Tal Avgar

Assistant Professor

Biology

Office: SCI 162
Office Hours: Knock on my door or email me
Email: tal.avgar@ubc.ca

Research Summary

Animal habitat-selection and movement ecology, wildlife population biology, consumer-resource interactions, ecological modelling and biometry

Biography

Dr. Tal Avgar is a quantitative wildlife ecologist (meaning he likes to watch animals and crunch numbers). Tal has studied caribou, elk, deer, moose, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, bears, wolverines, wolves, and cougars, across Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, British Columbia, Utah, California, and Montana. Before coming to UBC, Tal was a Senior Wildlife Scientist with Biodiversity Pathway Ltd., an Assistant Professor at Utah State University, and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Guelph and the University of Alberta.

Degrees

Ph.D. (Integrative Biology), University of Guelph (ON, Canada);
M.Sc. (Environmental Studies), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel);
B.Sc. (Geology and Biology), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel)

Research Interests & Projects

Animal Space-Use Patterns (SUPs; how, when, and where they move across both geographical and environmental space) are critical components of many ecological processes, including predator-prey dynamics, disease transmission, and human-wildlife conflicts. SUPs emerge from the interaction between the animal’s environment (the surrounding resources, risks, and conditions), and the animal’s ecological needs (to gain resources, avoid risks, and optimize conditions). As such they contain rich information about both the animal’s needs and its environment. SUPs are moreover integral to population density and how it changes across space and time. On the one hand, population density is an important aspect of an individual’s environment (as it affects aspects such as food availability or predation risk), so SUPs shift with local population density. On the other hand, individuals’ SUPs have demographic consequences; individuals who succeed in fulfilling their ecological needs reproduce more and live longer, and hence SUPs can collectively drive patterns of population growth and distribution. My research focuses on understanding the relationship between individual SUPs and population density, growth, and distribution across space and time, with the ultimate goal of improving our capacity to monitor, manage, and conserve wildlife populations and ecosystem health.

Selected Publications & Presentations

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