Dr. Laura M. Bolt

Dr. Laura M. Bolt is an Assistant Professor (research tenure-stream) of Forest Conservation Biology at the University of Toronto, in the Department of Forestry and the Institute of Forestry and Conservation. Dr. Bolt is a broadly-trained conservation biologist who holds degrees from the University of Cambridge (UK), University of Toronto, and Queen's University (Canada). Her research interests include animal behavioural ecology, primatology, forest fragmentation, edge effects, animal communication, One Health, and sexual selection. Dr. Bolt's publications have been named editor's choice in American Journal of Biological Anthropology and most-cited in Primates and American Journal of Primatology. Her research is of broad interest to the general public and has received international media attention, with coverage by news agencies including National Geographic, Reuters, the UK's Daily Mail, Science Daily, Tech Explorist, Mirage News, and The Cleveland American.

As director of University of Toronto's Forests + Animal Behavioural Ecology (FABE) lab, Dr. Bolt's research program investigates the behavioural ecology of animals and their habitats in order to better understand forest health. Current projects focus on non-human primates, predators, and squirrels living in human-impacted tropical forests in Costa Rica. This research is important given the ongoing deforestation in Costa Rica and other tropical regions globally, with mammals acting as important indicator species to signal habitat change.

Dr. Bolt is also the co-director of the La Suerte Forest Fragmentation and Primate Behavioural Ecology Project, a long-term project focusing on mantled howler monkey (Alouatta palliata), white-faced capuchin monkey (Cebus imitator) and Central American spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi) behavioural ecology and population structure within a fragmented tropical rainforest in Costa Rica. Additionally, Dr. Bolt has studied vocalization usage in the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) in Madagascar. This endangered primate represents one of the best living models of group-living primate ancestors. Dr. Bolt's work to date has demonstrated the complexity and sophistication of communication systems in wild lemurs.

As a conservation biologist, Dr. Bolt is a member of the board of directors for Maderas Rainforest Conservancy, a conservation non-profit organization that protects tropical forests in Central America. She is also an associate editor in organismal and evolutionary biology for the journal Royal Society Open Science, and a member of the International Union of the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission Primate Specialist Group for Africa and Central America.