Seth Riley

Seth Riley is an associate adjunct professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and expert on bobcats and mountain lions specifically and more generally on wildlife conservation in fragmented urban areas. Riley is chief wildlife ecologist for Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, which is part of the National Park Service.

In his work, Riley studies the behavior and ecology of wide-ranging mammalian carnivores such as mountain lions, bobcats and coyotes, the effects of roads and habitat fragmentation on the ecology, behavior and genetic diversity of wildlife (including carnivores, reptiles, and birds), the influence of rat poison and pesticides on wild mammals, and the effects of urbanization on the diversity and abundance of reptile and amphibian communities. The amphibian work includes re-introducing threatened red-legged frogs to the Santa Monica Mountains.

Riley collaborates with UCLA’s La Kretz Center for California Conservation Science and is a member of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.