Colorado State University Team Wins Second Place at 35th Annual Wildlife Quiz Bowl

A team of four Colorado State University students won second place in the Wildlife Quiz Bowl, part of the 35th Annual Western Student Wildlife Conclave which took place March 16-19 in Moscow, Idaho.

In an earlier round, Colorado State beat Humbolt University, but the double elimination tournament allowed Humbolt to come back and eventually win the tournament. The Colorado State victory marked the first time in five years that the Humbolt team had been beaten.

"Humbolt is the perennial powerhouse because they offer a class in trivia bowl and give students academic credit for participating," said A. William Alldredge, professor of wildlife biology at Colorado State. "We do not emphasize trivia in our curriculum and the performance of our students is based upon their own efforts to master such material."

Other participating universities include Arizona State University, New Mexico State University, Stephen F. Austin, Texas A&M, Texas Tech., University of Idaho, University of Montana and Utah State University.

"I am especially proud of our quiz bowl team because we strive to train wildlife scientists, not trivia whizzes," said Alldredge.

Colorado State team members include captain Jessica Higgins from Berryville, Va.; Brad Banulis from Littleton, Colo.; Adam Cwiklin from Winter Park, Colo.; and Jason Luscier from Pittsfield, Mass.

Luscier also placed sixth out of 50 competitors in a lab practical covering a variety of challenging identifications of fish, wildlife and forestry specimens.

The Wildlife Quiz Bowl is conducted similarly to a college quiz bowl, but questions are based on wildlife, fishery and natural resources. Questions range from identification of specimens, wildlife calls and bird songs to statistics, population dynamics, and the history and who’s who of the profession.

A group of 21 students from Colorado State traveled to the conclave. Expenses were covered by student-generated funds, a grant from the Colorado Chapter of The Wildlife Society and Colorado State.

The first Western Student Wildlife Conclave was held at Colorado State 35 years ago.