change impacts and the sociopolitical complexities of wildlife management across borders. Keywords:animal behavior, migration, ecology, aquatic, marine, terrestrial

  • Coasts are on the front lines of climate change, experiencing firsthand the effects of increasing sea level, storm severity and frequency, and ocean temperature and acidification. Human and animal communities that occupy coastal habitats are almost certainly or soon-to-be affected by climate change. ??In this course, students will examine coastal change through a transdisciplinary lens. We will review examples of successful and unsuccessful mitigation strategies and the co-development of climate action plans, with a focus on partnering with Indigenous peoples. Students will engage in role-play and scenario-planning activities to develop equitable solutions to emerging problems facing coastal human and animal communities. Keywords:Animal behavior, climate change, social-ecology, coastal processes, marine science

  • This course will explore the scientific study of animal behavior in the context of natural selection and evolutionary theory following Rubenstein's text, "Animal Behavior," in addition to examples from contemporary literature. As a group, we will investigate functional and evolutionary bases of animal behavior in the context of reproductive behavior, mating systems, parental care, altruism, social behavior, communication, and cognition. Students will lead independent projects focused on a specific behavior or class of behaviors within and/or among species, emphasizing discovery, creative thinking, skills application, and knowledge communication to the broader community. Students will emerge with the ability to apply the concepts underpinning the study of animal behavior and its importance in the context of global change. Keywords:animal behavior, animal senses, biology, evolution

  • This hands-on field course will cover research methods for observing, coding, and analyzing animal behavior. We will practice behavior sampling and recording techniques on domestic animals at the farm, wild animals in the campus woods, and captive animals in the lab. We will use tools and equipment for measuring and tracking behaviors, including social behavior, foraging and communication behavior. Students will carry out independent projects on a species in the Hampshire woods, the Farm, or the lab and will be expected to consult the primary scientific literature to learn about their species. We will examine how to summarize, analyze, and present data. Students will work with spreadsheets and basic R Statistical Software and make graphs to present their data. Papers and presentations will be due for each project. Keywords:Animal behavior, research methods, ethology, ecology, agriculture/aquaculture

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