Faculty profile headshot photo of Cole Burton

Cole Burton

Associate Professor
Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Terrestrial Mammal Conservation

Forest Sciences Centre 2038
2424 Main Mall
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4
Canada

work phone: 604-822-1283

Key research areas include:

  • Understanding mammal community dynamics in human-impacted ecosystems
  • Assessing conservation strategies for human-wildlife coexistence
  • Wildlife population estimation and habitat modelling
  • Developing and testing biodiversity monitoring methods, particularly wildlife camera trapping
  • Carnivore ecology and conservation

Selected Publications

Tattersall, E. R., J. M. Burgar, J. T. Fisher, and A. C. Burton (2020). Mammal seismic line use varies with restoration: Applying habitat restoration to species at risk conservation in a working landscape Biological Conservation 241:108295
Zhao, J., M. B. Azad, E. M. Bertrand, C. Burton, V. A. Crooks, J. Dawson, A. T. Ford, A. Kaida, A. Krishnaswamy, C. Kuok, C. L. Mah, M. McTaggart, A. J. Moehring, D. Robert, A. Schulte-Hostedde, H. Sparling, M. A. De Vera, S. Waterman, and T. R. Patel. (2020). Canadian Science Meets Parliament: Building relationships between scientists and policymakers. Science and Public Policy 47:298-298
Yemshanov, D., R. G. Haight, N. Liu, M.-A. Parisien, Q. Barber, F. H. Koch, C. Burton, N. Mansuy, F. Campioni, and S. Choudhury. (2020). Assessing the trade-offs between timber supply and wildlife protection goals in boreal landscapes Canadian Journal of Forest Research 50:243-258
Tattersall, E. R., J. M. Burgar, J. T. Fisher, and A. C. Burton (2020). Boreal predator co‐occurrences reveal shared use of seismic lines in a working landscape Ecology and Evolution 10:1678-1691
McClelland, C. J. R., N. C. Coops, E. E. Berman, S. P. Kearney, S. E. Nielsen, A. C. Burton, and G. B. Stenhouse (2020). Detecting changes in understorey and canopy vegetation cycles in West Central Alberta using a fusion of Landsat and MODIS Applied Vegetation Science 23:223-238
Holinda, D., J. M. Burgar, and A. C. Burton (2020). Effects of scent lure on camera trap detections vary across mammalian predator and prey species. PLoS ONE
Fisher, J.T., A.C. Burton, L. Nolan, L. Roy. (2020). Influences of landscape change and winter severity on invasive ungulate persistence in the Nearctic boreal forest Scientific Reports in press
Burton, A.C., C. Chetkiewicz (2020). Monitoring that matters: towards effective ecological monitoring to address cumulative impacts on biodiversity In J. Blakley and D. Franks (eds), Cumulative Impact Assessment Handbook. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Burgar, J.M., Burton, A.C., Fisher, J.T. (2019). The importance of considering multiple interacting species for conservation of species-at-risk. Conservation Biology 33:709-715
Chen, C., Quan, R., Cao, G., Yang, H., Burton, A.C., Meitner, M. & Brodie, J.F. (2019). Effects of law enforcement and community outreach on mammal diversity in a biodiversity hotspot Conservation Biology 33:612-622
Yemshanov, D., R. G. Haight, F. H. Koch, M.-A. Parisien, T. Swystun, Q. Barber, A. C. Burton, S. Choudhury, and N. Liu. (2019). Prioritizing restoration of fragmented landscapes for wildlife conservation: A graph-theoretic approach Biological Conservation 232:173-186
A. R Westwood, S.P. Otto, A. Mooers, C. Darimont, K. E. Hodges, C. Johnson, B. M. Starzomski, C. Burton, K. Chan, M. Festa-Bianchet, S. Fluker, S. Gulati, A. L. Jacob, D. Kraus, T. G. Martin, W. J. Palen, J. D. Reynolds, J. Whitton. (2019). Protecting Biodiversity in British Columbia: Recommendations for Developing Species at Risk Legislation FACETS Volume: 4 Page: 136-160
Broadley, K., A. C. Burton, T. Avgar, and S. Boutin (2019). Density-dependent space use affects interpretation of camera trap detection rates. Ecology and Evolution 9:14031-14041
Neilson, E.W., T. Avgar, A.C. Burton, K. Broadley and S. Boutin (2018). Animal movement affects interpretation of occupancy models from camera trap surveys of unmarked animals. Ecosphere 9:e02092
Stewart, F.; J.T. Fisher, A.C. Burton, and J.P. Volpe (2018). Species occurrence data reflect the magnitude of animal movements better than the proximity of animal space use Ecosphere 9:e02112
Fisher, J.T and A.C. Burton (2018). Wildlife winners and losers in an oil sands landscape. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 16:323-328
Toews, M., F. Juanes and A.C. Burton (2018). Mammal responses to the human footprint vary across species and stressors Journal of Environmental Management, 217:690-699
Burton, A.C., J. T. Fisher, P. Adriaens, J. Treweek, D. Paetkau, M. Wikstrom, A. Callender,, R. Vardanyan, A. Stepanyan (2018). Density and distribution of a brown bear (Ursus arctos) population within the Caucasus biodiversity hotspot. Journal of Mammalogy 99:1249-1260
Burgar J., Stewart F, Volpe J, Fisher J, Burton A.C. (2018). Estimating density for species conservation: comparing camera trap spatial count models to genetic spatial capture-recapture models Global Ecology and Conservation, 15:e00411.
Steenweg, R, M. Hebblewhite, R. Kays, J. Ahumada, J.T. Fisher, C. Burton, et al. (2017). Scaling up camera traps: monitoring the planet's biodiversity with networks of remote sensors. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 15:26-34
Toews, M., F. Juanes and A.C. Burton. (2017). Mammal responses to human footprint vary with spatial extent but not with spatial grain. Ecosphere 8:e01735
Frey, S., J.T. Fisher, A.C. Burton and J.P. Volpe (2017). Investigating animal activity patterns and temporal niche partitioning using camera trap data: challenges and opportunities Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation
Caravaggi, A.; Banks, P.; Burton, C.; Finlay, C.; Haswell, P.; Hayward, M.; Rowcliffe, M.; Wood, M. (2017). A review of camera trapping for conservation behaviour research Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation
Brammer, Jeremy R., Nicolas D. Brunet, A. Cole Burton, Alain Cuerrier, Finn Danielsen, Kanwaljeet Dewan, Thora Martina Herrmann, Micha V. Jackson, Rod Kennett, Guillaume Larocque, Monica Mulrennan, Arun Kumar Pratihast, Marie Saint-Arnaud, Colin Scott, Murray M. Humphries (2016). The role of digital data entry in participatory environmental monitoring. Conservation Biology, 30:1277-1287
Burton, A.C., Neilson, E., Moreira, D., Ladle, A., Steenweg, R., Fisher, J.T., Bayne, E. & Boutin, S. (2015). Wildlife camera trapping: A review and recommendations for linking surveys to ecological processes. Journal of Applied Ecology, 52:675-685.
Burton, A.C., D. Huggard, E. Bayne, J. Schieck, P. Solymos, T. Muhly, D. Farr, S. Boutin. (2014). A framework for adaptive monitoring of the cumulative effects of human footprint on biodiversity. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 186:3605-3617.
Danielsen, F., P.M. Jensen, N.D. Burgess, R. Altamirano, P.A. Alviola, H. Andrianandrasana, J.S. Brashares, A.C. Burton, et al. (2014). A multi-country assessment of tropical resource monitoring by local communities. BioScience, 64:236-251
Henschel P., L. Coad, C. Burton; B. Chataigner, A. Dunn, D. MacDonald, Y. Saidu, L.T.B. Hunter. (2014). The lion in West Africa is critically endangered. PLoS ONE 9: e83500
Packer, C., A. Loveridge, S. Canney, T. Caro, S.T. Garnett, M. Pfeifer, K.K. Zander, A. Swanson, D. MacNulty, G. Balme, H. Bauer, C.M. Begg, K.S. Begg, S. Bhalla, C. Bissett, T. Bodasing, H. Brink, A. Burger, A.C. Burton, et al. (2013). Conserving large carnivores: dollars and fence Ecology Letters, 16:635-641
Burton, A.C. (2012). Critical evaluation of a long-term, locally-based wildlife monitoring program in West Africa Biodiversity and Conservation, 21:3079-3094
Burton, A.C., M.K. Sam, C. Balangtaa, and J.S. Brashares (2012). Hierarchical multi-species modeling of carnivore responses to hunting, habitat and prey in a West African protected area PLoS ONE, 7(5): e38007
Rubidge, E.M., J.L. Patton, M. Lim, A.C. Burton, J.S. Brashares and C.C. Moritz (2012). Climate-induced range contraction drives genetic erosion in an alpine mammal Nature Climate Change, 2:285-288
Burton, A.C., M.K. Sam, D.G. Kpelle, C. Balangtaa, E.B. Buedi and J.S. Brashares (2011). Evaluating persistence and its predictors in a West African carnivore community Biological Conservation, 144:2344-2353