Conservation & Science Staff Bios

Education

B.S. – Environmental Science with an Emphasis in Terrestrial Ecology, Western Washington University

Areas of Expertise

• Ornithology
• Ecology

About Mason Fidino:

Mason first began conservation and ecology work in 2006. Since then he has aided in numerous studies, from collecting clams and fish in the Columbia River to coring trees and identifying birds on the mountains of Washington. Mason completed his undergraduate education at Western Washington University in 2009. After a year-long stay in Dublin, Ireland, he moved to Chicago and began working at Lincoln Park Zoo.

As coordinator of wildlife management at the Urban Wildlife Institute, Mason has the opportunity to conduct numerous studies on zoo grounds to assess the biodiversity of the area and help inform zoo management decisions. You will often see him conducting bird counts, tracking painted turtles with radio-telemetry equipment and collecting arthropods (insects, spiders, etc.) at Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo. Mason often blogs about the variety of wildlife he encounters at Nature Boardwalk.

If Mason doesn’t have his eyes glued to a set of binoculars, he is setting up motion-triggered cameras in the greater Chicagoland area, collecting arthropods around Chicago or assisting on a number of the other projects the Urban Wildlife Institute conducts. He is incredibly interested in human-wildlife conflict and hopes to further his studies focusing on road kill, wildlife behavior in urban areas and the effects of humans feeding wildlife.