Researchers in the Integrative Wildlife Conservation Lab, led by Dr. Dennis Murray from the Department of Biology, recently secured $149,694 from the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s (NSERC) Research Tools and Instruments (RTI) grants program.
This funding will allow the research team to expand its longstanding investigation of lynx, studying the behaviour of Canada lynx in northern ecosystems. Collectively, the team has monitored lynx and hare populations in the Kluane region of the Yukon since the 1980’s. Their work currently constitutes the longest-running study of a vertebrate predator-prey system in Canada, and perhaps the world.
By applying state-of-the-art technologies, scientists will be able to intensively monitor animals in an effort to address major questions that have been impossible to answer previously. The research team will capitalize on the natural fluctuation in lynx and hare populations to investigate how animals respond to drastic changes in their natural environment. Canada lynx undergo 10-year population cycles which closely follow those of their primary prey, snowshoe hare.
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