About
Kristen has had a fascination with wildlife since she was young. During her undergraduate studies, she discovered that veterinary school was not the only route to pursue to work closely with animals. While a BSc student she began volunteering with an endangered species recovery program with giant pandas, which lead to an opportunity to study the behaviour of these charismatic animals in China. After this experience Kristen continued on in her pursuit of the study of animal behaviour. Her passion for wildlife grew and so did her desire to help give wild animals greater humane treatment. Kristen completed an MSc in Biology working on sea otter ecology and behaviour through Portland State University. She then joined the Animal Welfare Program at the University of British Columbia to complete a PhD where she assessed and helped mitigate the pain responses of sea lions to highly invasive marking procedures including abdominal surgery and hot-iron branding. After her graduate studies, Kristen spent time as a wildlife biologist and a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Veterinary Clinical and Diagnostic Sciences at the University of Calgary.
Kristen now focuses on urban wildlife. She has worked closely with the Stanley Park Ecology Society’s Co-Existing with Coyotes program. Collaborative research has been aimed at identifying humane deterrents systems and reducing coyote conflicts for urban coyotes. In addition, Kristen is a part of the UBC Farm Biodiversity Monitoring project assessing the diversity of vertebrates through the use of remote trail cameras. Kristen also has students involved in projects using trail cameras both at Stanley Park and UBC, monitoring bird collisions on campus, and various public perception surveys related to human-wildlife conflicts.
As a teaching professor, Kristen teaches a variety of courses in the Applied Animal Biology Program. Her courses focus on compassionate conservation, wildlife welfare, and animal behaviour. Kristen has developed courses that give students immersive experiential learning opportunities. Kristen supervises many students for independent directed studies (APBI 497) and thesis (APBI 499) wildlife projects.
For more information see Kristen’s faculty page