Great Basin spadefoot (Spea intermontana) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 14

Biographical Summary of Report Writers

The original (1998) version of this report was prepared by Richard J. Cannings, who has a B.Sc. in Zoology from the University of British Columbia and an M.Sc. in Biology from the Memorial University of Newfoundland. He was Assistant Curator of the Cowan Vertebrate Museum at the University of British Columbia for 15 years, and is now a consulting biologist living in the Okanagan Valley. Although his primary focus is on bird biology, he has a broad interest in natural history and has recently co-authored “British Columbia: A Natural History” with his brother Sydney. He grew up in the Okanagan Valley, and has been interested in Speaintermontana ever since he found spadefoot toad eggs and tadpoles in the birdbath in his backyard almost thirty years ago.

This report was updated in 2006 by Kristiina Ovaska, M.Sc., Ph.D. She has studied behaviour and ecology of amphibians in western North America, Central America, and the West Indies for over 20 years. Her studies have addressed social behaviour and population dynamics of plethodontid salamanders, courtship behaviour of neotropical frogs, interactions with forestry practices, effects of UV-B radiation on hatching success of aquatic-breeding amphibians, and effects of endocrine-disrupting compounds on amphibian metamorphosis and tadpole behaviour. She has also carried out numerous surveys for amphibians, including species at risk. She is the author of over 40 publications in the scientific literature, many of them on amphibians.

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