58th Annual Errington Lecture: “Exploring the Impacts of Social-Ecological Heterogeneity on Urban Coyote Movement and Behavior”

Dr. Christopher Schell, University of California-Berkeley

Dr. Christopher Schell is a professor at the University of California-Berkeley who studies the intersections of society, ecology, and evolution to understand how wildlife (mainly mammalian carnivores) are rapidly adapting to life in cities. The work of the Schell lab combines behavioral, physiological, and genomic approaches to demonstrate the myriad consequences of historical and contemporary inequities on organismal, population, and community-level dynamics of wildlife. In addition, Dr. Schell and his lab leverage human dimensions and community-engaged data streams to decipher how wildlife adaptation and human perceptions create landscapes of risk that contribute to human-carnivore conflict. This interdisciplinary work requires integrating principles from the natural sciences with urban studies to address how systemic racism and oppression affect urban ecosystems, while simultaneously highlighting the need to environmental justice, civil rights, and equity as the bedrock of biological conservation and our fight against the climate crisis.

For more information:

https://ourenvironment.berkeley.edu/users/1757114