ASPB Presents: Spring Social

Location

  • Date: Thursday, May 19th, 2011
  • Time: 5:00 pm â?? 8:00 pm
  • Location: Calgary, Ceili’s Pub (803, 8th Avenue SW)

Come and meet other ASPB members during our Spring Social at Ceili’s Pub! The evening includes networking over drinks and dinner (own purchase) and a talk by this year’s ASPB grant recipient Bodgan Cristescu, see details below. No RSVP required.

Presentation: Ecology of grizzly bears in response to open-pit mining

  • Presenter: Bogdan Cristescu, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Alberta
  • Date: Thursday, May 19th, 2011
  • Time: 6:00 pm â?? 7:00 pm
  • Location: Calgary, Ceili’s Pub (803, 8th Avenue SW)

Summary of Presentation:

In 2010, grizzly bears were designated as Threatened in Alberta as a result of alarmingly low population estimates for the province. Industrial activities such as open-pit mining change grizzly bear habitat and may influence bear behaviour. My project assesses the effects of open-pit mining on grizzly bears focusing on coal mines near Cadomin as a case study. The majority of data were collected in 2008-2010 with some data available for 1999-2003. Data analyses are ongoing revealing some interesting patterns of bear ecology which I will briefly touch on in the talk. Research has focused on grizzly bear movement, foraging and resting habitat selection, and I found that some bears spend much time on reclaimed mines in certain seasons. Under current spatial and temporal distribution of resources on the landscape, access management may make the difference between reclaimed mines being grizzly bear population sources or sinks.

Background:

Bogdan Cristescu is currently a 4th year Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta. Bogdan prefers to carry out applied ecological research relevant to conservation and management. His major interest is in understanding the ecology of mammalian predators as tools for conservation planning. Bogdan earned a M.Sc. in Biodiversity and Conservation while working at the European Centre for Biodiversity & Conservation Research in Leeds, UK. He has worked on several research projects studying the spatial movements of lions, leopards and cheetahs in South Africa, brown bear ranging patterns in Romania and prey selection by Eurasian lynx in Poland.

Mark your Calendars!

If you have any questions please contact Karoliina Munter (karoliina.munter@stantec.com)