Project
Grüezi, my name is Zach and I am PhD student working on meerkat (Suricata suricatta) habitat selection, behaviour and demography. I am supervised by Prof. Arpat Ozgul and based at University of Zurich Irchel Campus. I am most interested in studying population dynamics and evolutionary ecology, including behaviour, life history traits, space use, movement, sexual selection, social structures, and much more. My fieldwork takes place at the Kalahari Research Centre in South Africa.
My PhD project focuses on how interspecific interactions (predation, competition, facilitation) affect meerkats. My thesis title is “The effects of inter species interactions on spatial dynamics, behaviour, and demography in a cooperative breeder”. For predation I am considering top-down and bottom-up effects through perceived predation assessed from meerkat’s alarm calls and prey availability extrapolated from pit-fall trap transects over the study area. To incorporate competition and facilitation, I will estimate the dynamic occupancies of the various other non-predatory species of the area categorized in functional groups: insectivores, obligate grazers, and intermediate grazers. My PhD comprises five chapters, addressing the effects of these interactions on meerkat habitat selection and movement (1), on foraging behaviour that influences growth (2), which in turn impacts reproduction (3) and survival (4). Finally, the last chapter (5) will encompass the findings of each previous chapters to quantify the combine effects of interspecific interactions on meerkat population growth rate as well as investigating how it changes in different scenarios of predation, prey, and lower trophic-level consumer occupancies abundances.
I am exceedingly grateful to research meerkats as they are fascinating, having developed complex anti-predator tactics in response to a myriad of diverse predator threats. In addition, members of the Kalahari Meerkat Project have collected astonishing data since 1993, allowing me to study questions few study sites can answer. As part of my project, I have to opportunity to learn how to use generalized additive mixed models (GAMMs), path analyses, and individual-based models (IBMs) as well as to further my knowledge of Resource Selection Functions (RSF) and Step Selection Functions (SSF).
Prior to my PhD, I obtained my MSc in Biology at the Université de Sherbrooke in Quebec, Canada, where I studied bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) spatial behavior and population dynamics in response to intense predation by a specialized cougar (Puma concolor) with Prof. Marco Festa-Bianchet and my supervisor Prof. Fanie Pelletier. Specifically, I investigated whether this predation influenced bighorn sheep’s selection for habitats at higher elevation and whether distance to escape terrains also affected their habitat selection. As a result of my MSc, I have one published paper, and another one soon to be submitted.
If you want to read more about my interests and the research I’ve done, feel free to visit my personal website.
CV
- 2024-Present: PhD Student in Ecology, Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, Universität Zürich, Schweiz
- 2021-2024: MSc in Biology, Department of Biology, Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada
- 2021-2023: Graduate Microprogram in Scientific Interactions, Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada
- 2019-2021: BSc in Ecology, Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada
- 2018: AA (Associate’s Degree) in liberal Arts Sciences (Biology Major), Golden West College, California, USA
- 2017: Biology student, West Los Angeles College, California, USA,
- 2017: Biology student, Université Laval, Quebec, Canada
Publications
- Cloutier, Z., M. Festa-Bianchet, F. Pelletier. 2024. “Direct and indirect effects of cougar predation on bighorn sheep fitness”. Ecology 105: 4374 ➤
- Cloutier, Z. Impacts indirects de la prédation par le cougar sur le comportement et le fitness individuel du mouflon d’Amérique. MSc Thesis, Université de Sherbrooke, July 2024 ➤
- Cloutier, Z., L. Brown, M. Festa-Bianchet, F. Pelletier. 2024. “Spatial and group size responses to high predation risk in a large herbivore”. In preparation for Ecosphere, expected submission June 2025