ALMONTE – Dr. Jeff Bowman will share his expertise on the big Canadian cats as the Mississippi Valley Field Naturalists (MVFN) speaker series continues this Thursday (Nov. 21).

“Thursday, Nov. 21, the MVFN continues its 2019-2020 speaker series, Over, Under and Through – A Closer Look at Nature with our third speaker in the series, Dr. Jeff Bowman,” the MVFN released in a statement. “Since the 1970s, the range of the lynx in Ontario has been shrinking; pulling back up to 175 kilometres further north. At the same time, the bobcat range is expanding northwards. To understand what’s happening between the lynx and the bobcat in Ontario and why, Dr. Bowman and his partners from Trent University and the University of Toronto are focusing their studies on two possible scenarios: The Canada lynx is pulling back from the southern edge of its range and the bobcat is taking advantage of milder winters to move farther north.”

Bowman will present some results from the work including those generated by models based on fur harvest data and snow track surveys, genetic analysis and GPS tracking of both species.

Bowman is a senior research scientist with the Wildlife Research and Monitoring Section of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, and also an Adjunct Professor in the Environmental and Life sciences Graduate Program at Trent University.

He leads Ontario’s furbearer and small mammal research programs, and has expertise in population and landscape ecology, and landscape genetics. He has conducted research on many species and ecosystems, including work on fishers, martens, lynx, bobcats, wolverines, mink, wild turkeys, flying squirrels, and a variety of bat species.

The talk will be held Thursday, Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall at 106 Elgin St.

Admission is free for MVFN members. There is an admission fee of $5 for non-members. No charge for youth 18 and under.