EVOLUTIONARY AND BEHAVIOURAL ECOLOGY OF MAMMALS 

Laurentian University

How do environmental influences, things like food availability, predators and climate changes affect wild animals and their ability to procreate? That's a question Dr. Albrecht Schulte-Hostedde at Laurentian University hopes to answer.

"Understanding how animals have adapted to changes in the past may help us predict how they will respond to changes in the future such as global warming," explains Dr. Schulte-Hostedde. "And that may make it possible for us to develop strategies to ensure their survival, which is important for our whole ecosystem."

Dr. Schulte-Hostedde's research focuses on the northern flying squirrel. With help, in part, from an Early Researcher Award, he's establishing a long-term monitoring project in Algonquin Park where individual squirrels will be captured and marked and their life histories documented.

"Like humans, squirrels come in a variety of shapes and sizes," says Dr. Schulte-Hostedde. "I want to find out which traits are associated with success -- success being the ability to produce offspring over their life span -- and if and how these traits change over time."

Researcher: Dr. Albrecht Schulte-Hostedde