Travis Steffens

LEMURS, ENVIRONMENT, & MALAGASY RESEARCH lab (LEMR lab)

My CFI-JELF, NSERC Discovery Grant, and NFRF Exploration grant funded research programs investigate human-lemur interactions within a shared environment. I leverage conservation biogeography, spatial ecology, and One Health approaches to understand how lemurs interact with and respond to human caused disturbance. I am also interested in how humans are impacted by applied conservation measures targeting lemurs and their habitat. Specifically, I am interested in understanding the factors determining lemur species richness and occurrence in habitat shared with people.

As a public anthropologist, my aim is to leverage the above approaches to provide applicable solutions that improve the lives of people, improve the conservation situation for lemurs, and protect the environment that people and lemurs share. I am also a member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Species Survival Commission, Primate Specialist Group for Madagascar, an International Fellow of the Explorers Club, a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society, and founding Director of Planet Madagascar, a charity focused on helping to create sustainable forest communities in Madagascar.

Biogeography, One Health, Conservation, Lemurs, Community Ecology, Spatial Ecology

I am interested in recruiting a PhD student to study the scale effects of species extinction and assembly among lemurs in Madagascar within my LEMR lab. The LEMR lab values diversity encourages applications from all persons regardless of background and including those underrepresented in academia. Not all people have the same opportunities and thus experience.

While there is a minimum expectation for student achievement for acceptance to this position, we encourage applicants to consider potential equivalencies to the above ‘Essential’ and ‘Desired’ skills. The lab encourages all candidates to speak with current lab members learn more about the work environment. Interviews may be conducted interviews in person, at conferences, or virtually to provide equitable access to a diverse array of applicants. The details of the application are in the linked file below.

PhD Position in Geography

• Husband, B. C., Pollock, H., Clow, K., Finnis, E., Goodridge, L., Newman, A., ... & Steffens, T. S. (2025). Building capacity in One Health: a case study in developing and sustaining interdisciplinary programs in higher education. BioScience, biaf160, https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaf160
• Steffens, T.S., Cosby, A.C., Razafitsalama, M., Lehman, S.M., Raharison, J.L., Irwin, M. (2025). Power through or keep looking? Comparing species-area relationships of habitat fragments and their drivers in different ecoregions. Ecology and Evolution, 15(8), e71928. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.71928
• Phelps, L. N., Razanatsoa, E., Davis, D., Hackel, J., Rasolondrainy, T., Tiley, G. P., ..., Steffens, T. S. ..., Vorontsova, M. S., Douglass, K. & Lehmann, C. (2025). Advancing transdisciplinary research on grassy biomes to support resilience in tropical ecosystems and livelihoods. Ecological Monographs. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecm.70011
• Cosby, A., Andriatsitohaina, B., Archie, R., Jules, C., McGoogan, K., Persram, M., Razafitsalama, M., Young, A. & Steffens, T.S. (2025). Primate Conservation: A Public Issue? American Journal of Primatology e23632. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.23632
• Bisekere, A., Sheen, M., Law, I., Steffens, T., & Murphy, H. (2024). What is the prevalence of zoonotic pathogens associated with lemurs, domestic animals, and humans in rural Madagascar?. https://atrium.lib.uoguelph.ca/
• Behie, A. M., Steffens, T. S., Yaxley, K., Vincent, A., Wright, P. C., Johnson, S. E. & Pavelka, M. S. M. (2024). Can cyclone exposure explain behavioural and demographic variation among lemur species? PLOS One, 19(3), e0300972. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0300972
• Finnis, E., Archie, R., Margarit, S., Perry, A., Gagné, K., Steffens, T. S., Auerbach, J., & McIlwraith, T. (2023). Multi-Course and Faculty-Student Collaboration: Reflections on Implementing a Qualitative Research Project with Undergraduate Students. Teaching Anthropology, 12(2), 14-26. https://doi.org/10.22582/ta.v12i2.674
• Schübler, D, Andriamalala, YR, van der Bach, R, Katzur, C, Kolbe, C, Maheritafika, MHR, Razolozaka, M., Razafitsalama M., Renz, M., Steffens T. S., Radespiel, R., & Brenner, J. (2023). Thirty years of deforestation within the entire ranges of nine endangered lemur species (3 CR, 4 EN, 2 VU) in northwestern Madagascar. Ecotropica, 25 (1/2), 202304. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.05.23.493111
• Steffens, T. S., Ramsay, M. S., Andriatsitohaina, B., Cosby, A. E., Lehman, S. M., Rakotondravony, R., ... & Radespiel, U. (2022). Shifting Biogeographic Patterns of Microcebus ravelobensis and M. murinus. International Journal of Primatology, 43(4), 636-656. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-022-00304-z
• Steffens, T.S., & Finnis, E. (2022). Context matters: Leveraging anthropology within one health. One Health, 14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.onehlt.2022.100393
• Steffens, T.S., Ramsay M.S., Andriatsitohaina B., Radespiel U., & Lehman S.M. (2021). Enter the matrix: habitat use by Microcebus spp. in a fragmented landscape. Folia Primatologica 92(1), 1-11 https://doi.org/10.1159/000510964
• Steffens, T.S. and Lehman S.M. (2021). Landscape ecology of deforestation processes and lemur biogeography in Madagascar. In GPS and GIS for Primatologists: A Practical Guide to Spatial Analysis. Dolins, F., Shaffer, C., Porter, L., Hickey, J., & Nibbelink, N. (Eds.). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781107449824
• Steffens, T.S., Maheritaka H.M.R., Hildebrand J., & Aylward M. (2020). Lemur Distribution and Resident Attitudes Towards Forest Loss and Degradation in Ankarafantsika National Park, Madagascar. Primate Conservation 34, 61-70
• Steffens ,T.S., Malabet-Mercado F., & Lehman S.M. (2020). Occurrence of lemurs in landscapes and their species-specific scale responses to habitat loss. American Journal of Primatology 82(4), e23110. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.23110
• Steffens, T.S., & Lehman, S.M. (2019). Species‐area relationships of lemurs in a fragmented landscape in Madagascar. American Journal of Primatology 81(4), e22972. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.22972
• Steffens, T.S., & Lehman, S.M. (2018). Lemur species-specific metapopulation responses to habitat loss and fragmentation. PLOS One 13(5) e0195791. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0195791
• Steffens, T.S., & Lehman, S.M. (2016). Factors determining Microcebus abundance in a fragmented landscape in Ankarafantsika National Park, Madagascar. In S.M. Lehman, U. Radespiel, E. Zimmermann (Eds.), The Dwarf and Mouse Lemurs of Madagascar: Biology, Behavior and Conservation Biogeography of the Cheirogaleidae (pp. 477-497). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139871822
• Behie, A. M., Steffens, T. S., Wyman, T. M., & Pavelka, M. S. (2015). Hurricanes and coastlines: The role of natural disasters in the speciation of howler monkeys. Taxonomic Tapestries: The Threads of Evolutionary, Behavioural and Conservation Research, 75. ANU Press. https://doi.org/10.22459/TT.05.2015.04
• Valenta, K., Steffens, T. S., Rafaliarison, R. R., Chapman, C. A., & Lehman, S. M. (2015). Seed banks in savanna, forest fragments, and continuous forest edges differ in a tropical dry forest in Madagascar. Biotropica, 47(4), 435-440. https://doi.org/10.1111/btp.12228

1. Anik Chhoker - MA.PIA + ONEH (2025-Present)
2. Rhea Noronha - MA.PIA + ONEH (2025-Present)
3. Jamie Medeiros - MA.PIA + ONEH (2024-Present)
4. Gaby Salvadore - MA.PIA + ONEH (2024-Present)
5. Sukarmina Shankar - MA.PIA + ONEH (2024-Present)
6. Marilyn Sheen - MA.PIA + ONEH (2023-Present)
7. Amilcar Bisekere (co-supervised) - PhD Pathobiology (2023-Present)
8. Cora Jules - MA.PIA + ONEH (2022-2024)
9. Alex Cosby - MA.PIA + ONEH (2021-2023)