Staff Member
Emily Thorne

Post Doc
Email: edthorne@vt.edu
Biography
B.S. Wildlife Conservation Biology and Applied Vertebrate Ecology; Applied Statistics (Humboldt State University, 2014) My broad research interests include spatial ecology and animal behavior. My wildlife field research projects have included work with red-naped sapsuckers, American wigeon, Roosevelt elk, spotted hyenas and currently eastern spotted skunks.. The focus of my Master's thesis will be on eastern spotted skunk spatial ecology including landscape level occupancy, habitat selection and home range size in the Appalachian region of Virginia.
Research Publications | Publication Date |
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Thorne, E.D., M.L. Fies and W.M. Ford. 2024. Home-Range Size and Resource Use by Eastern Spotted Skunks in Virginia. Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies 11:206–214 | May 2024 |
Thorne, E.D., K.E. Powers, R.J. Reynolds, M.E. Beckner, K.A. Ellis and W.M. Ford. 2022. Comparison of survey methods to maximize detection of a declining rodent, the Allegheny woodrat Neotoma magister, in Virginia. Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management.13:396-406 |
June 2022 |
Thorne, E.D. and W.M. Ford. 2021. Contemporary Distribution of the Eastern Spotted Skunk (Spilogale putorius) in Virginia . Southeastern Naturalist 20:39-51 | July 2021 |
Thorne, E.D. and Ford, W.M. (2022). Redundancy analysis reveals complex den use patterns by eastern spotted skunks, a conditional specialist. Ecosphere, 13(1). doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.3913. |
September 2021 |
Quinlan, B.A., Rosenberger, J.P., Kalb, D.M., Abernathy, H.N., Thorne, E.D., Ford, W.M. and Cherry, M.J. (2022). Drivers of habitat quality for a reintroduced elk herd. Scientific Reports, [online] 12(1), p.20960. doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-25058-9. |
December 2022 |
Quinlan, B., Rosenberger, J., Kalb, D., Thorne, E., Ford, W. and Cherry, M. (n.d.). Estimating Elk Abundance Using the Lincoln-Petersen Method. Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, [online] 10, pp.135–141. Available at: https://seafwa.org/sites/default/files/journal-articles/J10_17_Quinlan%20et%20al%20135-141.pdf. |
March 2023 |
Powers, K.E., E.D. Thorne, L.R. Platt, K.M. Nelson, L. Van MEter, C.M. Wozniak, R.J. Reynolds and W.M. Ford. 2023. Activity patterns of Allegheny woodrats (Neotoma magister) and two potential competitors in Virginia. Northeastern Naturalist 30(1):41-58 | February 2023 |
Ford, W.M., J. De La Cruz, E.D. Thorne, A. Silvis, M.P. Armstrong, and R. Andrew King. 2024. Second guessing the maximum likelihood estimator values for bat surveys. Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies 11:177–184. | Download | May 2024 |
Ford, W., Thorne, E., Silvis, A., Barr, E., Armstrong, M. and King, R. 2023. Maximum Likelihood Estimator and Nightly Acoustic Count Values as Weight of Evidence of Bat Maternity Activity. [online] Available at: https://seafwa.org/sites/default/files/journal-articles/J10_13_Ford%20et%20al%20100-106.pdf | March 2023 |
Butler, AR., A. Edelman, R. Eng, S. N. Harris, E.D. Thorne, W.M. Ford, and David S. Jachowski. 2021. Demography of the Appalachian Spotted Skunk (Spilogale putorius putorius). Southeastern Naturalist 20:95-109 | August 2021 |
Project | Completion Date |
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Distribution and Ecology of the Eastern Spotted Skunk | December 2019 |
Presentations | Presentation Date |
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Thorne, E.D., M.P. Armstrong, A. Kind, J.S. Ultrup and W.M. Ford. 2022. An update on acoustic sampling level of effort for the Indiana, northern long-eared, little brown and tri-colored bats. 2022 Northeast Bat Working Group. Manchester, NH. Jan. 12-14/ | January 2022 |
Thorne, E.D., C.D. Waggy, D.S. Jachowski, M.J. Kelly and W.M. Ford. 2016. Co-Existence and Temporal Overlap of Mesocarnivores in Central and Southern Appalachia. 23rd Annual Conference of the Wildlife Society, Raleigh, NC. October 15-19. | October 2016 |
Thorne, E.D., C. Waggy, D. Jachowski, M. Kelly, and W. M. Ford. 2016. Habitat associations of the eastern spotted skunk in western Virginia. 26th Annual Colloquium on the Conservation of Mammals in the Southeastern United States. Feb. 18-19, Guntersville, AL. | February 2016 |
Thorne, E.D. and W.M. Ford. 2019. Crowd-sourcing spotted skunks: citizen science improves efforts to identify contemporary range boundary of a rare and elusive species in Virginia. Combined 24th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Bat Diversity Network and 29th Annual Colloquium on the Conservation of Mammals in the Southeastern U.S., Jacksonville, FL., February 21-22. | February 2019 |
Thorne, E.D. and W.M. Ford. 2018. A MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF COMPLEX RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN DEN SELECTION BY EASTERN SPOTTED SKUNKS (SPILOGALE PUTORIUS) AND ENVIRONMENTAL VARIATION. 28th Annual Colloquium on the Conservation of Mammals in the Southeastern U.S. Roanoke, VA, March 27-29. | March 2018 |
Thorne, E.D. and W.M. Ford. 2017. Temporal avoidance and activity shifts of sympatric mesocarnivores in the central Appalachians. 2017 Southeastern Bat Diversity Network and Colloquium on Conservation of Mammals. Asheville, NC .Feb 16-17. | February 2017 |
Thorne, E., R. Eng, C. Waggy, D. Jachowski and W.M. Ford. 2018. Large- and Fine-scale Habitat Associations of Eastern Spotted Skunks (Spilogale putorius) in the Central and Southern Appalachian Mountains. 2018 The Wildlife Society Meeting, Cleveland OH, October 7-11. | October 2018 |
Quinlan, B., H. Abernathy, D. Kalb, E.D. Thorne, W.M. Ford and M.J. Cherry. 2020. Elk in the Old Dominion: preliminary assessment of habitat assessment. 27th Annual Conference of the Wildlife Society. Sept 28-Oct 1. | September 2020 |
Ford, W.M., E.D. Thorne, H.N. Custer, M.P. Armstrong, R.A. King, J.S. Ultrup and A. Silvis. 2022. An update on acoustic sampling level of effort and automated software testing for the Indiana bat and northern long-eared bat. Annual Meeting of the Northeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, Long Branch, NJ. April 3-5. | April 2022 |
Butler, A.R., A.J. Edelman, R.Y.Y. Eng, S.N. Harris, C. Olfenbuttel, E.D. Thorne, W.M. Ford and D.S. Jachowski. 2021. Predation and disease limit population recovery of a cryptic small carnivore, the Appalachian Spotted Skunk. 100th Annual Conference of the American Society of Mammalogists, June 14-18 (virtual). | June 2021 |
Butler, A., A. Edleman, R. Eng, S. Harris, C. Offenbuttel, E. Thorne, M. Ford and D. Jachowski. 2021. Predation and disease limit population recovery of a cryptic small carnivore, the Appalachian spotted skunk. 28th Annual Meeting of the Wildlife Society. Nov. 1-5 (virtual). | November 2021 |
Beckner, M.E., E.D. Thorne, K.E. Powers, R.J. Reynolds and W.M. Ford. 2018. Detection efficiency of the Allegheny woodrat (Neotoma magister) in Virginia, 2017. 28th Annual Colloquium on the Conservation of Mammals in the Southeastern U.S. Roanoke, VA, March 27-29. | March 2018 |
Abernathy, H.N., D.M. Kalb, B. Quinland, E.D. Thorne, W.M. Ford and M.J. Cherry. 2020. Spatial ecology of reintroduced elk in Virginia. 27th Annual Conference of the Wildlife Society, Sept. 28-Oct 1. | September 2020 |
<b>Thorne, E.D., and W.M. Ford. Home range is where the habitat is: forest fragmentation may restrict spotted skunk movements in Appalachian Virginia. 2020. Abstracts of the 30th Annual Colloquium on Conservation of Mammals in the Southeastern United States. Athens, GA. February 15</b> | February 2020 |
<b>Thorne, E.D., E.M. Hallerman and W.M. Ford. 2020. Genetic diversity and population structure of eastern spotted skunks (Spilogale putorius) in Virginia. Abstracts of the 30th Annual Colloquium on Conservation of Mammals in the Southeastern United States. Athens, GA. February 15</b> | February 2020 |