Richard Lanctot

DepartmentOrganizationEmailPhoneAddressAnchorage , Alaska 99503United StatesBioDr. Richard (Rick) Lanctot is the USFWS’s R7 coordinator for shorebird research and conservation. His work focuses on conducting research and monitoring studies on breeding, migrating, and wintering shorebirds in Alaska, the lower 48 states, Latin America, and Asia, and he has extensive experience in arctic shorebird ecology and monitoring. Rick received his BS from the University of North Dakota, his Master’s at Iowa State University and his PhD at Carleton University. His prior experiences involve studies on prairie voles, seabirds, sea ducks, and waterfowl. He serves as chair or steering committee member on a number of international organizations such as Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna’s Arctic Migratory Bird Initiative, East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership’s Shorebird Working Group, and the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Group. He is the U.S. representative on the Arctic Program for International and Shorebird Monitoring and in this role, evaluated the survey approach and helped implement the final survey protocol throughout much of Alaska. Since 2003, he has led a long-term study in Barrow, Alaska, where he and a number of graduate students have collected information on factors affecting shorebird numbers and breeding success, including climate change. Rick and his partners publish extensively in ecological and ornithological journals, and Rick was recently nominated and accepted to be a Fellow with the American Ornithologists’ Union.

Science Specialties

avian biology, shorebird migration and breeding ecology, animal behavior

Current Research

Study of breeding ecology of shorebirds in northern Alaska and migration ecology of shorebirds that winter in South America and Asia