Cole Burton

Ph.D Candidate

Office: Room 8, Mulford Hall
cole@berkeley.edu
Phone/Fax: 510-643-3918
Mailing address: 137 Mulford Hall #3114 University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-3114
M.Sc. University of British Columbia, 2001
B.Sc. University of Guelph, 1997

Research Interests

My primary research interests center broadly on the ecology and conservation of terrestrial mammal diversity. Related topic areas include human-wildlife conflict, protected area management, consequences of biodiversity loss, and effective monitoring methods.

I am particularly interested in combining ecological science with perspectives and tools from other disciplines in the pursuit of conservation solutions, such as in ecological economics and community-based conservation.

My current Ph.D. work is focused on the conservation of large carnivores and other mammals in Ghana, West Africa. I am combining field surveys using “camera traps” with local monitoring efforts and villager surveys to critically evaluate the status of these regionally threatened wildlife populations. I hope to help improve our understanding of the causes and consequences of mammal population declines and identify opportunities for improving conservation effectiveness without compromising local needs for sustainable development.

Previous Research

My Master’s thesis research focused on the ecology and population genetics of snowshoe hares in the northern boreal forests of the Yukon Territory, Canada. Other work has included biodiversity and community surveys in the Cardamom Mountains of southwestern Cambodia; wildlife monitoring and impact assessments in British Columbia, Alberta, Montana and Colorado; and a wolf ecology study in Algonquin Park, Ontario.

Publications

Wittemyer, G., P. Elsen, W.T. Bean, A.C.O. Burton and J.S. Brashares. 2008. Accelerated human population growth at protected area edges. Science, 321:123-126.

Burton, C. and C.J. Krebs. 2003. Influence of relatedness on snowshoe hare spacing behaviour. Journal of Mammalogy 84:1100-1111. PDF

Burton, C., C.J. Krebs and E.B. Taylor. 2002. Population genetic structure of the cyclic snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus) in southwestern Yukon, Canada. Molecular Ecology 11:1689-1701. PDF

Burton, C. 2002. Microsatellite analysis of multiple paternity and male reproductive success in the promiscuous snowshoe hare. Canadian Journal of Zoology 80:1948-1956. PDF