Clayton T. Lamb

Biography

I was born and raised in the mountains of British Columbia and am now a PhD Candidate and Vanier Scholar at the University of Alberta. My work focuses on identifying the factors driving changes in wildlife populations; both those that increase and decrease abundances. I have been fortunate to work on diverse, international projects that span from the small, climate-change threatened American pika, to inter-provincial wolverine DNA analyses, through to grizzly bear population ecology across 5 mountain ranges.

For my PhD work I am interested in how grizzly bear demography is influenced by the cumulative impacts of human predation, energy-rich fruit resources, and competitive interactions with black bears. I am combining GPS collaring with non-invasive hair sampling methods to answer demographic questions at large spatial scales. My main interest lies in identifying the factors that may determine the 100+ year persistence of grizzly bears in our province. My work will inform adaptive management of grizzly and contribute to the knowledge of factors limiting apex species. An often-missing component of research programs is communication of knowledge both to the public and to policy makers. I invest in science communication both to the public (https://twitter.com/ClaytonTLamb), the communities I work in and to government partners, both to share knowledge with interested parties and to reduce the research-implementation gap often limiting ecological research.

When not collecting grizzly bear hair, I spend my time in the backcountry biking, fishing and hiking. My fervent passion for wildlife and mountainous places originated with my love for backcountry recreation and has evolved into dedicating my career to the conservations and preservation of wildlife and their habitat in these environments.

Awards

Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship

WCS W. Garfield Weston Fellowship

Selected Publications

Lamb, C.T., Festa-Bianchet, M., Boyce, M.S. (2018). Invest long term in Canada’s wilderness. Science. 359(6379) pp. 1002. PDF

Lamb, C.T., Mowat, G., Reid, A., Smit, L., Proctor, M., McLellan, B.M., Nielsen, S.E., Boutin, S. (2018). The effect of habitat quality and access management on the density of a recovering grizzly bear population. Journal of Applied Ecology. PDF

Lamb, C.T., Mowat, G., McLellan, B.M., Nielsen, S.E., Boutin, S. (2017). Forbidden fruit: Human settlement and abundant fruit create an ecological trap for an apex omnivore. Journal of Animal Ecology. 86(1): 55-65. PDF

Hämäläinen, A., Broadley, K., Droghini, A., Haines, J.A., Lamb, C.T., Boutin, S., Gilbert, S. (2017). The ecological significance of secondary seed dispersal by carnivores. Ecosphere. 8 (2): e01685. PDF

Robson, K.M., Lamb, C.T., Russello, M.A. (2016). Low genetic diversity, restricted dispersal and elevation-specific patterns of population decline in American pikas in an atypical environment. Journal of Mammalogy. 97(2): 464-472. PDF