September 2024
  • Welcome to Madeleine Barryte who will be conducting a PhD degree on the population ecology of endangered smallmouth salamanders on Pelee Island.
August 2024
  • Congrats to the 2024 graduating class of the Masters in BEMA program, and on an excellent Capstone experience. Tucker and Rhianne were indispensable in helping pull off the Capstone course. 
June 2024
  • Francis and Rhianne successfully completed extensive drone-based surveys of our Kluane study area, while also completing hare population tracking in support of their thesis research. This was our first attempt to include multispectral sensor measurements into our drone work and our hope is that we can track greenup and growth on our study sites. 
  • Terry, Parinaz, Tucker, Alex and Tom Hossie re-initated our work on on Pelee Island, dodging mosquitos and poison ivy in an effort to track the demographic features of the Ambystoma salamander complex on the island.  

​May 2024
  • Welcome to Ainsley Ross, Masters in BEMA student, who is undertaking a professional placement working with the Kluane camera trapping dataset. Ainsley will prepare the extensive database for analysis and examine the relationship between species hit rates and landcover features.   
  • Welcome to Rhianne Crowther, Alex Robertson, Terry Topham and Parinaz Kahlilzadeh, who are starting graduate degrees in our lab. Terry and Parinaz will be working on the Pelee Island salamander conservation project, Alex will be working on spatial dynamics and occupancy modeling for western chorus frogs, and Rhianne will focus on snowshoe hare population dynamics in Yukon.
  • Congrats to Francis and Rhianne for landing travel grants from Trent's School of Graduate Studies, which will support their upcoming trip to Yukon to conduct fieldwork and attend a remote sensing workshop. 

April 2024
  • Congrats to Rhianne Crowther, who landed an Ontario Graduate Scholarship to conduct her MSc research on snowshoe hare demographic responses to long-term landcover changes in Yukon. Rhianne will be use long-term hare population monitoring dataset, as well as collect her own hare and remote sensing data,  to infer whether and how habitat changes affect hare distribution and abundance.  

March 2024
February 2024
  • Francis gave a talk on his on his hare-vegetation work at Kluane, at the 1st Small Mammal Cycles conference in Ottawa, ON         
January 2024
  • Welcome to Rhianne Crowther who, for the next few months, will help with analysis and writeup of landcover datasets before beginning an MSc assessing spatio-temporal dynamics in snowshoe hares.  

December 2023
  • Congrats to Rachael for successfully defending her PhD thesis on foraging patterns in Canada lynx. 

October 2023
  • Congrats to Nico for publishing the first chapter of his PhD thesis, which assesses methods for characterizing forest complexity using remote sensing information.   

September 2023
August 2023
  • Anni published a population viability analysis of Blanding's turtles outside Ottawa, showing that unfortunately the population is doomed to extinction!
  • Zana and Francis completed their successful field season at Kluane and have returned to campus for data analysis and writeup.

July 2023
  • Congrats to Evan for publishing the first chapter from his PhD thesis on salamander community composition on Pelee Island. 
  • Tucker received a batch of >1000 wild-type Lithops from Dr. Roy Earle (Lithops Research and Conservation Foundation) to begin our own colony at Trent that will serve as basis for genome sequencing, phylogeny assembly, and gene expression experiments. 

June 2023
  • Dr. Tom Hossie joined us for a fun-filled week of snowshoe hare research at our Kluane Lake field site in Yukon

May 2023
  • In collaboration with Dr. Tom Hossie, we just received a large grant from Ontario's Species-at-Risk fund to continue our smallmouth and unisexual salamander population research on Pelee Island.

April 2023
  • Francis headed up to Kluane early this spring to initiate his snowshoe hare habitat and vegetation surveys; he was soon accompanied by Zana, Hannah, Owen, and Mihika

March 2023
  • Owen successfully completed his extended placement with Environment and Climate Change Canada where he modeled the distribution of lichen in northern Ontario, as a predictor of caribou habitat quality
  • Jordan completed her placement with Kawartha Land Trust assessing amphibian conservation options on protected private lands in the Peterborough region

December 2022
  • Hannah completed her placement working for the Yukon Government on a variety of wildlife and habitat topics. Owen completed his placement working on remote sensing applications for predicting caribou habitat quality. Both students did such a fantastic job that their PAID placements are being extended for additional months.
  • Anni published the first paper from her PhD thesis looking at the application of accelerometry for behavioural classification in freshwater turtles
  • The lynx research undertaken by Rachael and collaborators in Yukon was featured in National Wildlife.

September 2022
  • Welcome to new MSc student Zana Everett who will be conducting research on snowshoe hare population ecology in Yukon
  • Hannah started a 4-month MSc placement with the Yukon Government researching pika ecology
  • Owen started a 4-month MSc placement with the Government of Canada researching the use of remote sensing for detecting forest lichen in support of caribou conservation
  • Evan completed the backlog of genotyping for thousands of salamanders in and around Pelee Island. Next stop - thesis completion!

August 2022
  • Congrats to the 2022 Masters in BEMA students for successful completion of their degree and an outstanding Capstone course experience. Best of luck to all!
  • Hannah completed a short placement with Credit Valley Conservation optimizing the use of acoustic recording units for detecting frog occupancy

July 2022
  • Welcome to Zana Everett who is serving as indispensable field tech on our snowshoe hare study in Yukon
  • Owen initiated new drone-based surveys of plant productivity in our Yukon study site 

June 2022
  • Congrats to Graeme for successfully defending his MSc thesis on the landscape ecology and conservation of Pelee Island salamanders
  • Congtrats to Francis for winning a Weston Northern Science Fellowship to complete his research on nutrient cycling in the boreal forest

May 2022
  • Anni's Blanding's turtle population viability analysis results were featured in a recent article in the Ottawa Citizen. Hopefully this prompts someone in a position of power to listen to all that was done wrong in this case, and that they will take more seriously their conservation obligations in the future. 

April 2022
  • Congrats to Anni for winning the French-American award for her outstanding research and progress as PhD student. Next stop - Defence!!!
  • Anni gave an excellent presentation to the City of Ottawa about her viability analysis for the urban Blanding's turtle population. Sad research results, but the attentive group of Councillors and managers leaves us hopeful that things will be done better in the future.
  • Congrats to Hannah, Owen, Francis and Nico for landing another year of NSTP funding to help support their field research at Kluane
  • Congrats to Francis for successful completion of his PhD candidacy exam; now on to bigger things!

March 2022
  • Nico and Owen returned to our Kluane Lake, Yukon, field site to initiate drone-based remote sensing surveys of forest structural cover and composition, under winter conditions. By comparing surveys during winter vs. summer, they will assess the role of snow accumulation on habitat characteristics and how this change may impact hare-predator interactions.   
  • Congrats to Anni for landing a new position with Canadian Wildlife Service

December 2021
  • Our work on Canada lynx in the Yukon was profiled in a recent article in Canadian Geographic

November 2021
  • Rachael was interviewed on Trent radio about her PhD on lynx ecology (interview starts at 8:30)

October 2021
  • Francis returns to Trent after a record-breaking 5+ months in the field at our Kluane research site, studying soil micro-organism community dynamics under climate change. Hopefully the quality of his data is proportional to the length of the field season!
  • Owen and Nico finally were able to launch our drone and sensors to survey forest structure and composition at Kluane. This has been a long time coming, and we are optimistic that the data to be collected will give very profound insight into the state of the boreal forest and impacts of climate change. 

September 2021
  • Congrats to Chris for receiving an Honourable Mention for his presentation on western chorus frog population monitoring at the Canadian Herpetologist Society meeting
  • Jordan, Chris, Evan and Graeme attended the Canadian Herpetologist Society meeting (online)

August 2021
  • Congrats to our graduating class of 24 Masters in BEMA students for successfully completing their Placement and Capstone courses. Recipients of BEMA awards were: Kim Teager (Outstanding Performance), Sarah Thompson (Outstanding Placement) and Autumn Jordan (Outstanding Leadership). Good luck to the entire class in all your future endeavours.

July 2021
  • Congrats to Carly for successfully defending her MSc thesis on wildlife responses to cattle disturbance, and best of luck in her new position as PhD candidate at University of Wisconsin
  • Hannah and Will tracked a female snowshoe hare with a litter of 10 leverets, as part of Hannah's study of maternal investment in hares, at our Kluane field site. This is probably a world record for the largest snowshoe hare litter ever recorded!

June 2021
  • Congrats to Meg for successfully defending her MSc thesis on chytrid fungus in amphibians, and best of luck in her position as Instructor at Mount Royal University
  • Congrats to Anni for being awarded the ESRI Scholarship, and to Graeme for receiving the ESRI Award, in a very strong showing by our lab in this year's ESRI competition.

May 2021
  • Welcome to Jordan McDonald, who will be conducting research on Ambystoma salamander recruitment on Pelee Island,  as part of her MSc degree. Jordan will be tagging salamanders and tracking larval emergence from breeding ponds for much of this summer.
  • Chris is initiating fieldwork on western chorus frogs in an effort to develop better methods for tracking species distribution and abundance.

April 2021
  • Congrats to Owen and Francis for each landing a Weston grant to initiate their research on ecosystem change in the boreal forest!
  • Congrats to Nico for winning the Provost Award for Academic Achievement in a Community Setting, for his Masters in BEMA placement with the County of Peterborough
  • Congrats to Rachael for winning the 2021 Curtin scholarship for her outstanding PhD work!
  • Oh no! Ongoing public concern over the urban coyote scare - hear our interview on CBC's Quirks and Quarks

March 2021
  • We conducted a joint lab meeting (via Zoom) with the Mammal Spatial Ecology and Conservation lab at Washington State University. The topic of discussion was trans-boundary research opportunities, and lots of good ideas were presented. This was a success and we will likely repeat the exercise in the coming months!
  • We were consulted for a Huffington Post article evaluating the future of the boreal forest
  • After a LONG wait, we are finally resuming our spring-fall research at Kluane. The first team (Jordan, Francis, Nico, Owen, Hannah) will be traveling early to undergo the required quarantine so they can hit the ground running when spring thaw arrives.

February 2021
January 2021
  • Liam Horne has been holding down the fort at Kluane for us for one year. In early January, he initiated the lynx work for this winter. Because of COVID-19, this year's field season is shorter than usual and we are thankful that we are able to do at least some work.
  • Welcome to new MSc student Chris Dennison who will be extending Kiefer's research on western chorus frogs to understand factors affecting population variability and spatio-temporal dynamics.

December 2020
  • Rachael's PhD research on lynx was featured in a CBC news article discussing social interactions in what otherwise appears to be a solitary cat.

November 2020
  • We held our 3rd annual Kluane Lynx-Hare Research meeting (via Zoom). Thanks to all current and former students for the great presentations and contributions.
  • The Peterborough community is becoming increasingly aware of coyotes in our midst!

September 2020
  • Welcome to new PhD students Jordan Reynolds (landscape dynamics of snowshoe hares through a population cycle) and Francis Quinby (large-scale boreal forest dynamics under climate change), as well MSc in BEMA students Holly Faithfull (reserve design optimization under climate change), Hannah Miller (maternal investment in snowshoe hares) and Owen Lucas (remote sensing applications for documenting boreal forest succession). 

August 2020
  • Congrats to another graduating class of the Masters in BEMA program (12 students) who successfully completed their summer Placements (mostly online due to the lockdown) and Capstone course (also online because of lockdown). It was a rough year but everyone performed outstandingly, given the circumstances. Good luck to all. 

July 2020
  • Our only active field operations this summer are Anni's PhD project assessing freshwater turtle responses to disturbance, and baseline monitoring of snowshoe hares at Kluane, through the efforts of field researcher extraordinaire, Liam Horne. Liam worked on the lynx project last winter and couldn't get enough of Kluane so he decided to stick around for the summer to ensure that our long-term monitoring wasnt interrupted - Many thanks, Liam!

June 2020
  • ​Rachael's PhD project on lynx ecology at Kluane was featured as the cover article in the May/June edition of Canadian Wildlife magazine
  • Methods in Ecology and Evolution posted the 2nd part of their blog post featuring Population Ecology in Practice

May 2020 
  • Congrats to Sean Hudson, recent MSc graduate from our lab, for winning the 2020 President's medal for Outstanding Graduate Thesis!
  • ​Methods in Ecology and Evolution did a blog post on the new Population Ecology in Practice book

April 2020
  • In collaboration with Stan Boutin, University of Alberta, our lab received significant funding from NSERC's RTI program to purchase a drone and remote sensing cameras so we can intensively monitor boreal forest change at Kluane Lake, Yukon. Many thanks to Nico and our collaborator, Dr. Dom Chabot (BEMA program), for their hard work on the proposal.  

March 2020
  • Congrats to Tucker Cambridge for a successful PhD Candidacy Exam!
  • Congrats to Evan Bare for a successful PhD Candidacy Exam!

February 2020
January 2020
  • Congrats to MSc student Jacob Seguin for successfully defending his thesis on survival of juvenile snowshoe hares in response to maternal exposure to predation risk. 

December 2019
  • Rachael caught 5 lynx during the first full week of lynx trapping (4 in one day, 2 in one trap).

November 2019
  • Our lab's Kluane work as well as the BEMA graduate program were featured during Trent's annual GIS Research Day
  • Rachael initiated the 2019-20 lynx field season at Kluane, lots to do before things really get rolling
  • ​Congrats to BSc student Will Richmond for receiving a Northern Science Training award for his hard work at Kluane last summer  
​
October 2019
  • Carly presented the result of her wildlife-livestock interaction study to the Symons Seminar series; congrats. 
  • Rachael, Sam, Lee and Nico did a great job presenting their research to the annual Lynx-Hare meeting in Edmonton
  • Carly has a major breakthrough in terms of successfully running occupancy models to assess the effect of livestock and humans on the distribution of wild mammals. Next stop: thesis completion!  

September 2019
  • Congrats to Sean Hudson for successfully defending his MSc thesis on the detectability of massasauga rattlesnakes. Sean was nominated for a Gold Medal award! 
  • Welcome back to Dr. Tom Hossie, our returning PDF. Tom will spend much of the year as Assistant Professor in the BEMA program, but he will also continue his direction of the Pelee salamander project as well as participate in other lab activities.  
  • Welcome to Dr. Jenilee Gobin, our new PDF, who will likely work on behavioural syndromes in predators and boreal forest conservation, as well as help mentor graduate students and teach in the BEMA graduate program.
  • Welcome to Kiefer Thalen, the first MSc student in the BEMA graduate program! Kiefer will be developing techniques for monitoring chorus frogs, which currently are of high conservation concern.
  • Welcome to Nico Diaz-Kloch who will be conducting PhD research on the application of remote sensing techniques for understanding snowshoe hare population dynamics. Nico was part of the first cohort of course-based masters students in the BEMA program and has made the transition to a PhD. 

August 2019
  • The first graduating cohort of Masters in BEMA graduate students were on campus for the inaugural week-long Capstone course. We had much fun in the field and on campus, applying the skills that were learned during the last year. Congrats to Sam, Nico, Garrett, Darlee and Kate! 
  • Sean developed 2 workshops for the BEMA MSc program and also helped direct the Capstone course. 
  • Tucker spent his summer taking care of hundreds of larval salamanders and frogs for his forthcoming experiments on amphibian immune system responses to chytrid fungus infection.

July 2019
  • Our team landed an equipment grant from NSERC to buy GPS transmitters and accelerometers to study lynx population ecology in the Yukon.
  • Anni and Lee each reached their target sample of transmitter-equipped turtles and hares, respectively. Not a minor feat of cunningness and determination, so well done.
  • Graeme led several productive expeditions to Pelee Island this summer, with plenty of salamanders sampled. Meghan Ward helped with the fieldwork and will continue working in the lab on her BSc Honours project involving ponds and salamanders on Pelee Island.

June 2019
  • Congrats to MSc student Brie-Anne Breton for successfully defending her thesis on the application of eDNA methods for monitoring amphibians

May 2019
  • Finally! The new MSc degree in Bioenvironmental Monitoring and Assessment was approved, with new students joining the program in September 2019.
  • We were asked to comment on a recent observation of Canada lynx in Michigan, which is outside their normal geographical range. While the report is largely correct, it is also a good example of how one can be inadvertently misquoted when being interviewed by a news reporter.  The research study involving genetic testing of cougars that was referred to in the news article was in fact conducted in Quebec and New Brunswick, not Ontario. Although not a huge problem to the fundamentals of the article, it does add unintended imprecision to the news report, and serves as a good example of the need to be very explicit about the facts when being interviewed by non-scientists. 

April 2019
  • Farewell and thanks to post-doc Angela Eads, who is moving to warmer pastures in California. 
  • Congrats to Crystal Kelly for successfully defending her MSc thesis and landing a position as biologist for Jacob's consulting firm
  • Congrats to Melanie Boudreau for successfully defending her PhD and landing a post-doctoral fellowship at Mississippi State University
  • Congrats to Jasper Leavitt for successfully defending his MSc thesis on the role of temperature and ploidy level on salamander tissue regeneration
  • Congrats to Jacob for landing a position with Wildlife Conservation Society Canada. He will serve as trapper extraordinaire, which seems about right. 
  • Thanks to all lab members and friends for once again participating in our Dump pond salamander marking and monitoring blitz; we handled and marked >250 salamanders this year!

February-March 2019
  • Ongoing overwintering of our captive salamander colony, which Tucker will attempt to breed in spring
  • Congrats to Anni for receiving funds from Ottawa Field Naturalists Club to support her Blanding's turtle research
​
January 2019
  • Blue-spotted salamanders finish overwintering, now it's the yellow-spotted's turn.

December 2018
  • A delicious lab Christmas dinner was enjoyed!

November 2018
  • Congratulations to Lindsey Bargelt for successfully defending her MSc thesis on protected and connected area networks and the role of private land conservation in the USA.
  • Two thirds of our blue-spotted salamander colony begin their overwintering trial.

October 2018
  • Congratulations to Justin Johnson for successfully defending his MSc thesis on introgressive hybridization of Canid species throughout Eastern North America.
  • Farewell to postdoc Liz, taking a position in the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at UC Davis.
    ​
September 2018
  • Welcome new students: Evan Bare and Tucker Cambridge, new PhD students, and Lee Scholl and Graeme Smith, new MSc students!

August 2018
  • Peter Mills successfully defends his MSc thesis on complex niche determinants in terrestrial salamanders. Congrats Peter!

July 2018
  • Alex Myette defends his MSc thesis on defensive postures and predator-prey interactions with salamanders on Pelee Island. Congrats Alex!
  • Several members of the lab (Dennis, Tom, Angie, Lynne, Mel, Rachael, Meg, Sean, Jasper, Justin, Lindsey, Pat) presented their research at CSEE in Guelph.
  • Tom and Dennis organize a symposium on predator-prey interactions at CSEE.

June 2018
  • Congrats to Shawn MacFarlane who successfully defended his MSc project on the effects of corticosterone on cannibalistic morphology and tissue regeneration in axolotls. Shawn was co-supervised by Dr. Leslie Kerr.
  • Angie and Tom receive 2 years of funding from the Species at Risk Research Fund for Ontario for research on enhancing breeding and migration habitat for Small-Mouthed Salamanders on Pelee Island.

May 2018
  • Congrats to Justin (winner) and Lindsey (runner-up) for their performance in the ESRI scholarship competition!
  • Fieldwork to research the ecology of the Broad-banded Forestsnail begins! Welcome Will Mulvaney as the lead field tech.

​April 2018
  • Congrats to Tom for receiving 3 years of funding from Ontario's Species-at-Risk program to continue his Small-mouthed Salamander research on Pelee Island.
  • Congrats to Angie and Lynne for receiving funding from Ontario's Species-at-Risk program to initiate research on Broad-banded Forestsnails on Pelee Island and at Point Pelee National Park.
  • Congrats to Sean for receiving a grant from Muskoka Watershed Council to support his research on Massasauga rattlesnakes.
  • Five Murray lab members including Brie-Anne Breton, Crystal Kelly, Melanie Boudreau, Rachael Derbyshire and Justin Johnson present their research at the Northern Studies Colloquium. Lindsey Bargelt was session moderator! Great involvement from the Murray lab at this well attended event!
  • Congratulations Maddie and Grace on great Honours project final presentations.
  • Another successful salamander marking season, though seemingly cut short by weather - thanks to all the lab members, students, and friends, who helped mark hundreds of spotted and unisexual polyploid salamanders.

March 2018
  • Congrats to Rachael for obtaining funding from Wildlife Conservation Society to conduct her lynx research in Yukon.
  • Lindsey Bargelt talks to KLT stakeholders about how spatial analyses help prioritize which land to protect.
  • Melanie presents her work at the Symons Seminar Series!
  • Justin Johnson speaks about wolf-canid hybridization in Ontario to the Northumberland Land Trust.
  • Crystal presents her research to the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters.
  • Crystal Kelly and Melanie Boudreau survive presenting at the 3MT thesis competition.
  • Angie, Lynne, and Sibelle awarded funding from the Symons Trust Fund for Canadian Studies for their project on how tadpole sex influences behavioural and morphological responses to predation stress.

​February 2018
  • Congrats to Crystal for landing a new position with Wildlife Preservation Canada. We are optimistic that Crystal can complete her MSc in relatively short order, while being gainfully employed. 

January 2018
  • Congrats to Christa Burkstahler, who successfully defended her PhD project on dietary variability in Canada lynx. Christa was Co-supervised by Dr. Jim Roth, University of Manitoba.
  • Arthur and Carly were featured on local news for their lynx-bobcat research in British Columbia.
  • Congrats to Dr. Lynne Beaty, PDF, who just landed a tenure-track faculty appointment at Penn State in Erie, PA. Lynn will remain involved in a number of collaborations and other activities related to our research on tadpoles and snails.
  • Welcome to Rachael Derbyshire, new PhD student working on foraging behaviour of Canada lynx at Kluane Lake, Yukon. Lynx populations currently are at their cyclic peak in the Yukon, so Rachael should have plenty of animals to work with!​

December 2017
  • Our work on climate change effects in the boreal forest was featured in an extensive report by The Toronto Star.
  • Jasper presents his work at the Symons Seminar Series!

November 2017
  • Congrats to Alex Bell who successfully defended his MSc on the interactive effects of food quality and predation risk on daphnia responses to perceived predation risk.
  • Melanie Boudreau presents to the Peterborough Field Naturalists on the history of snowshoe hare research in the Yukon and how her work and the work Jacob has done contributes to the greater story.

​September 2017
  • Welcome to BSc Honours student Grace McKinney who will work on perceived predation risk in snails, and Maddie Trottier who will work on functional responses of spotted salamanders. Grace and Augustus Raycroft also joined the lab as Conservation Interns.  

August 2017
  • Our work on moose population decline was featured on The Agenda with Steve Paikin.

July 2017
  • Not much happened, everyone was either in the field, writing up, but presumably not on vacation!

June 2017
  • Welcome to Dr. Lynne Beaty, new PDF from Oklahoma State University, who will work on amphibian responses to environmental stressors and help us launch the new online masters program in Environmental Monitoring and Assessment​.

​May 2017
  • Welcome to Dr. Angela Eads, new PDF who hails from Australia and will work on amphibian responses to environmental stressors.
  • Welcome to new MSc students Carly Scott (still exploring project ideas), Sean Hudson (Eastern fox snake and Massasauga detection probability), and Sam Sonnega (snowshoe hare behaviour and physiology). Each student is supported by our CREATE grant​.
  • Congrats to Melanie for landing an OGS scholarship to help support the last year of her PhD
  • Our team (mostly Jenn and Cynthia) landed a grant from eCampusOntario to train the next generation of environmental professionals.

April 2017
  • Congrats to Peter Mills (MSc student) for landing an NSERC scholarship, and to Justin Johnson (MSc student) for securing research funding from Wildlife Conservation Society - Canada. 
  • Congrats to Cristen Watt for a successful defence of her MSc thesis on landscape genetics of lynx. Cristen will serve as lab manager for our 2017 field activities.
  • Salamander marking season is upon us, thanks to all the lab members, graduate and undergraduate students, and friends, who helped mark >500 spotted and unisexual polyploid salamanders this season.

March 2017
  • Our work on the boreal forest and climate change was featured on The Agenda with Steve Paikin.
  • Welcome to Sibelle Vilaça, a new post-doctoral fellow co-supervised with Dr. Chris Kyle, who will be working on multi-species identification of amphibian and pathogen communities, using eDNA (i.e., metagenomics).
  • Congrats to post-doctoral fellow Amanda Bennett who accepted a new position as Research Associate at the Canadian Council of Academies, in Ottawa. Amanda will remain peripherally involved with the lab through ongoing team projects and her research on amphibian disease risk assessment. 

February 2017
  • A recent news article in Toronto Star (and another) featured our research on moose population declines.

​January 2017
  • Congratulations to Jason Rae for a successful MSc defence and a new (permanent) position with Wildlife Conservation Society -Canada.
  • Welcome to Anne-Christine Auge, new PhD student, who will be working on spatial dynamics in Blanding's turtles, in collaboration with Dr. Gabriel Blouin-Demers.
  • Welcome to Arthur Scully, new PhD student, who will be looking at lynx-bobcat interactions in collaboration with Dr. Dan Thornton.
 
December 2016
  • Welcome to Liz Kierepka, our new PDF, who is supported by our CREATE grant and will oversee the fur repository while working on landscape genetics in carnivores.
  • Goodbye and good luck to Catarina, who after 3 years as PDF (and de facto lab manager), is entering the second phase of her Marie Curie fellowship at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research in Leipzig, Germany.  
 
November 2016
  • Congrats to Dr. Amanda Sparkman, former PDF in our lab, for her persistence in publishing a paper on reproductive senescence in red wolves. (Click here)
 
October 2016
  • Dr. Charles Krebs spent several days visiting our lab and discussing caribou, snowshoe hares, and ecology in general, with us.
    • See Dr. Krebs' lecture on caribou conservation  (Click here). (lecture starts at 9:10)
  • Kevin and Cayla successfully defend their MSc degrees, on the same day! 

September 2016
  • Jessica successfully defends her MSc thesis and receives a nomination for the Gold Medal award!!!
  • Welcome to new MSc students Jasper Leavitt (Mole salamander population estimation), Meg Congram (Chytrid fungus in amphibians), Justin Johnson (Niche differentiation in wolves and coyotes), Pat Heney (Perceived predation risk in tadpoles), Lindsey Bargelt (Optimizing a landscape conservation network), and Peter Mills (Unisexual polyploid salamander dynamics).
  • Shawn, Amy, Alex M., Brie-Anne, Jessica, Pat, Madison, Amanda, and Tom present their work at the Canadian Herpetological Society meeting at the Toronto Zoo.

August 2016
  • Our lab's work on the effects of climate change on the boreal forest was highlighted by the Ontario Minister of the Environment, Glen Murray, on CBC's flagship program: Ideas (click here).

June 2016 May 2016
  • Catarina launches CONTRASST, supporting her PDF project which involves an international research effort promoting lynx conservation.
  • Mike Peers' recent paper on bird de-extinction is featured by The Audubon Society (also click here).
  • Amanda lands a Species-at-Risk grant to study amphibian disease risk in Ontario.

April 2016
  • Josee successfully defends her MSc research on niche differentiation in canids, and receives a Presidential award for best MSc thesis.
  • Incoming MSc student Peter Mills receives an OGS scholarship and publishes a book on amphibians, all in the same week! (check it out). 
  • Kevin received funding from Wildlife Conservation Society to conduct his lynx work.
  • Crystal received funding from Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters to conduct her sandhill crane work.

March 2016 February 2016
  • Tom was awarded a prestigious NSERC PDF to work on Endangered salamanders on Pelee Island.

December 2015
  • Kevin Chan catches a Yukon lynx in Jacob's box trap! 

November 2015
  • Amanda Bennett's PhD work featured in the media. Click HERE
  • Feature interview in The Arthur with Tom Hossie about Pelee Island salamander project. Click HERE
  • Tom Hossie, Madison Wikston, and Amy Clement participate in FrogWatch Appreciation Day at the Toronto Zoo! (check out the turtle sprouting out of Tom's head!)



​October 2015
  • Guillaume publishes a paper on caribou avoidance of predation risk in Ecography. See blog post here.
  • Murray lab recieves new funding to study an endangered salamander. See press release here.
September 2015
  • Our lab's paper on the peer review system is gaining international attention! See recent articles here and here featuring interviews with our postdoc Catarina Ferreira.
  • Welcome to new MSc students Brie-Anne Breton (wolf landscape genetics), Crystal Kelly (crane population dynamics), Alex Myette (smallmouth salamander conservation biology) and Alex Bell (algal population dynamics).
  • Lab members help tag migrating monarch butterflies in Newcastle, ON!
  • Dennis and members of his lab help rescue turtles from an area slated for construction work!
August 2015July 2015
  • Melanie and Jacob's research on snowshoe hares is profiled by the media - Click here!
June 2015
  • Mike Peers wins the Governor General's award for his MSc thesis assessing the viability of de-extinction programmes in the face of climate change!!!!!!!
May 2015
  • Jacob 'officially' begins his MSc on juvenile snowshoe hare responses to maternal predation risk.
  • Madison begins her MSc work on assessment of survey techniques for breeding amphibians.
  • Hance successfully defends his PhD thesis.
  • Shawn lands an NSERC scholarship to complete his MSc, well done!
  • We land a major new initiative to train MSc and PhD students in environmental research at Trent -  Click here!
April 2015
  • Our lab project on peer review now available from Biological Reviews online through Early View - Click here!
  • See a media release on our article here!
  • See a post-publication peer review of our lab project manuscript here!
March 2015January 2015
  • Hance published 2 papers from his PhD thesis in the same month! (see Publications).
December 2014
  • Dr. Fernando Azevedo visited our lab for a couple of weeks to discuss future collaborations on jaguar-prey interactions in Brazil.
  • Murray Lab and friends have their year-end party!
November 2014
  • Mike successfully defends his MSc thesis, well done!
  • Guillaume successfully defends his PhD thesis, Felicitations, Geant!
  • Megan publishes her first paper on lynx habitat suitability.
October 2014September 2014
  • Welcome to Morgan and Spencer who are joining the lab to pursue MScs.
  • Adrian I successfully defends his MSc thesis, congrats!
August 2014
  • Kevin presented a paper on his modeling work at the Ecological Society of America meeting in Sacramento, CA.
  • Hance presented a paper on his coyote work at the Ecological Society of America meeting in Sacramento, CA.
  • Terese published a paper from her PhD thesis in Restoration Ecology.
May 2014
  • Josee wins an award for Outstanding Student Poster at the CSEE meeting in Montreal. FELICITATIONS JOSEE!!!
  • Welcome back to Dr. Tom Hossie, who completed a PhD and has returned to the lab as post-doctoral fellow to pursue further adventures with tadpoles, weevils, and predation risk. 
  • Congrats to Amanda for successfully defending her PhD thesis.
  • Congrats to Christine for successfully defending her MSc thesis.
  • Guillaume, Hance, Morgan, Josee, and Mike present their research results at the CSEE meeting.
April 2014
  • Welcome to Amy Clement and Shawn MacFarlane who will be starting their MSc degrees on amphibians, and will assist with ongoing experiments this summer.
  • Adrian II completes his Honours work and moves on to new adventures, Good luck!
March 2014
  • Congrats to Mike and Melanie for each landing NSERC PGS-D Alexander Graham Bell Scholarships!
  • Congrats to Josee for landing an OGS scholarship!
  • Congrats to Amanda for winning the Symons award!
  • Congrats to Morgan for winning the ESRI award!
February 2014 
  • Melanie spent a couple of fun-filled weeks checking out bunnies and predators in the Yukon.
January 2014
  • Megan successfully defends her PhD thesis!
  • Dennis commented on changes to Ontario's Species-at-Risk legislation              
    • (see http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/panther-lounge/2013/11/ontario-species-under-siege/)
  • Guillaume presented "Migration of Newfoundland caribou as an antipredator strategy: Why move if there is nothing to avoid" at the Symons Seminar Series on Graduate Student Research.
  • Melanie Boudreau joins the lab to examine responses to perceived predation risk in snowshoe hares.
December 2013
  • Another joyous edition of the Murray lab and friends annual Christmas festive get together!
​Older news (archive):
October 2013
  • Michael and Guillaume presented at the annual meeting of the Société Québécoise pour l’étude biologique du comportement at ConcordiaUniversity, Québec.
  • Michael first mentioned his fifty-pound lynx on CHEX TV.
  • Christine presented at the International Society of Wildlife Endocrinology conference in Chicago on Hair Cortisol Analysis in Canada lynx (Link).
September 2013
  • Amanda Bennett presented at the Annual General Meeting of the Canadian Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Network (CARCNET) in Mont Orford, Québec.
  • Josée-Anne awarded a graduate scholarships (PGS-M) from NSERC for her master.
August 2013
  • Guillaume presented to the 11th International Mammalogical Congress in Belfast, UK and at INTECOL 2013 in London, UK.
  • Dennis, Michael and Guillaume spoke about declining species on CHEX TV (Video).
July 2013
  • Amanda Bennett and Kristen Landolt present at the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
April 2013
  • Hance presented "How hybridization with wolves affects the way coyotes move" at the Symons Seminar Series on Graduate Student Research.
February 2013
  • Guillaume received the 2013 ESRI Canada Scholarship.
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