Tavis Forrester
About Tavis's Work
Dr. Tavis Forrester is a wildlife research biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and a research fellow at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI). Dr. Forrester leads research on the ecology of cougars, bobcats, and coyotes and the effects of predator interactions on predator-prey dynamics. He is currently collaborating with Joel Ruprecht and Dr. Taal Levi to investigate how interactions between large predators affects predation risk for mule deer and elk. Tavis is also working with Beth Orning and Dr. Katie Dugger from Oregon State University on research about wolf and cougar interactions. Tavis was previously a conservation biologist at SCBI where he was the first project manager for the eMammal initiative, a large-scale citizen science project focused on camera trap surveys of mammals. He coordinated and helped design the initial projects of eMammal, two multi-state citizen science projects that assessed the impacts of urbanization, recreation, and hunting on wildlife communities. Tavis also led the development of data management protocols and an innovative cloud-based data review system that allowed researchers to control data quality from millions of camera trap photos contributed by a network of volunteers spread out over six states. Dr. Forrester has pursued education and outreach throughout his career, and has trained educators and citizen scientists on camera trapping and has conducted workshops on wildlife tracking for wildlife professionals and educators in Oregon and California. Tavis has assisted in teaching courses in wildlife ecology, natural history, and conservation biology at UC Davis and has been a guest lecturer on data analysis and ecology at the Smithsonian Mason School of Conservation. He has worked in wildlife biology and conservation for 11 years in California, Oregon, Alaska, and Virginia and worked as an outdoor educator for 5 years. Tavis received his B.S. in Wildlife Science from Oregon State University in 1999 and his Ph.D. in Ecology from University of California, Davis in 2014. Dr. Tavis Forrester is an expert in carnivore and ungulate ecology, predator-prey ecology, camera trapping, citizen science, and developing cyber-infrastructure to harness big data from modern ecology projects.
