Rebecca Viejou

I started my ecological career informally while working as wilderness guide just trying to learn interesting facts to entertain guests on backcountry trips.  Eventually, I formalized my education at university, where I combined my outdoor skills with a new hobby: programming to dubstep (highly recommended).  I worked in various ecosystem, community, and population ecology labs, and finished my degree with an undergraduate thesis comparing the habitat selection of caribou with and without calves to determine whether reproductive females prioritize food acquisition or predation avoidance upon calving.  After graduating, I moved to Alberta for two years of fieldwork and analysis for the FRI Research Caribou Program.  There I was, minding my own business, when John invited me to go to Norway and study the space use, energetics, and fitness of wild and semi-domestic reindeer.  I hope my thesis will provide insight on the quality and quantity of space reindeer require, as well as develop effective methods for assessing the spatial requirements of other species so that the effects of landscape changes on populations might be better predicted.