Dr. Ryan’s presentation will look at the biology of elk and the many different ways they can cause problems on farms and ranches, including grazing on livestock pasture, damage to hay bales and standing crops and fences, as well as disease transmission risks. He will talk about his research tracking elk with GPS satellite collars, documenting farmer/rancher knowledge, and developing on-farm risk models to understand how best to prevent and control elk (and deer) issues. Ryan advocates for a ‘tool box approach’ –having a toolbox full of good options to allow each producer to manage their own operation in a way that uses the tools most suitable for their particular situation and avoiding options that risk actually making the problem worse. Science results matched with the deep knowledge of the landowners together can help to best focus spending any funding sources where they are most needed on the hotspots of risk.
Dr. Ryan Brook is a professor in the Department of Animal and Poultry Science at the University of Saskatchewan. He was raised on a mixed farm east of Winnipeg. His research program is focused on the wildlife-agriculture interface and includes elk, deer, moose, and invasive wild pigs. He also has projects in the arctic and in Sri Lanka. He did his PhD work in southwestern Manitoba on elk-agriculture conflicts and risks associated with the spread of bovine tuberculosis between elk and cattle.