Dr. Kristin Barker's seminar
Martedì, 25 Ottobre 2022 dalle ore 11:15 alle ore 12:15
Room 6302 - PRC building, FEM
TITLE: Wolves in the Anthropocene: Adjusting Predatory Behavior to Navigate Diverse Human Influences
SPEAKER: Kristin Barker , University of California Berkeley
Kristine Barker works to help improve management and conservation outcomes while advancing ecological theory by investigating (a) why wild animals act the way they do, and (b) how wildlife behaviors affect everything from individual fitness to ecological communities. Her current research focuses on the behavioral ecology of large terrestrial mammals, using wolves and elk in the Greater Yellowstone Area as a study system. Specifically, she is testing hypotheses related to predator-prey interactions, migration ecology, and human influences on wildlife behavior and distribution.
ABSTRACT: Large carnivores like gray wolves are expanding across Europe and North America, where they are increasingly coming into contact with a rapidly growing human population. To evaluate how humans alter natural patterns of carnivore predation on native ungulates, we investigated wolf kill site selection in the southern portion of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Results reveal that large carnivores’ effects on prey populations can vary considerably among different types of human influences, yet carnivores may not appreciably alter predatory behavior in response to humans if prey are difficult to obtain.
HOST: Francesca Cagnacci
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