Gary Fellers Leaves Legacy of Scientific Inquiry in California National Parks

Dr. Gary Fellers may be best known as a pioneering herpetologist, but reptiles and amphibians were far from his only study subjects.

December 2019 - Few individuals have shaped our understanding of terrestrial species in the San Francisco Bay Area and California national parks like Dr. Gary Fellers, who passed away last month. Gary worked at Point Reyes National Seashore from 1983 until his retirement in 2013, first as a National Park Service scientist, and later as a researcher for the USGS Western Ecological Research Center. He continued to serve beyond his retirement as a USGS researcher emeritus.

Gary is perhaps best known as a pioneering herpetologist. He tested and improved methods for studying reptiles and amphibians, and was a leader in researching local and global amphibian declines. He also championed reptile and amphibian conservation through his research. In Point Reyes, for example, he launched an ongoing study of threatened California red-legged frog abundance, and recently published a comparison of survey methods to optimize their study and conservation going forward.

At the same time, Gary’s research, interests, and influence extended well beyond herpetology. He studied bats extensively, helping to pioneer methods now used to inventory and monitor them by their sonar signature. His research on a maternity colony of Townsend’s big-eared bats in Point Reyes directly informed the steps the park still takes to protect it. His broader studies of bats in the San Francisco Bay Area set the stage for multi-agency bat research and conservation efforts that continue to this day. The San Francisco Bay Area Inventory & Monitoring Network drew on Gary’s bat and terrestrial vertebrate inventories, and on his earlier studies of rare plants at Point Reyes and small mammals at Pinnacles National Park, upon its launch. Gary also studied ants in Haleakalā National Park, documented the precipitous decline of yellow-legged frogs at Yosemite, conducted long-term studies of deer mice and Island night lizards at Channel Islands National Park, initiated studies of mountain beavers and invasive deer at Point Reyes, and the list goes on. In recognition of his broad and innovative research for the National Park Service, Gary received the “Scientist of the Year” award. Along the way, he also was a significant mentor for many other biologists. Gary’s legacy of scientific inquiry in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond will be valued for years to come. Learn more from the December 9th USGS press release celebrating that legacy.

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