I am a quantitative large mammal ecologist whose primary research focus is movement and habitat selection of ungulates. I am broadly interested in questions related to how animals deal with change in their environment at multiple temporal scales, either seasonal changes within a year or changes in conditions across years. How animals acclimate their behaviour allows us as ecologists to better predict how individuals and populations will fare as climate changes. I aim to tackle these questions using an individual approach, incorporating individual differences in behaviour among individuals to elucidate the variation in behavioural movement phenotypes within populations. By providing a baseline for heritability, variation in phenotypes provides a vital first step in quantifying how individuals may be able adapt to changing environmental conditions.
I am currently a post-doctoral researcher at Colorado State University incorporating remotely-sensed eco-physiology data in mule deer to their movement patterns. I'm currently working to generate a physiological movement cost landscape to help explain and predict how deer movement relates to physiological cost. |
Academic Background |
September 2023-Present: Ecophysiology post-doctoral researcher,
Colorado State University - George Wittemyer and Mark Ditmer Incorporating movement ecology and remotely-sensed ecophysiology in free-ranging mule deer. October 2021–September 2023: NSERC Post-Doctoral Fellow, Merkle Research Group, University of Wyoming - Jerod Merkle Fine-scale drivers of migration and movement in ungulates. Forage selection across spatiotemporal scales, mapping of global ungulate migrations. January 2016–October 2021: PhD candidate, Wildlife Evolutionary Ecology Lab, Memorial University - Eric Vander Wal Fitness consequences and individual-level quantification of caribou behavioural reaction norms to changing resource phenology. Thesis successfully defended October 2021. September 2019-March 2020: Visiting Fulbright Student, Merkle Research Group, University of Wyoming (shortened due to Covid-19) - Jerod Merkle Plasticity in migration timing and repeatability of green wave surfing behaviour of North American ungulates. May 2014–December 2015: Research assistant, University of Saskatchewan - Ryan K. Brook Resource selection and climate-driven range expansion of moose in agro-ecosystems. Phenology of polar bear visitation to field camps in Western Hudson Bay. January 2012–October 2014: MSc, University of Saskatchewan, Animal Population Ecology Lab - Philip McLoughlin Scale and grain size in white-tailed deer habitat selection and functional response. September 2005–April 2010: Honours BSc, University of Saskatchewan Thesis: Dyadic interaction rate as a function of home-range overlap in elk (Cervus canadensis) |