Hello there... Ron Ydenberg!

Submitted by Michi on 7 February 2024.

Picture above: Ron doing field work in Cuba.

Meet another member of our editorial board - Ron Ydenberg. Ron has a broad area of expertise covering foraging, parental care, behaviour, ecology and migration. Read the short interview with Ron below and learn about his current research focus and what he likes doing most in his spare time.

1) You are a professor at the Simon Fraser University in Canada - what is your current focus as a researcher right now?

As Director of the Centre for Wildlife Ecology I oversee a wide variety of projects. My own research is currently focussed on top predators, especially their role in the ongoing decline of shorebirds. The risk effects predators generate have consequences for prey populations much larger than that of direct killing. Due to the steady climb in raptor numbers over the past four decades, the magnitude of these effects has been climbing.

2) What do you like most about being a subject editor for JAB?

I love the broad exposure to avian research, and enjoy helping a manuscript to realize its potential. This sometimes involves editing text, clarifying the argument, or suggesting to authors which of the referees’ comments to give attention. Less often - though just as challenging – a manuscript has to be encouraged to present its results a bit more carefully and a little less opaquely. Everything should be transparent in a scientific paper.  

3) Enough about work - what do you enjoy doing most in your spare time?

I devote time to maintenance of my sailboat Matsu in order to enjoy trouble-free (ha!) boating on BC’s fabulous coastline. And sheep farming (actually my wife Barbara is the farmer) means there is always something to be repaired at home when Matsu doesn’t need attention.

4) What are you looking most forward to over the next year (personally or professionally)?

An expedition this spring aboard Matsu to Haida Gwai’i (formerly the ‘Queen Charlotte Islands’) off the BC coast for a month of biologizing.

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