Education

BS (Trinity University)

MS (University of Minnesota)

About

Coexistence of sympatric species is one of the most confounding concepts in ecology—it is fundamental, yet difficult to quantify in terms of what makes it both possible and common. Dani Freund is evaluating variation in predation risk of prey exposed to multiple predators, determining how individual variation in predation risk influences kill rates, and assessing the importance of variation discovered to predator and prey population dynamics. To do this she is comparing bear and wolf predation on moose in two systems; Thunder Bay, Canada and Ljusdal, Sweden. This research is a particularly timely given that declines of moose populations in Northwestern Ontario, where Thunder Bay is located, have been reported by Indigenous authorities, the Canadian government, and non-government institutions since the early 2000’s. Dani is also terrible at keeping houseplants alive and is co-advised by Brent Patterson.