Susan Lingle - “When deer fight back: Predator-prey interactions as a window into behavior, ecology and animal minds”

April 20th
1:30-2:20pm
College of Natural Resources Room 10

Susan did a B.A. in Anthropology at Pomona College, California, a M.E. in Environmental Science at the University of Calgary (Supervisor, Val Geist) and a Ph.D. (1998) in Zoology at Cambridge University (Supervisor, Tim Clutton-Brock). She and her students conduct long-term work on mule deer, white-tailed deer and coyotes, relying heavily on direct observation of unusual events such as predator-prey interactions at a grassland field site, the McIntyre Ranch, in southern Alberta. Susan has used observations of predator-prey interactions as a platform to investigate the social behavior, habitat use, and population ecology of the two closely related and sympatric deer species. Graduate and undergraduate students in her lab are currently using detailed observations of deer at the McIntyre Ranch to investigate courtship behavior and mechanisms of behavioral transmission of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in white-tailed and mule deer. Another facet of research in her lab is animal communication. Another facet of research in her lab is animal communication. Susan and her students use playback experiments to investigate the evolution of emotional vocalizations, in particular distress vocalizations made by infant deer and other species, including humans. In alternate years, Susan takes a field course of students to two grassland sites, Grasslands National Park in Saskatchewan and the McIntyre Ranch in Alberta to learn about prairie ecology and conservation while studying the behavior of animals living in this endangered habitat. For more information