Courtney R. Shuert

Assiniboine Park Conservancy · Conservation and Research

Biologging tools can provide invaluable information on the movement and behaviour of animals, facilitating the elucidation of ecological dynamics, especially for wide-ranging species, and supporting conservation and management efforts. Harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) exhibit extensive habitat plasticity in their vast range across the northern hemisp...

Icebreaker vessels in the Canadian Arctic are used to monitor and maintain open shipping lanes during summer and fall. Icebreaker operating routes often overlap with important habitats of endemic Arctic marine mammals, leading to potential interactions and disturbance. In this study, we examined the frequency, proximity, and duration of encounter e...

Background Seasonal long-distance movements are a common feature in many taxa allowing animals to deal with seasonal habitats and life-history demands. Many species use different strategies to prioritize time- or energy-minimization, sometimes employing stop-over behaviours to offset the physiological burden of the directed movement associated with...

Background Animal movement data are regularly used to infer foraging behaviour and relationships to environmental characteristics, often to help identify critical habitat. To characterize foraging, movement models make a set of assumptions rooted in theory, for example, time spent foraging in an area increases with higher prey density. Methods We...

Background: Animal movement data are regularly used to infer foraging behaviour and relationships to environmental characteristics, often to help identify critical habitat. To characterize foraging, movement models make a set of assumptions rooted in theory, for example, time spent foraging in an area increases with higher prey density. Methods: We...

Animals migrate in response to seasonal environments, to reproduce, to benefit from resource pulses, or to avoid fluctuating hazards. Although climate change is predicted to modify migration, only a few studies to date have demonstrated phenological shifts in marine mammals. In the Arctic, marine mammals are considered among the most sensitive to o...

Measures of heart rate variability (and heart rate more generally) are providing powerful insights into the physiological drivers of behaviour. Resting heart rate variability (HRV) can be used as an indicator of individual differences in temperament and reactivity to physical and psychological stress. There is increasing interest in deriving such m...

Animal-borne telemetry devices have become a popular and valuable means for studying the cryptic lives of cetaceans. Evaluating the effect of capture, handling and tagging procedures remains largely unassessed across species. Here, we examine the effect of capture, handling and tagging activities on an iconic Arctic cetacean, the narwhal (Monodon m...

Judicious management of energy can be invaluable for animal survival and reproductive success. Capital breeding mammals typically transfer energy to their young at extremely high rates while undergoing prolonged fasting, making lactation a tremendously energy demanding period. Effective management of the competing demands of the mother's energy nee...

Stress-coping styles dictate how individuals react to stimuli and can be measured by the integrative physiological parameter of resting heart-rate variability (HRV); low resting HRV indicating proactive coping styles, while high resting HRV typifies reactive individuals. Over 5 successive breeding seasons we measured resting HRV of 57 lactating gre...

Balancing time allocation among competing behaviours is an essential part of energy management for all animals. However, trade-offs in time allocation may vary according to the sex of the individual, their age, and even underlying physiology. During reproduction, higher energetic demands and constrained internal resources place greater demand on op...

Pinnipeds spend large portions of their lives at sea, submerged, or hauled-out on land, often on remote offshore islands. This fundamentally limits access by researchers to critical parts of pinniped life history and has spurred the development and implementation of a variety of externally attached telemetry devices (ETDs) to collect information ab...

Background Classifying behaviour with animal-borne accelerometers is quickly becoming a popular tool for remotely observing behavioural states in a variety of species. Most accelerometry work in pinnipeds has focused on classifying behaviour at sea often quantifying behavioural trade-offs associated with foraging and diving in income breeders. Very...

In the online version of the original publication [1], Figs. 2, 3 and 4 were switched. Figure 2 should show the photo of female Steller sea lion identified as = 908, Fig. 3 should show the X-ray radiograph, and Fig. 4 should show the surgery in progress. The online version was updated to rectify this error.

Electronic telemetry devices have enabled many novel and important data collection and experimental opportunities for difficult to observe species. Externally attached devices have limited retention and may affect thermoregulation, energetics, social and reproductive behavior, visibility, predation risk and entanglement. Internally placed, surgical...

Gastroliths, or stones found in the digestive tract of some pinnipeds, were gathered (n = 128) from temporarily captive juvenile Steller sea lions (n = 23, Eumetopias jubatus) at the Alaska SeaLife Center and characterized by their size and mass. Blubber depth and season were significant predictors of gastrolith mass and also positively associated...

Two novel research approaches were developed to facilitate controlled access to, and long-term monitoring of, juvenile Steller sea lions for periods longer than typically afforded by traditional fieldwork. The Transient Juvenile Steller sea lion Project at the Alaska SeaLife Center facilitated nutritional, physiological, and behavioral studies on t...

This study builds on a continued effort to document potential long-term research impacts on the individual, as well as to identify potential markers of survival for use in a field framework. The Transient Juvenile Steller sea lion (TJ) project was developed as a novel framework to gain access to wild individuals. We used three analyses to evaluate...

While many approaches to modeling body condition exist, ranging from arbitrary morphometric indices to sophisticated cone modeling, few approaches have attempted to develop a standardized, simplified method for determining total body fat and protein in otariids. Our goal was to develop a method for predicting the body condition of juvenile Steller...