Dr. Stan Boutin, University of Alberta. My research investigates how resource availability affects maternal investment, development of offspring, and lifetime reproductive success in boreal mammals. I wish to determine how individual behavioral and life history responses to current conditions are shaped by past conditions and future trade-offs. For the past 15 years my students and I have used field studies of individual red squirrels and experimental manipulation of their environment to investigate these questions.

Dr. Murray M. Humphries, McGill University. My research focuses on the behavior and physiology of red squirrels, in particular how they acquire energy through feeding and food hoarding and how they expend energy through activity, thermoregulation, and reproduction. In collaboration with John Speakman, University of Aberdeen, I make extensive use of the doubly labeled water technique to measure the energy expenditure of free-ranging individuals. In the very near future, I will also use flow through respirometry to obtain systematic measures of resting metabolic rate and thermal conductance of individuals in the population.

Dr. Andrew G. McAdam, Michigan State University. I am interested in the interactions between ecology and contemporary adaptation. I use long-term pedigrees and experimental manipulations of resources and relatedness to quantify key ecological and quantitative genetic parameters. The goal of these investigations is to understand how an organism’s unique ecology contributes to contemporary patterns of selection and evolution.

Collaborators

Dr. Rudy Boonstra, University of Toronto. Being able to respond rapidly and effectively to challenges is key to fitness.The stress axis is central to making this happen. The stress response can vary among animals because of variation in maternal quality, of genetics, and of environment (poor vs good territories) and deteriorate as aging proceeds. Red squirrels are ideal, long-lived mammals to study these changes and to test hypotheses of aging, of life history constraints, etc. This research examines all aspects of the stress axis from the brain mechanisms, endocrinology, and energetics and links it into complementary studies going on simultaneously on behavior, genetics, and food manipulations.

Dr. David W. Coltman, University of Alberta. With Jon Slate (Sheffield, UK) my lab is developing microsatellites for red squirrels that we will use for pedigree analyses. Paternity and kinship analyses make it possible to conduct quantitative genetic analyses, and to study the mating system and spatial genetic structure of the Kluane population. In the future we plan to use comparative genomics to identify the genes that determine adaptive variation in sciurids.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Jeff Lane, University of Edinburgh. I am currently investigating the temporal patterns of resource allocation in mammals. My work with red squirrels is addressing what influences how individuals allocate resources to reproduction and maintenance throughout their life. Previous work in this system has identified a pattern of senescence, whereby mass and survival decline with age in both sexes and reproductive performance declines with age in females. I am working in the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (Edinburgh) with Dr. Loeske Kruuk to analyze the genetic architecture underlying these observed phenotypic patterns.

Graduate Students

Mark Andruskiw, University of Alberta. Empirical studies of dispersal suffer from the difficulty of tracking individuals, and small empirical datasets that do not provide adequate statistical power to test among causal hypotheses. Diurnal habits, strong territorial behavior, and small-scale movements make red squirrels the perfect organism for testing dispersal hypotheses. By taking a multi-faceted approach to dispersal (statistical modeling of a large empirical data set, manipulative field experiments, computer simulation models) I will reveal the multiple causes of natal dispersal, and how they interact under large variation in resource abundance and population density.

Adam Bettio, University of Toronto. I am interested in the hormonal regulation of aggression during the non-breeding season. For many species aggressive behavior is, in part, maintained by circulating testosterone in the blood and is associated exclusively with the breeding season. However, red squirrels are territorial year-round and high winter concentrations of testosterone may be detrimental to a squirrel's overwinter survival. Therefore my research involves determining whether an alternative hormonal pathway exists for mediating aggression during the non-breeding season in which circulating testosterone is kept at minimal concentrations.

Ben Dantzer, Michigan State University. I have wide-ranging interests regarding questions relating to evolutionary, ecology, and behavior. For my current research on the Kluane Red Squirrel Project, I am investigating correlated evolution of testosterone titers in male and female red squirrels, the fitness consequences of experimental elevation of testosterone levels, as well as hormone mediated maternal effects.

Jenna Donald, University of Alberta. I will investigate the costs and benefits of pilfering (stealing) food resources from conspecifics. I will also examine if pilfering can be a beneficial alternative foraging strategy in the Kluane red squirrel population. My project will examine individual variation in pilfering behaviour, including questions related to personality, relatedness, age and physical condition

Quinn Fletcher, McGill University. Starting in spring 2005, I will study the effect of food abundance on the reproductive output of red squirrels

Adam Goble, Michigan State University. I am studying vocalizations in red squirrel and how they are involved in kin recognition. Since the squirrels are highly territorial, I have decided to work with their territorial defense rattle. I am analyzing sonograms of rattles to look at variation in calls throughout the population and to determine if components of the calls are heritable. The second part of my study involves to use of play backs to determine if squirrels can discriminate between conspecifics and kin based on only rattle calls.

Jamie Gorrell, University of Alberta. I am studying the evolution of selection on immunity, primarily focusing on the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) and its role in sexual selection, immunocompetence and reproductive fitness. Working in collaboration with Dr. Coltman, I will determine the natural level of genetic variation in red squirrels and subsequently attempt to determine what selective traits are maintaining variation in the wild.

Meghan Larivee, University of Alberta. The purpose of my project is to examine the relationship between resting metabolic rate (RMR) and overwinter survival, using North American red squirrels as a model species. RMR is the minimal rate of metabolism necessary to sustain basic physiological processes. A higher RMR may promote the throughput of energy needed to sustain high levels of energy expenditure required for resource acquisition. Alternatively, a higher RMR forces animals to consume more food; therefore, it may act as a disadvantage when food is scarce and temperatures are cold.

Ryan Taylor, Michigan State University. I'm interested in general evolutionary questions involving red squirrels. At the moment I am investigating the possibility that alternative reproductive tactics exist among female red squirrels.