Research wildlife biologist John Squires will be discussing insights into how Canada lynx responds to natural and human-caused disturbance, in the context of lynx conservation and forest management, on Thursday, Sept. 5, at noon.
Squires will be speaking at the upcoming Draper Natural History Museum Lunchtime Expedition lecture at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming. His presentation, titled “A Specialist Carnivore at its Southern Range Periphery: Canada Lynx in Disturbed Landscapes,” will take place in the Center’s Coe Auditorium and is free to attend.
For those who prefer to attend virtually via Zoom, registration is available at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3UViCAd6TcC5m3gEmPNusg.
According to Squires, high-elevation, subalpine forests where the Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) resides have been impacted by natural and human-caused disturbance. These disturbances include forest insect outbreaks, fire, recreation, forest fragmentation, and energy development, which have been increasing in the Northern and Southern Rocky Mountains.
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For many years, Squires, a research wildlife biologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rocky Mountain Research Station in Missoula, has been tracking lynx movement with GPS collars to understand how they utilize the landscape. His research aims to comprehend how disturbance impacts the ecology and conservation not only of lynx but also of wolverines in the Northern and Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as prairie-nesting raptors in Wyoming.
Squires has observed that disturbances result in changes to forest age, type, and arrangement that influence lynx and other species, including human recreationists. By integrating lynx locations, satellite images, and field measurements, his research offers insights and recommendations to land managers on how to conserve this species in a changing environment.
According to Squires, land management agencies face challenges in balancing the need for species conservation with demands for forest products, enhanced fire resilience, and outdoor recreation in the current era of new disturbances.
He emphasized, “An overarching goal of my research is to generate new knowledge of wildlife ecology through on-the-ground field research that can be applied to the practical challenges of science-based land management and conservation.”
