RESEARCH PROJECTS
Multispecies Interactions
Although the Scandinavian bear population is currently stable, the management of bears remains controversial and under public scrutiny as stakeholders from different backgrounds often desire disparate conservation outcomes. It is therefore critical that managers in Scandinavia are provided both accurate and up-to-date information about the status and ecology of the local bear population. The 'Ljusdal Project' takes advantage of the The Scandinavian Brown Bear Research Project's core resources and expertise, and the convergence of research efforts in Sweden’s Ljusdal area, to explore several important knowledge gaps related to brown bears and multispecies interactions. Our goal is to capitalize on the simultaneous collaring of bears, wolves, moose, and red deer to broadly evaluate predation patterns, predator-prey behavior, and predator-predator interactions.
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Foraging in a Landscape of Risk: The Predatory Behavior of Large Carnivores
The intensifying global extinction crisis is primarily driven by the impact of humans on wildlife populations. Large-bodied mammals are particularly at risk, including large carnivores that often come into conflict with humans, e.g., they kill livestock, game species, and occasionally, human beings. While a wealth of research attempts to understand the indirect effects of risk on prey populations and subsequent ecosystem function, we still have a limited understanding of how human-induced risk effects influence large carnivores. Our objective is to investigate how the predatory behavior of two large felids, snow leopard and lynx, is affected by anthropogenic and natural risk. Specifically, we aim to investigate how felid behavior around their kills, and subsequent access to food biomass, differs with relative risk at kill sites.
Competition Between Apex Predators
After a century or more of decline, wolf and brown bear populations are starting to rebound in some areas of the world and functionally coexist again. Yellowstone National Park and the Scandinavian Peninsula both support recently recovered wolf and brown bear populations. With respect to these two species, these systems are some of the most heavily studied in the world. Yet the majority of the research has generally focused on either wolves or bears, independently of one another. I am currently working with the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, The Scandinavian Brown Bear Project, the Scandinavian Wolf Project, and Yellowstone National Park to understand how these two species affect each other.
Photo Credit: Dan Stahler - Yellowstone National Park
Foraging Ecology
Animals eat. This is a fundamental fact of life. But determining the extrinsic factors that affect what, when, where, and how they eat is less straightforward. My research focuses on how dangerous prey species alter predator hunting behavior and change predicted predation patterns. However, few studies have measured the behavioral relationships between predators and their most formidable and dangerous prey species. Understanding how predators modify their foraging behavior to cope with dangerous prey species is important for understanding the dynamics of natural systems. Wolf-bison interactions represent an ideal case study to understand relationships between predators and dangerous prey in carnivore-ungulate systems, which are classic model systems for studying predator-prey interactions.
Photo Credit: Dan Stahler - Yellowstone National Park
LATEST OUTREACH
Documentary: The Legacy Effects of Megaherbivores
The Legacy of Megaherbivores will ‘follow’ the life and death of an elephant in the African savanna, explaining their effect on ecosystem function in both life and death. The life cycle of these megaherbivores will be put into broader ecological context, showing how megaherbivores impact ecosystems and the current implications for ecosystems facing their disappearance. This documentary is part of the Broader Impacts program for an NSF funded grant, the Ecological legacy effects of megacarcasses in African savanna ecosystems.
Wolves Across Borders
Wolves Across Borders is an international conference on wolf ecology and management. Wolves Across Borders 2023 was hosted by the Scandinavian Wolf Research Group and funded by the EPA's of Sweden, Norway, and Finland, WWF Sweden, and Interreg Sweden-Norway. The conference will be held again in 2026 in the Netherlands.
Science Education Nonprofit
Our World of Wildlife is a science outreach program that works with biologists to translate, communicate, and disseminate high-level scientific research, teach basic ecology and biology concepts, and engage young people in science. Our mission is to facilitate nature conservation efforts through science education and communication.
Children's Book Series
Sophie the Sea Otter, tells the story of Sophie, an otter who lives happily in a kelp forest in the ocean. When she and her friends are driven out of their home, however, their absence has disastrous results for the kelp forests that provide food and shelter for so many other species.
CURRENT COLLABORATORS / FUNDERS
