You've been a veterinarian for decades, but you didn't start out studying mountain lions.

That's correct.

No, I, I grew up in, in wild areas, in a rural area, and was out, always had a strong interest in wildlife.

Then I was in regular veterinary practice, uh, for 20 years doing all kinds of, of veterinary practice, uh, from cows and horses to dogs and cats to snakes and birds, all kinds of things that were pets.

And then my wife and I volunteered on a project doing research on snow leopards in Nepal.

Uh, and I met biologists there who were doing field research, uh, on those big cats, and kind of fell in love with the idea of doing field research and, and big cat research.

But in order to do that, I had to go back to school, get another degree, uh, at UC Davis in epidemiology of wildlife disease and ecology of wildlife.

So mountain lions are, are they the primary species that you s- study, or do you study other animals as part of your research?