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Lecture: The Canada Lynx in Disturbed Landscapes
September 5 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm MDT
A Specialist Carnivore at its Southern Range Periphery: Canada Lynx in Disturbed Landscapes
By Dr. John Squires
September 5, 2024
Noon–1 p.m.
Join us for the September Lunchtime Expedition, A Specialist Carnivore at its Southern Range Periphery: Canada Lynx in Disturbed Landscapes, presented by Dr. John Squires, Research Wildlife Biologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rocky Mountain Research Station in Missoula, Montana.
The in-person talk takes place in the Center’s Coe Auditorium, with a virtual option available. If you prefer to join us online, you may register in advance via Zoom webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3UViCAd6TcC5m3gEmPNusg
After registering, you will receive a confirmation e-mail containing information about joining the webinar.
About the program
As fire and insect outbreaks increase across the West, our need to understand how natural and human-caused disturbances impact forest wildlife is increasingly urgent. This is especially true with the added challenges of a changing climate and an ever-expanding human footprint across natural landscapes.
Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) occupy high elevation, subalpine forests that have been impacted by natural disturbance for millennia. However, in the Northern and Southern Rocky Mountains of the West, the pace and extent of this disturbance is increasing, resulting in changes to forest age, type, and arrangement that affect lynx as well as other species, even human recreationists. Land management agencies also struggle to balance the need for species conservation with the desire for forest products, increased fire resilience, and outdoor recreation in this era of new disturbance.
For the past many years, Squires has logged Canada lynx movement with GPS collars to find patterns in how they use disturbed landscapes. By combining lynx locations, satellite images, and field measurements of vegetation and recreation, that research provides answers and guidance to land managers about how to conserve this species in a changing world. In this presentation, Squires discusses insights into how this elusive cat responds to natural and human-caused disturbance within the context of lynx conservation and forest management.
About the speaker
Dr. John Squires is a Research Wildlife Biologist at the USDA, Rocky Mountain Research Station in Missoula, Montana. He conducted his graduate studies at the University of Wyoming. He is primarily interested in the conservation and management of threatened/endangered/sensitive species, especially concerning forest carnivores and raptors. His recent studies focus on how sensitive wildlife respond to increased natural (i.e., forest insect outbreaks, fire) and human-caused (i.e., recreation, forest fragmentation, energy development) disturbance.
Squires currently seeks to understand how disturbance factors influence the ecology and conservation of Canada lynx and wolverine in the Northern and Southern Rocky Mountains and to prairie-nesting raptors in Wyoming. An overarching goal of his research is to develop new understandings of wildlife ecology through on-the-ground field research that can be applied to the practical challenges of science-based land management and conservation.
Upcoming Lunchtime Expeditions
The series generally continues on the first Thursday of each month.
• October 10 (note date change): Hannah Leonard
• November 7
• December 5
Have you missed a Lunchtime Expedition?
The talks in this series are gathered in YouTube playlists by year:
• 2024 Lunchtime Expeditions
• 2023 Lunchtime Expeditions
