October 17

Emily Studd. Adventures in using technology to study boreal mammals

As any naturalists is aware, wildlife is hard to find, let alone observe for long periods of time. This presents challenges in studying behaviour of animals in the wild which limits what research can and cannot be done. The current technological revolution is quickly changing this by providing ecologists with a range of new technologies that can record detailed behavioural data continuously over large temporal periods. In this talk, I will share some of the adventures that I have had over the past 15 years developing and testing the use of some of these novel technologies (Fitbits and spy mics) to study behaviour of Canada lynx, snowshoe hares and red squirrels during the depths of Yukon winters. From frozen fingers and failed devices to lynx arguments and surprising behaviour, like any good adventure there have been a mixture of failures and successes and plenty of good stories, some of which I will share along the way. 

Emily is wildlife ecologist and an Assistant Professor at Thompson Rivers University. After a childhood of spending countless hours watching anything and everything that moved in the Ottawa Valley, Emily realized that they could make a career out of watching wildlife and has spent the last 15 years living and studying animal behaviour across Canada including a substantial amount of time in the Kluane region of the Yukon. They are excited to now be based in Kamloops where they are slowly establishing a research lab on both local and northern ecosystems. When not at the university they can be found exploring the local wilderness on foot, bike, or canoe with a camera or pair of binoculars close at hand.