Research Interests

My research focuses on resource selection of terrestrial mammals. I am currently a PhD candidate at Memorial University of Newfoundland in the Wildlife Evolutionary Ecology Lab working with Eric Vander Wal.

I am broadly interested in animal resource selection and movement, with specific focus on how scale affects these processes. I am also interested in how changing climate and habitat availability alters animal movement, selection and fitness.

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Academic Background

2016–Present: 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.

2014–2015: 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.

2012–2014: MSc, University of Saskatchewan, Animal Population Ecology Lab - Philip McLoughlin
Scale and grain size in white-tailed deer habitat selection and functional response.

2005–2010: Honours BSc, University of Saskatchewan
Thesis: Dyadic interaction rate as a function of home-range overlap in elk (Cervus canadensis)

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Contact:

Michel Laforge
Department of Biology
Memorial University of Newfoundland
SN 1000
232 Elizabeth Avenue
St. John's, NL
A1B 3X9
m.laforge@mun.ca