Colleen Cassady St. Clair

• PhD
• Professor at University of Alberta

Many municipalities use information about human-wildlife interactions collected in citizen-provided reports to monitor conflicts and guide management actions. However, high volumes of reports that describe benign wildlife behaviour can reduce the efficiency with which officials address reports that require management interventions, a situation that...

Understanding species‐ or population‐specific dietary specialisation is key to informing habitat conservation needs and successful ex situ recovery programs for many endangered species. One of the most endangered populations in Canada, the behaviourally distinct deep‐snow ecotype of the Southern Mountain caribou, is characterised by a winter diet o...

Human-coyote conflict can arise when coyotes follow, pursue or attack pets or people. Although such attacks are rare, they are typically highly publicized, and leave residents concerned about the presence of coyotes in their neighborhoods. Wildlife managers often promote hazing to mitigate human-coyote conflicts, but this technique for intimidating...

Coexistence between humans and wildlife is necessary for many conservation goals but is difficult to achieve in landscapes with increasing human populations and species that are often wary of people and may also threaten human safety. In these contexts, coexistence may be enhanced by identifying geographic areas where animal movement is particularl...

Cities limit landscape connectivity for urban-avoiding species. Using snow tracking and a remote camera, we detected a Fisher (Pekania pennanti) in Edmonton, Canada, where contiguous natural areas in a river valley and adjacent ravines provide connectivity within a city of over 1 million people. Because Fishers typically avoid open or urban environ...

Context Artificial light at night (ALAN) is increasing worldwide, with many ecological effects. Aerial insectivores may benefit from foraging on insects congregating at light sources. However, ALAN could negatively impact them by increasing nest visibility and predation risk, especially for ground-nesting species like nightjars (Caprimulgidae). Ob...

Conflict between humans and black bears (Ursus americanus) occurs throughout North America with increasing public demand to replace lethal management with non-lethal methods, such as aversive conditioning (AC). AC aims to teach animals to associate negative stimuli with humans or their infrastructure. We sought to test the efficacy of AC using radi...

Allocoprophagy, in which animals feed on the feces of other individuals or species, has been little studied in vertebrates, despite its relevance to parasite transmission. These relationships may be especially important in cities, where animal density, disease incidence, and spatial overlap of humans and wildlife increase. Our goal was to document...

Coyotes ( Canis latrans ) are showing increasingly bold behaviors toward people and their pets throughout North America. Bold behavior by wildlife might be reduced by hazing and aversive conditioning, which is recommended in many management plans for coyotes, but with little information about how it is to be conducted, and few studies have tested t...

Human-driven environmental changes shape ecological communities from local to global scales. Within cities, landscape-scale patterns and processes and species characteristics generally drive local-scale wildlife diversity. However, cities differ in their structure, species pools, geographies and histories, calling into question the extent to which...

Urban coyotes (Canis latrans) in North America increasingly exhibit a high prevalence of Echinococcus multilocularis, a cestode of recent and rising public health concern that uses rodents as intermediate hosts and canids as definitive hosts. However, little is known about the factors that drive the high urban prevalence of this parasite. We hypoth...

Natural areas in cities are important refugia for wildlife, but some species also use developed areas. Such adaptation may be facilitated at the ecotone between natural and residential areas where wildlife encounter anthropogenic resources. We quantified human activities and objects that potentially attract coyotes (Canis latrans) by providing shel...

COVID-19 restrictions in 2020 reduced traffic worldwide and altered animal movement.

In cities throughout North America, sightings of coyotes (Canis latrans) have become common. Reports of human-coyote conflict are also rising, as is the public demand for proactive management to prevent negative human-coyote interactions. Effective and proactive management can be informed by the direct observations of community members, who can rep...

Conservation behaviour is a growing field that applies insights from the study of animal behaviour to address challenges in wildlife conservation and management. Conservation behaviour interventions often aim to manage specific behaviours of a species to solve conservation challenges. The field is often viewed as offering approaches that are less i...

In cities throughout North America, sightings of coyotes ( Canis latrans ) have become common. Reports of human-coyote conflict are also rising, as is the public demand for proactive management to prevent negative human-coyote interactions. Effective and proactive management can be informed by the direct observations of community members, who can r...

The establishment of coyote (Canis latrans) populations in urban areas across North America has been accompanied by increased rates of human–coyote conflict. One factor thought to promote physical conflict between coyotes and people or pets is the presence of coyote pups near natal dens; however, this idea has not been tested, and no multivariate s...

This chapter provides general operating procedures (GOPs) and guidelines for a variety of non-lethal techniques, which seek to interrupt, reduce or modify the behaviour of wildlife to decrease the occurrence of ‘unwanted’or ‘undesirable’behaviours. In Australia such methods are mostly employed for threatened species protection as part of introduced...

Time is a fundamental component of ecological processes. How animal behavior changes over time has been explored through well-known ecological theories like niche partitioning and predator-prey dynamics. Yet, changes in animal behavior within the shorter 24-hour light-dark cycle have largely gone unstudied. Understanding if an animal can adjust the...

Anthropogenic noise can create an acoustic environment detrimental for animals that communicate using acoustic signals. Currently, most studies of noise and wildlife come from traffic noise in cities. Less is known about the effects of noise created by industry in natural areas. Songbirds far from cities, but influenced by industry, could be affect...

Train collisions with wildlife occur worldwide and might be more likely when animals fail to detect trains early enough to perform effective escape behaviour. Detection could be especially limited where tracks curve around hills, reducing visibility and audibility of approaching trains, but no literature has examined this potential in the context o...

Ungulates groom to remove ectoparasites but grooming may interfere with foraging, vigilance, and rumination, and it is possible that these effects differ among migratory tactics due to differences in parasite infestations. We compared the effects of grooming for winter ticks (Dermacentor albipictus) on winter foraging behavior by migrating and resi...

Background Artificial light is ubiquitous in the built environment with many known or suspected impacts on birds. Birds flying at night are known to aggregate around artificial light and collide with illuminated objects, which may result from attraction and/or disorientation. In other contexts, birds are repelled by light-based deterrents, includin...

Horizon scanning is increasingly used in conservation to systematically explore emerging policy and management issues. We present the results of a horizon scan of issues likely to impact management of Canadian protected and conserved areas over the next 5–10 years. Eighty-eight individuals participated, representing a broad community of academics,...

Modern wildlife management has dual mandates to reduce human-wildlife conflict (HWC) for burgeoning populations of people while supporting conservation of biodiversity and the ecosystem functions it affords. These opposing goals can sometimes be achieved with non-lethal intervention tools that promote coexistence between people and wildlife. One su...

Time is a fundamental component of ecological processes. How animal behavior changes over time has been explored through well-known ecological theories like niche partitioning and predator-prey dynamics. Yet, changes in animal behavior within the shorter 24-hour light-dark cycle have largely gone unstudied. Understanding if an animal can adjust the...

Urban biodiversity provides critical ecosystem services and is a key component to environmentally and socially sustainable cities. However, biodiversity varies greatly within and among cities, leading to human communities with changing and unequal experiences with nature. The “luxury effect,” a hypothesis that predicts a positive correlation betwee...

Many generalist species thrive in urban environments by supplementing their diets with anthropogenic food, which creates numerous challenges for managing urban wildlife. Management could be advanced with more information on how spatial and temporal variation in habitat use by urban animals predicts variation in their dietary ecology. In this study,...

Most knowledge of the vertebrate gut microbiota comes from fecal samples; due to difficulties involved in sample collection, the upper intestinal microbiota is poorly understood in wild animals despite its potential to inform broad interpretations about host-gut microbe relationships under natural conditions. Here, we used 16S rRNA gene sequencing...

Generalist species able to exploit anthropogenic food sources are becoming increasingly common in urban environments. Coyotes (Canis latrans) are one such urban generalist that now resides in cities across North America, where diseased or unhealthy coyotes are frequently reported in cases of human-wildlife conflict. Coyote health and fitness may be...

Railways are a major source of direct mortality for many populations of large mammals, but they have been less studied or mitigated than roads. We evaluated temporal and spatial factors affecting mortality risk using 646 railway mortality incidents for 11 mammal species collected over 24 years throughout Banff and Yoho National Parks, Canada. We di...

Trains on railways collide with and kill wildlife, incurring economic costs for railway operators and impacting species of conservation concern. We proposed to address this problem with train-triggered warning signals, consisting of flashing lights and bell sounds emitted in the 30 s leading up to train arrival, that animals could learn to associat...

Wildlife passages are structures built across roads to facilitate wildlife movement and prevent wildlife collisions with vehicles. The efficacy of these structures could be reduced if they funnel prey into confined spaces at predictable locations that are exploited by predators. We tested the so-called prey-trap hypothesis using remote cameras in 1...

Grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) appear to be attracted to natural and anthropogenic forage along railways, which may increase collision vulnerability, but also potentially causes exposure to contaminants associated with railway infrastructure. We assessed contaminant exposure for a vulnerable population of grizzly bears in the Canadian Rocky Mountains...

Datasets, meta-data, and code used in publication. Martinig, A. R., M. Riaz, C. C. St. Clair. 2020. Interspecific encounters in wildlife passages: prey may dilute risk of prey-trap by predators. Scientific Reports 10:11489. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-67340-8

Ornamental coloration in birds has been identified as a powerful, noninvasive tool for identifying exposure to metal pollution. Despite this potential, few studies have examined the effects of metals on iridescent coloration or assessed related impacts on bird fitness. Iridescent coloration is likely to be sensitive to metal pollution because it is...

Loss of migratory behavior in ungulates often occurs with habituation to people to cause several challenges for wildlife managers, particularly in protected and urban areas. Aversive conditioning to increase ungulate wariness toward people could be an important tool for managing wildlife conflicts, but it is frequently thwarted by variation in resp...

Railway networks contribute to the direct mortality of wildlife through collisions with trains, which can threaten vulnerable wildlife populations even in protected areas, including grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) in Banff and Yoho National Parks, Canada. Mitigation to reduce bear‐train collisions requires information about how grizzly bears use the r...

Partial migration, a phenomenon wherein only some individuals within a population migrate, is taxonomically widespread. While well-studied in birds and fish, partial migration in large herbivores has come into the spotlight only recently due to the decline of migratory behavior in ungulate species around the world. We explored whether partial migra...

Transportation infrastructure can cause an ecological trap if it attracts wildlife for foraging and travel opportunities, while increasing the risk of mortality from collisions. This situation occurs for a vulnerable population of grizzly bears ( Ursus arctos ) in Banff National Park, Canada, where train strikes have become a leading cause of morta...

Background Anthropogenic light is known or suspected to exert profound effects on many taxa, including birds. Documentation of bird aggregation around artificial light at night, as well as observations of bird reactions to strobe lights and lasers, suggests that light may both attract and repel birds, although this assumption has yet to be tested....

Wildlife mortality caused by collisions with vehicles on roads is increasingly and effectively mitigated with exclusion fencing and crossing structures, but this solution potentially changes wildlife habitat use and distribution to increase the risk of mortality on adjacent, unmitigated railways. We investigated this potential side‐effect of mitiga...

Dismembered cats (Felis catus) have been found in North American schoolyards, parks, walkways, or lawns and sometimes result in local media attention. When a member of the public encounters these cats, they commonly report finding either the cranial or caudal half of a cat in a prominent location. Such findings cause public consternation and pose d...

Coyotes ( Canis latrans ) are resilient, adaptable, cosmopolitan omnivores that are increasingly prevalent in urban environments, where they interact with both humans and domestic dogs. Coyotes potentially transmit zoonotic parasites, including the tapeworm Echinococcus multilocularis , which appears to be increasing in prevalence in western North...

In protected areas around the world, wildlife habituate to humans and human infrastructure, potentially resulting in human-wildlife conflict, and leading to trophic disruptions through excess herbivory and disconnection of predators from prey. For large species that threaten human safety, wildlife managers sometimes attempt to reverse habituation w...

Wildlife passages are intended to mitigate the negative effects of roads on habitat connectivity and wildlife mortality. However, mitigation may not be possible if wildlife passages have detrimental effects on the species that use them. The prey-trap hypothesis posits that predators can take advantage of how wildlife passage structures funnel indiv...

Vegetation enhancement along railways has not been well studied, despite high rates of mortality from train strikes across numerous species, including sensitive populations in protected areas. This situation describes grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) in the mountain parks of Canada, where train strikes have become the leading source of known mortality....

Ecosystems are degraded by transportation infrastructure partly because wildlife mortality from collisions with vehicles can threaten the viability of sensitive populations and alter ecosystem dynamics. This problem has attracted extensive study and mitigation on roads, but little similar work has been done for railways despite the occurrence of wi...

We describe an interspecific relationship wherein grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis) appear to seek out and consume agricultural seeds concentrated in the middens of red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus), which had collected and cached spilled grain from a railway. We studied this interaction by estimating squirrel density, midden density an...

Similar to vehicles on roadways, trains frequently kill wildlife via collisions along railways. Despite the prevalence of this mortality worldwide, little is known about the relative importance of wildlife attractants associated with railways, including spilled agricultural products, enhanced vegetation, invertebrates, and carcasses of rail-killed...

Raw data of grizzly bear scat analysis. Excel table containing the dates, locations, distance to rail, and percent volumes of diet items for 230 grizzly bear scats collected in Banff and Yoho National Parks between 2012 and 2014. (XLSX)

Transportation corridors can attract threatened wildlife via habitat enhancement and foraging opportunities, leading to collisions with vehicles. But wildlife may also be attracted to energy-dense food products that are spilled or discarded from moving vehicles, which is rarely studied. Therefore, we quantified train-spilled attractants in Banff an...

Connectivity for large mammals across human-altered landscapes results from movement by individuals that can be described via nested spatial scales as linkages (or zones or areas) with compatible land use types, constrictions that repeatedly funnel movement (as corridors) or impede it (as barriers), and the specific paths (or routes) across complet...

Several species of urban-adapted carnivores, including coyotes (Canis latrans), use anthropogenic resources in residential areas, which may increase rates of encounters and conflict with people. These negative interactions might be reduced with more understanding of individual variation in the use of residential areas and if attractants were better...

Studies of wildlife have shown consistent individual variation in behavioural plasticity, which affects the rate of adaptation to changing environments. More flexible individuals may thus be more prone to habituation and conflict behaviour, but these applications of personality to wildlife management are little explored. Behavioural lateralization...

In North America, both human and cougar populations are expanding and increasingly sharing the same space, including modified landscapes viewed by people as their " backyard. " Low tolerance for cougars in modified landscapes has been identified as a key factor that could restrict continued cougar range expansion in North America, or even reverse s...

Poor communication between academic researchers and wildlife managers limits conservation progress and innovation. As a result, input from overlapping fields, such as animal behaviour, is underused in conservation management despite its demonstrated utility as a conservation tool and countless papers advocating its use. Communication and collaborat...

Growth in human populations causes habitat degradation for other species, which is usually gauged by physical changes to landscapes. Corresponding habitat degradation to air and water is also common, but its effects on individuals can be difficult to detect until they result in the decline or disappearance of populations. More proactive measures of...

Despite rapid growth in the literature on personality in wild animals, personality has seldom been explored as a tool for wildlife management in human-altered landscapes. That context frequently involves the habituation of wildlife to people, which can alter predator-prey relationships, contribute to ecosystem damage and result in human-wildlife co...

Conservation behavior assists the investigation of species endangerment associated with managing animals impacted by anthropogenic activities. It employs a theoretical framework that examines the mechanisms, development, function, and phylogeny of behavior variation in order to develop practical tools for preventing biodiversity loss and extinction...

Anthropogenic food is often concentrated in cities where it can attract wildlife, promote conflict with people, and potentially spread disease. Although these associations are well-documented for conventional garbage, they are unexplored for many seemingly innocuous and even environmentally friendly attractants such as piles of compost. In this stu...

In biodiversity-rich landscapes that are developing rapidly, it is generally impossible to delineate land use and prioritize conservation actions in relation to the full variability of species and their responses to anthropogenic activity. Consequently, conservation policy often focuses on protecting habitat used by a few flagship, indicator or umb...

The role of behavioral ecology in improving wildlife conservation and management has been the subject of much recent debate. We aim to answer two foundational questions about the current use of behavioral knowledge in conservation: 1. To what extent is behavioral knowledge used in wildlife conservation and management? 2. How does the use of behavio...

Exposure to water containing petroleum waste products can generate both overt and subtle toxicological responses in wildlife, including birds. Such exposure can occur in the tailings ponds of the mineable oil sands, which are located in Alberta, Canada, under a major continental flyway for waterfowl. Over the 40 year history of the industry, a few...

Collision with glass windows is a leading anthropogenic cause of direct mortality for avian species and much attention has been given to developing methods to reduce the incidence of bird collisions. Little empirical research exists, however, examining the mechanisms by which birds might be deterred from human structures. We tested the efficacy of...

Many species living in developed areas adjust the timing of their activity and habitat selection to avoid humans, which may reduce their risk of conflict, including vehicle collisions. Understanding the behavioral adaptations to vehicles exhibited by species that thrive in urban areas could improve the conservation of many species that are threaten...

Rates of encounters between humans and wildlife are increasing in cities around the world, especially when wildlife overlap with people in time, space and resources. Coyotes (Canis latrans) can make use of anthropogenic resources and reported rates of conflict have increased in cities across North America. This increase may be linked to individual...

The loss, fragmentation and degradation of habitat everywhere on Earth prompts increasing attention to identifying landscape features that support animal movement (corridors) or impedes it (barriers). Most algorithms used to predict corridors assume that animals move through preferred habitat either optimally (e.g. least cost path) or as random wal...

In April 2008, more than 1,600 migrating ducks died after landing on a toxic tailings pond in the Oil Sands region of northeastern Alberta. The responsible company was found guilty and paid the largest environmental fine in Alberta's history. To assess the nature of this environmental focusing event, we identified 747 newspaper articles that covere...

Reports of encounters between people and generalist urban-adapted carnivores are increasing around the world. In North America, coyotes Canis latrans are among the carnivores that appear to be especially capable of incorporating novel anthropogenic food types, including those found in cities. Consuming anthropogenic food may benefit coyotes by incr...

Bitumen extraction from the oil sands of northern Alberta produces large volumes of process-affected water that contains substances toxic to wildlife. Recent monitoring has shown that tens of thousands of birds land on ponds containing this water annually, creating an urgent need to understand its effects on bird health. We emulated the repeated, s...

Human-wildlife conflict is a leading cause of adult mortality for large carnivores worldwide. Train collision is the primary cause of mortality for threatened grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) in Banff National Park. We investigated the use of stable isotope analysis as a tool for identifying bears that use the railway in Banff. Rail-associated bears ha...

Abstract Many animal populations are in decline as a result of human activity. Conservation practitioners are attempting to prevent further declines and loss of biodiversity as well as to facilitate recovery of endangered species, and they often rely on interdisciplinary approaches to generate conservation solutions. Two recent interfaces in conser...

Roads and their associated low-frequency noise have been linked with a reduction in abundance and density for many songbird species. However, a handful of species remain equally abundant in roadside habitats and nondisturbed areas. Abundance is a valuable baseline indicator of a species’ ability to adapt to habitats altered by roads, but does not d...

More humans reside in urban areas than at any other time in history. Protected urban green spaces and transportation greenbelts support many species, but diversity in these areas is generally lower than in undeveloped landscapes. Habitat degradation and fragmentation contribute to lowered diversity and urban homogenization, but less is known about...

Several songbird species sing at higher frequencies (i.e. higher pitch) when anthropogenic noise levels are elevated. Such frequency shifting is thought to be an adaptation to prevent masking of bird song by anthropogenic noise. However, no study of this phenomenon has examined how vegetative differences between noisy and quiet sites influence freq...

Large mammals such as Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) may show complex patterns of habitat selection, varying over space, time, and scale. These habitat requirements affect their ability to use corridors through fragmented, human-dominated areas. Further, their tolerance for modified habitat may also affect the potential for conflict with humans....

Background/Question/Methods In 2008, several hundred birds landed and died in a tailings pond produced by a mining company in the Oil Sands region of Alberta, Canada. Two years later, the company was prosecuted under provincial and federal law for failing to deter migratory birds from a toxic product. At about the same time, a second landing even...

Charles Darwin posited that secondary sexual characteristics result from competition to attract mates. In male songbirds, specialized vocalizations represent secondary sexual characteristics of particular importance because females prefer songs at specific frequencies, amplitudes, and duration. For birds living in human-dominated landscapes, histor...

The persistence of forest-dependent species in fragmented landscapes is fundamentally linked to the movement of individuals among subpopulations. The paths taken by dispersing individuals can be considered a series of steps built from individual route choices. Despite the importance of these fine-scale movement decisions, it has proved difficult to...

1. Urbanization represents a major threat to biodiversity world-wide because it causes permanent degradation and fragmentation of biologically rich natural communities. This is particularly acute in coastal plains and river valleys, where cities are typically located. Although movement is essential to the persistence of populations in fragmented la...

American marten (Martes americana (Turton, 1806)) are often associated with old-growth forests, but have been detected living in a young deciduous forest in northern British Columbia, where a previous coarse-scale analysis failed to detect significant habitat selection. To address this paradox, we examined fine-scale habitat selection for specific...

One potential contributor to the worldwide decline of bird populations is the increasing prevalence of roads, which have several negative effects on birds and other vertebrates. We synthesized the results of studies and reviews that explore the effects of roads on birds with an emphasis on paved roads. The well-known direct effects of roads on bird...

Animals regularly integrate information about the location of resources and the presence of competitors, altering their foraging behavior accordingly. We studied the annual plant Abutilon theophrasti to determine whether a plant can demonstrate a similarly complex response to two conditions: presence of a competitor and heterogeneous resource distr...

1. The ability of animals to move through a landscape is a fundamental determinant of population persistence in fragmented habitats. This movement can be affected by both the composition and configuration of the remaining habitat. To date, few studies have examined the habitat selection of animals moving in novel landscapes or addressed whether ani...

Plant root growth is modified in the presence of within-species competition and uneven local resource distributions.

1. Linear features associated with transportation and riparian corridors are known to inhibit the mobility of birds and other wildlife, yet the factors contributing to their barrier effects are poorly understood. The diversity of roads in urban landscapes provides an opportunity for elucidating the relative importance of factors such as noise, traf...

Many authors assert that plants exhibit complex behaviours which are analogous to animal behaviour. However, plant ecologists rarely root these studies in a conceptual foundation as fertile as that used by animal behaviourists. Here we adapt the optimality principles that facilitated numerous advances in the study of animal foraging behaviour to cr...