Bram Van Moorter

E-mail: [email protected]

Contact information

Bram Van Moorter
E-mail: [email protected] phone: +47 73 59 62 66
fax: +47 73 59 61 00 33
Centre for Conservation Biology
Department of Biology, NTNU
Realfagbygget
Høgskoleringen 5
NO-7491 Trondheim (Norway)

General profile

I completed my PhD degree in Septembre 2008 at the University of Lyon (Lab “Biometry and Evolutionary Biology”, France), under the direction of Dr. Jean-Michel Gaillard and Dr. Mark S. Boyce from the University of Alberta in Edmonton (Canada).

My thesis is entitled “Habitat selection at different spatial scales: Application to roe deer (Capreolus capreolus)” and was defended fall 2008.

I am currently employed at the NTNU in Trondheim (Norway), where I investigate spatial behavior of moose in Bernt-Erik Saether’s lab. The data we are working with are geographical positions from moose equiped with GPS-collars (project leader: Christer Rolandsen at NINA). This project is a collaboration between researchers from NTNU (Ivar Herfindal, Kari Bjorneraas, and me) and from NINA (Christer Rolandsen, and Erling Solberg), but also with Swedish researchers (Nils Bunnefeld, and Goran Ericsson). This website allows you to have a look at some GPS locations from the moose we are working with.

Areas of focus

  • Movement ecology
  • Behavioral ecology
  • Population ecology

Research interests

In my research I try to approach the question of wildlife space use patterns with three different approaches:

  1. Theory: it is important to keep the study of a specific topic embedded within the larger research field. By building theory using general concepts I try to contribute to the integration of animal space use behavior within the larger context of population ecology and evolutionary biology.
  2. Simulations: with the use of individual mechanistic models I investigate the space use principles under the perfectly mastered conditions of simulated landscapes. Such studies benefit our understanding of the principles that potentially govern spatial behavior of individual animals.
  3. Data analysis: all the previous theory building would be useless if it were not connected to and tested against field data. My research focuses on spatial behavior from ungulates, like roe deer, elk and moose.

Publication list

Peer-reviewed articles

In case you would like to read one of these papers, but can not access it, pleasecontact me.

  • Bjorneraas K., Solberg E.J., Herfindal I., Van Moorter B., Rolandsen C.M., Tremblay J.P., Skarpe C., Saether B.E., Eriksen R., and Astrup R. (2011) Moose Alces alces habitat use at multiple temporal scales in a human-altered landscape. Wildlife Biology 17: 44-54.
  • Bunnefeld N., Borger L., van Moorter B., Rolandsen C.M., Dettki H., Solberg E.J., and Ericsson G. (2011) A model-driven approach to quantify migration patterns: individual, regional and yearly differences. Journal of Animal Ecology 80: 466-476.
  • Struve J., Lorenzen K., Blanchard J., Borger L., Bunnefeld N., Edwards C., Hortal J., MacCall A., Matthiopoulos J., Van Moorter B., Ozgul A., Royer F., Singh N., Yesson C., and Bernard R. (2010) Lost in space? Searching for directions in the spatial modelling of individuals, populations and species ranges. Biology Letters 6: 575-578.
  • Martin J. Basille M., van Moorter B., Kindberg J., Allaine D., Swenson J.E. (2010) Coping with human disturbance: spatial and temporal tactics of the brown bear (Ursus arctos). Canadian Journal of Zoology - Revue Canadienne de Zoologie 88: 875-883.
  • Bjorneraas K., van Moorter B., Rolandsen C.M., and Herfindal I. (2010) Screening GPS Location Data for Errors using Animal Movement Characteristics. Journal of Wildlife Management 74: 1361-1366.
  • Gaillard J.-M., Hebblewhite M., Loison A., Fuller M., Powell R., Basille M., and Van Moorter B. (2010) Habitat-performance relationships: finding the right metric at a given spatial scale. Royal Society Philosophical Transactions B. 365: 2255-2265.
  • Van Moorter B., Jerde C.J., Visscher D.R., Frair J.L., and Merrill E.H. (2010) Identifying movement states from location data using cluster analysis. Journal of Wildlife Management 74: 588-594.
  • Van Moorter B., Visscher D., Benhamou S., Börger L., Boyce M.S., and Gaillard J.-M. (2009) Memory keeps you at home: a mechanistic model for home range emergence. Oikos 118: 641-652.
  • Van Moorter B., Gaillard J.-M., McLoughlin P.D.M., Delorme D., Klein F., and Boyce M.S. (2009) Maternal and individual effects in selection of bed sites and their consequences for fawn survival at different spatial scales. Oecologia 159: 669-678. doi:10.1007/s00442-008-1245-1
  • Bourgoin G., Garel M., Van Moorter B., Dubray D.,Maillard D. Marty E., and Gaillard J.-M. (2008) Determinants of seasonal variation in activity patterns of mouflon. Canadian Journal of Zoology 86: 1410-1418.
  • Gaillard J.-M., Hewison A.J.M., Kjellander P., Pettorelli N., Bonenfant C., Van Moorter B., Liberg O., Andren H., Van Laere G., Klein F., Angibault J.-M., Coulon A., and Vanpé C. (2008) Population density and sex do not influence fine-scale natal dispersal in roe deer. Proc Biol Sci. 275:2025-2030.
  • Van Moorter B., Gaillard J.-M., Hewison A.J.M., Said S., Coulon A., Delorme D., Widmer O., Cargnelutti B., and Angibault J.M. (2008) Evidence for exploration behaviour in young roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) prior to dispersal. Ethology, Ecology & Evolution 20: 1-15.
  • McLoughlin P.D.M., Gaillard J.-M., Boyce M.S., Bonenfant C., Messier F., Duncan P., Delorme D., Van Moorter B., Said S., and Klein F. (2007) Lifetime reproductive success and composition of the home range in a large herbivore. Ecology 88: 3192–3201.

Under review

  • Van Moorter B., Visscher D., Herfindal I., Basille M., and Mysterud A. (submitted) Inferring behavioural mechanisms in habitat selection studies - getting the null-hypothesis right for functional and familiarity responses.