Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit Staff Member
Dr. Daniel P Walsh

Unit Leader
Phone: (406) 243 - 4390
Email: dwalsh@usgs.gov
Faculty Email: daniel.walsh@umontana.edu
Biography
Daniel Walsh - Unit Leader, Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit
Dr. Walsh received graduate degrees in Fisheries and Wildlife and Statistics from Michigan State University and Colorado State University. He worked as a Disease Researcher with Colorado Division of Wildlife and as a Quantitative Ecologist at the USGS National Wildlife Health Center before joining the Montana Unit in 2022. He conducts applied research that develops and applies novel quantitative approaches in conjunction with field research to improve the health of wildlife populations. His research interests are broad, and he has worked on a wide array of taxonomic groups and wildlife health issues including chronic wasting disease, bighorn sheep respiratory disease, avian influenza, white nose syndrome, New Castle disease, among others. One focus of his current research is leveraging systems modeling to inform decision-making and applying scientific principles to the implementation of management efforts to improve the likelihood of desired outcomes. Additionally, Dr. Walsh has helped develop national surveillance strategies for avian influenza and white nose syndrome and has conducted extensive work with the World Animal Health Organisation and others to build wildlife health capacity globally. Dr. Walsh will teach courses in statistical methods for population dynamics and wildlife health modeling.
Areas of Expertise
AI/Machine Learning, Disease/Parasites, Epidemiology, GIS/Spatial Analysis, Population Dynamics, Statistics and Modelling, Wildlife Management
Taxon Groups Studied
Bats, Ungulates, Waterfowl
Research Publications | Publication Date |
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Hefley, T.J., M.B. Hooten, R.E. Russell, D.P. Walsh, and J. Powell. (2017). When mechanism matters: Forecasting the spread of disease using ecological diffusion. Ecology Letters, 20: 640-650. | September 2017 |
Hefley, T.J., M.B. Hooten, J.M. Drake, R.E. Russell, and D.P. Walsh. (2016). When can the cause of a population decline be determined? Ecology Letters, 19: 1353-1362. | December 2016 |
Hefley, T.J., M.B. Hooten, E.M. Hanks, R.E. Russell, and D.P. Walsh. (2017). Dynamic spatio-temporal models for spatial data. Spatial Statistics, 20: 206-220. | March 2017 |
Hefley, T.J., M.B. Hooten, E.M. Hanks, R.E. Russell, and D.P. Walsh. (2017). The Bayesian spatial group lasso. Journal of Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Statistics, 22: 42-59. | February 2017 |
Presentations | Presentation Date |
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Walsh, D.P., E. Robertson, and J. Marten. 2023. Using rapid prototyping to synthesize knowledge regarding the cause of an emerging disease. The Wildlife Society Annual Meeting, Louisville, KY, USA. November 5-9, 2023. (oral) | November 2023 |
V. Boccadori, V., K. Proffitt, and D. P. Walsh. 2023. Highland Bighorn Sheep Project. Wild Sheep Working Group Test and Remove Workshop. (virtual) Reno, Nevada. 1/11/2023. | January 2023 |
Tallon, A. K., J. Blanchong, D. Navarro, P. Euclide, C. Ott-Conn, D. P. Walsh, R. DeYoung, and E K. Latch. 2022. Development and application of a high-throughput genomic resource to inform white-tailed deer population and disease management. Part 2 of 2. The Wildlife Society Annual Conference. Spokane WA. 11/9/2022 | November 2022 |
S. S. Lichtenberg, S. Thomas, D. Storm, and D. P. Walsh. Real-time quaking-induced conversion for prion detection in contaminated environmental samples. 2023. 4th International Symposium. Denver, Colorado, USA. 5/31/23-6/2/23. | May 2023 |
Piel III, R. B., S. E. Veneziano, E. Nicholson, D. P. Walsh, T. A. Nichols, and D. A. Schneider. 2023. Disparate tissue effects of pre-analytic differential centrifugation and NaPTA precipitation on enhanced detection of CWD prions by RT-QuIC using RAMALT and MRPLN samples from naturally infected WTD. 4th International CWD Symposium, Denver, Colorado, USA. May 31-June 2, 2023. | May 2023 |
McGahan, I., F. Mandujano, D. Storm, M. Gilbertson, S. Lichtenberg, J. Powell, D. Walsh, J. Zhu, W.C. Turner. Modeling host behavior and environmental transmission of chronic wasting disease. Annual Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases (CRWAD), Chicago, Illinois, USA, January 20-23, 2024. | January 2023 |
Mandujano Reyes, J. F., I. P. McGahan, T. F. Ma, R.E. Russell, D. P. Walsh, and J. Zhu. 2023. Learning complex spatial dynamics of ecological processes with machine learning-guided partial differential equations. NeurIPS, New Orleans, LA,USA 12/10/23-12/16/23 | December 2023 |
Ketz, A. C., D. J. Storm, W. C. Turner, and D. P. Walsh. 2023. Progression of a chronic wasting disease epizootic: A spatiotemporal integrated population model. 4th International CWD Symposium. Denver, Colorado, USA. May 31- June 2, 2023. | May 2023 |
Katircioglu, S., M. Hunsaker, A. Herbst, S.S. Lichtenberg, D.J. Storm, D.P. Walsh, W.C. Turner. Comparing relative PrP(CWD) loads in soil from deer scrapes and food plots in southern Wisconsin. 4th International Conference on Chronic Wasting Disease | May 2023 |
Inzalaco, H.N., M.L.J. Gilbertson, S. Katircioglu, K. Lepard, J. McEarl, A. Bibb, J. Dennison, D. Grove, A. Houston, D.J. Storm, D.P. Walsh, W.C. Turner, S.S. Lichtenberg. Artificial mineral sites that pre-date endemic chronic wasting disease become prion hotspots. 4th International Chronic Wasting Disease Symposium. Denver, Colorado, USA. May 30 – June 2, 2023. | May 2023 |
Inzalaco, H.N., E.E. Brandell, S. Wilson, M. Hunsaker, D.R. Stahler, K. Woelfel, D.P. Walsh, D.J. Storm, S.S. Lichtenberg, W.C. Turner. A prion in a poop-stack: detection tools and carnivore-based surveillance of chronic wasting disease. 4th International Chronic Wasting Disease Symposium. Denver, Colorado, USA. May 30 – June 2, 2023. | May 2023 |
Gilbertson, M.L.J., A. Ketz, M. Hunsaker, D.P. Walsh, D.J. Storm, W.C. Turner. Seasonal variation in white-tailed deer (<i>Odocoileus virginianus</i>) habitat selection, encounter locations, and chronic wasting disease transmission potential. 4<sup>th</sup> International Chronic Wasting Disease Symposium. Denver, Colorado, USA. May 30 – June 2, 2023. | May 2023 |
Ensrud, M. N., D. P. Walsh, E. F. Cassirer, C. P. Lehman and J. A. Jenks. 2023. FURTHER EVIDENCE THAT THE REMOVAL OF MYCOPLASMA<br>OVIPNEUMONIAE CARRIER BIGHORN SHEEP INCREASES LAMB SURVIVAL. South Dakota Chapter of The Wildlife Society. Chamberlain-Oacoma, South Dakota, USA. March 7-10,2023. | March 2023 |
Brandell, E. E., W. Turner, D. P. Walsh, D. Storm, B. Wojcik and T. Van Deelen. 2023. Evaluating white-tailed deer harvest in Wisconsin and relationships to management practices and chronic wasting disease. 4<sup>th</sup> International Chronic Wasting Disease Symposium. Denver, Colorado, USA. May 30 – June 2, 2023. | May 2023 |
Boccadori, V., K. Proffitt, and D. P. Walsh. 2022. Testing the tools: Montana's Highlands bighorn sheep (<i>Ovis canadensis) </i>project. Northern Wild Sheep and Goat Council Symposium. Jackson Hole, Wyoming. 4/4-4/7/2022. | April 2022 |
Blanchong, J., D. Navarro, A. K. Tallon, P. Euclide, C. Ott-Conn, D. P. Walsh, R. W. DeYoung, and E. K. Latch. Development and application of a high-throughput genomic resource to inform white-tailed deer population and disease management. Part 1 of 2. The Wildlife Society Annual Conference. Spokane, WA 11/9/2022. | November 2022 |
Alison C. Ketz, Daniel J. Storm, Daniel P. Walsh. 2022. Anomaly detection: A multivariate time series algorithm for predicting changes in real time. The Wildlife Society Conference, Spokane, WA. 11/8/2022 | November 2022 |
<b>Reyes, J. F. M., T. F. Ma, I. McGahan, D. J. Storm, D. P. Walsh, and J. Zhu. Physics-informed neural networks for spatio-temporal causal inference in wildlife disease modeling. Midwest Machine Learning Symposium. Dorin Forum, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL, USA. May 16-17, 2023.</b><br><b> </b> | May 2023 |
Technical Publications | Publication Date |
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Hopkins, M.C., Carlson, C.M., Cross, P.C., Johnson, C.J., Richards, B.J., Russell, R.E., Samuel, M.D., Sargeant, G.A., Walsh, D.P., and Walter, W.D., 2019, Chronic wasting disease—Research by the U.S. Geological Survey and partners: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2019‒1109, 29 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20191109. | Download | September 2019 |