BMSC is hosting a Summer Seminar, Thursday, July 7 at 7:00pm in the Ross Lecture Theatre
The lecture will be given by Dr. Chris Neufeld, Quest University, and is titled “Life and death on a small island: Novel interactions between wolves and sea otters in Kyuquot Sound, BC”.
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Abstract:
The wolves on BC’s West Coast are formidable predators known to supplement their mainly terrestrial diets with a surprising array of marine creatures including salmon, mink, small crabs, and even barnacles. Although coastal wolves have been studied for decades, until recently no one thought their diverse list of prey items might also include sea otters, ecologically-important predators in their own right. This view of wolf foraging ecology recently changed when Chris Neufeld took his Behavioural Ecology class to a remote island in Kyuquot Sound and observed wolves displaying some rather unusual foraging behaviour. In this talk Chris will describe the preliminary results of his ongoing research to study the remarkable interactions between coastal wolves, sea otters, and the kayak guides (and their guests) that spend summers living in the same small archipelago. |