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Tim Tinker

   Research Wildlife Biologist

Tim Tinker
Santa Cruz Field Station
100 Shaffer Road /
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Phone: (831) 459-2357
Email: ttinker@usgs.gov 		Wildlife Biologist Tim Tinker conducting a Sea Otter survey.
Bio
Dr. Tim Tinker is a Research Wildlife Biologist with the Western Ecological Research Center of the U.S. Geological Survey, and an adjunct Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California Santa Cruz. For 15 years he has been studying sea otter populations in Alaska, California and the Russian Commander Islands. Working with Dr. James Estes, Dr. Tinker played a key role in learning about the causes and effects of the sea otter population decline in the Aleutian archipelago through the 1990’s, and continues to study these threatened populations. More recently he has focused on the foraging ecology and demography of the southern sea otter, using multiple lines of investigation - including studies of animal behavior and physiology, food web interactions and anthropogenic impacts - to understand factors limiting sea otter populations in central California. Dr. Tinker’s areas of interest include quantitative conservation ecology, with a particular emphasis on modeling population dynamics. He is also interested in individual behavioral strategies, and seeks to understand the ways in which variation in behavior scales up to population-level and community-level dynamics.
 

RESEARCH INTERESTS
  • Behavior of carnivores and social mammals
  • Behavioral ecology of vertebrates
  • Community ecology
  • Marine mammal ecology
  • Pop. viab. models
  • Population biology

EDUCATION
  • PhD, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz 2004
  • M.Sc., Zoology and Ecology, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada 1993
  • B.Sc., Wildlife Biology, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada 1990

PROFESSIONAL AND HONORARY SOCIETIES AND SCIENCE ADVISORY COMMITTEES
  • Member of Southwest Alaska Sea Otter Recovery Team (SWAKSORT) convened by US FWS
  • Member of the Ecological Society of America, 2005-2009
  • Member of The Society for Marine Mammalogy, 1991-2009

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
  • Research Scientist, US Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center, 2008 -
  • Adjunct Professor, UC Santa Cruz, 2008 -
  • Assistant Research Biologist, UC Santa Cruz, 2007-2008
  • Post-doctoral researcher, UC Santa Cruz, 2004-2007

All Products
Journal_Article
2012 Kim, SL, MT Tinker, JA Estes, PL Koch. 2012. Ontogenetic and among-individual variation in foraging strategies of northeast Pacific white sharks based on stable isotope analysis. PLoS ONE 7(9): e45068. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0045068 [Journal_Article]
2012 Tinker, MT, PR Guimarães Jr, M Novak, FMD Marquitti, JL Bodkin, M Staedler, G Bentall, JA Estes. 2012. Structure and mechanism of diet specialisation: testing models of individual variation in resource use with sea otters. Ecology Letters. doi: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2012.01760.x [Journal_Article]
2010 Harris, Heather S., Stori C. Oates, Michelle M. Staedler, M. Tim Tinker, David A. Jessup, James T. Harvey, and Melissa A. Miller. 2010. Lesions and Behavior Associated with Forced Copulation of Juvenile Pacific Harbor Seals (Phoca vitulina richardsi) by Southern Sea Otters (Enhydra lutris nereis). Aquatic Mammals 36(4): 219-229. [Journal_Article]
2010 Newsome, Seth D, Gena B. Bentall, M Tim Tinker, Olav T Oftedal, Katherine Ralls, James A Estes, and Marilyn L Fogel.  2010. Variation in d13C and d15N diet-vibrissae trophic discrimination factors in a wild population of California sea otters.  Ecological Applications 20(6): 1744-1752 [Journal_Article]
2010 Jessup, D.A., C. Kreuder-Johnson, J.A. Estes, D. Carlson-Bremer, W.M. Jarmin, S. Reese, E. Dodd, M.T. Tinker, and M.H. Ziccardi. In Press. Persistent organic pollutants in the blood of free ranging sea otters (Enhydra lutris sp.) in Alaska and California. Journal of Wildlife Diseases. [Journal_Article]
2010 Hatfield, B.B., Ames, J.A., Estes, J.A., Tinker, M.T., Johnson, A.B., Staedler, M.M., and Harris, M.D. In Press. Sea otter mortality in traps. Endangered Species Research. [Journal_Article]
2010 Miller, Melissa A., Raphael M. Kudela, Abdu Mekebri, Dave Crane, Stori C. Oates,  M. Timothy Tinker, Michelle Staedler, Woutrina A. Miller, Sharon Toy-Choutka, Clare Dominik, Dane Hardin, Gregg Langlois, Michael Murray, Kim Ward, David A. Jessup. In Press. Impacts of Freshwater Cyanotoxin Blooms on Marine Ecosystems: Microcystin Transfer from Land to Sea Otters. PLoS ONE. [Journal_Article]
2010 Estes, James A., M. Tim Tinker and James L. Bodkin. 2010. Using Ecological Function to Develop Recovery Criteria for Depleted Species: Sea Otters and Kelp Forests in the Aleutian Archipelago. Conservation Biology 24(3) 852-860. [Journal_Article]
2009 Johnson, C.K., Tinker, M.T., Estes, J.A., Conrad, P.A., Staedler, M., Miller, M.A., Jessup, D.A. and Mazet, J.A.K. 2009. Prey choice and habitat use drive sea otter pathogen exposure in a resource-limited coastal system. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106(Early Edition). [Journal_Article]
2009 Tinker, M. T., M. Mangel, and J.A. Estes. 2009. Learning to be different: acquired skills, social learning, frequency dependence and environmental variation can cause behaviorally-mediated foraging specializations. Evolutionary Ecology Research. 11:841-869. [Journal_Article]
2009 Edwards, M.S. and M. T. Tinker. 2009. Monitoring Benthic Algal Communities: A Comparison of Targeted and Coefficient Sampling Methods. Algae 24(2):111-120. [Journal_Article]
2009 Newsome, S. D. , M.T. Tinker, D. H. Monson, O.T. Oftedal, K. Ralls, M. Staedler, M.L. Fogel, and J.A. Estes. 2009. Using stable isotopes to investigate individual diet specialization in California sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis). Ecology 90:961-974. [Journal_Article]
2008 Tinker, M. Tim, Daniel F. Doak, and James A. Estes. 2008. Using demography and movement behavior to predict range expansion of the southern sea otter. Ecological Applications 18(7):1781-1794 [Journal_Article]
2008 Tinker, M.T., G. Bentall and J.A. Estes 2008. Food limitation leads to behavioral diversification and dietary specialization in sea otters. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105(2):560-565 [Journal_Article]
2008 Peckham, S.H., D. Maldonado Diaz, V. Koch, A. Mancini, A. Gaos, M. T. Tinker, W.J. Nichols. 2008. High mortality of loggerhead turtles due to bycatch, human consumption and strandings at Baja California Sur, Mexico, 2003 to 2007. Endangered Species Research 5(2-3). [Journal_Article]
2008 Doak, D.F., J.A. Estes, B.S. Halpern, U. Jacob, D.R. Lindberg, J.R. Lovvorn, D.H. Monson, M.T. Tinker, et al. 2008. Understanding and predicting ecological dynamics: are major surprises inevitable? Ecology 89:952-961. [Journal_Article]
2007 Jessup, D.A., M.A. Miller, C. Kreuder-Johnson, P. Conrad, M.T. Tinker, J.A. Estes and J.A.K. Mazet. 2007. Sea Otters in a Dirty Ocean. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 231(11): 1648-1652. [Journal_Article]
2007 Tinker, M.T., D.P. Costa, J.A. Estes and N. Wieringa. 2007. Individual dietary specialization and dive behaviour in the California sea otter: using archival time-depth data to detect alternative foraging strategies. Deep Sea Research II 54:330-342. [Journal_Article]
2006 Tinker, M.T., D.F. Doak, J.A. Estes, B.B. Hatfield, M.M. Staedler, and J.L. Bodkin. 2006. Incorporating diverse data and realistic complexity into demographic estimation procedures: a case study using the California sea otter, Enhydra lutris nereis. Ecological Applications 16:2293-2312. [Journal_Article]
2006 Laidre, K.L., J.A. Estes, M.T. Tinker, J. Bodkin, D. Monson and K. Schneider. 2006. Patterns of growth and body condition in sea otters from the Aleutian archipelago before and after the recent population decline. Journal of Animal Ecology 75: 978-989 [Journal_Article]
2005 Estes, J.A., M.T. Tinker, A.M. Doroff and D.M. Burn. 2005. Continuing sea otter population declines in the Aleutian Archipelego. Marine Mammal Science 21:169–172. [Journal_Article]
2004 Gerber, L.R., M.T. Tinker, D.F. Doak, J.A. Estes, and D.A. Jessup. 2004. Mortality sensitivity in life-stage simulation analysis: a case study of southern sea otters. Ecological Applications 14(5): 1554-1565. [Journal_Article]
2003 Estes, J.A., M.L. Riedman, M.M. Staedler M.T. Tinker, B.E. Lyon. 2003. Individual variation in prey selection by sea otters: patterns, causes, and implications. Journal of Animal Ecology, 72(1): 144-155 [Journal_Article]
2003 Estes, J.A., E.M. Danner, D.F. Doak, B. Konar, A.M. Springer, P.D. Steinberg, M.T. Tinker, and T.M. Williams. 2003. Complex trophic interactions in kelp forest ecosystems. Bulletin of Marine Science, 74: 621-638. [Journal_Article]
2003 Doroff, A.M., J.A. Estes, M.T. Tinker, D.M. Burn and T.J. Evans. 2003. Sea otter population declines in the Aleutian Archipelago. Journal of Mammalogy, 84(1): 55-64 [Journal_Article]
2003 Burn, D.M., A.M. Doroff and M.T. Tinker, 2003. Carrying Capacity and pre-decline abundance of sea otters (Enhydra lutris kenyoni) in the Aleutian Islands. Northwestern Naturalist 84(3): 145-148 [Journal_Article]
1998 Estes, J.A., M.T. Tinker, T.M. Williams, and D.F. Doak. 1998. Killer whale predation on sea otters linking coastal with oceanic ecosystems. Science 282:473-476. [Journal_Article]
1998 Hatfield, B. B., D. B. Marks, M. T. Tinker, K. Nolan and J. Peirce. 1998. Attacks on sea otters by killer whales. Marine Mammal Science 14(4):888-894. [Journal_Article]
1996 Estes, J.A., D.F. Doak, J.R. Bodkin, R.J. Jameson, D. Monson, J. Watt, M.T. Tinker. 1996. Comparative Demography of Sea Otter Populations. Endangered Species Update 13(12): 11-13 [Journal_Article]
1995 Watt, J.P., B.T. Krausse, M.T. Tinker. 1995. Bald Eagles kleptoparasitizing sea otters at Amchitka Island, Alaska. Condor 97(2): 588-590 [Journal_Article]
1995 Tinker, M.T., K.M. Kovacs, M.O. Hammill. 1995. Behavior and energetics of male gray seals (Halichoerus grypus) breeding on landfast ice. Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology 36:159-170 [Journal_Article]
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