March is Women’s History month, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is recognizing a different female employee each day on its social media sites.

Ohio Northern University alum, Amanda Horvath, was featured on the Feb. 27 Mountain-Prairie flickr site as an outstanding woman of science.

Here's the feature: 

Amanda Horvath, #ScienceWoman

Amanda Horvath

Title: Fish and Wildlife Biologist

Duty station: Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program, Regional Office, Denver

Where did you go to school and what did you study:
Ohio Northern University (ONU) for a BS in Biology and Environmental Studies. I also attended the University of Colorado Denver (UCD) for a MS in Environmental Science. I earned my MS through the Master’s International Program which is a special program at UCD in conjunction with serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer (in my case I served in Paraguay).

How did you get interested in conservation?
When I was 10 years old my parents allowed me to have my first pet, which I chose to be a parakeet. From that moment on, I was hooked on wanting to know everything I could learn about birds. This led me to study biology as a career and continue a lifelong passion for conservation.

What’s your favorite species and why?
I have quite a few favorite species, but I think my favorite species is the burrowing owl. They are the most expressive of all the bird species I have observed and can be found from Colorado all the way down to the tip of Argentina. I used to love watching them in my town in Paraguay in the evenings with my Paraguayan counterparts and using that species to engage in discussions about bird and habitat conservation.