Rick Lanctot

Rick’s interest in shorebirds began in 1982 when he first volunteered to work on a behavioral ecology study of Spotted Sandpipers in northern Minnesota. He focused on the breeding ecology and behavior of individual shorebird species in the 1990s and early 2000s but switched to population demography and conservation in more recent times. His PhD investigated the behavioral ecology of the Buff-breasted Sandpiper – a species he has studied throughout the Western Hemisphere since 1991.  He became the Shorebird Coordinator for the Alaska Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2002, where he coordinates shorebird research and conservation within Alaska and the five flyways that emanate from it. He strongly believes in using science to drive decisions, and as such pushes himself, his students, and colleagues to investigate relevant conservation questions and to publish their findings.  He serves as the U.S. representative on the Steering group that coordinates the Arctic Migratory Bird Initiative (part of the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna work group of the Arctic Council), is the Chair of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership’s Shorebird Working Group, is a lead organizer for the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Group and is the long-term staff member for the Alaska Shorebird Group. Finally, he and Dr. Autumn-Lynn Harrison have recently formed the Shorebird Science and Conservation Collective, which seeks to translate the collective tracking findings of shorebird scientists into effective on-the-ground conservation to help reverse the declines of the Western Hemisphere’s shorebirds.  

Listen to Rick talk about his 30+ years of field work as a shorebird biologist in Alaska on "My Life, Wildlife"