Maud Ferrari wants to know how animals learn to survive in an increasingly dangerous world. Almost all organisms live in environments that have been altered, to some degree, by humans. These changes can affect many ecological processes, including the delicate balance between predators and their prey, an important component of ecosystem stability. The predation ecologist from the University of Saskatchewan focuses primarily on freshwater and marine predator-prey interactions. She studies prey behaviour, sensory ecology and cognition, uncovering the ways animals sense, process and react to information they gather from their surroundings. She aims to understand how prey animals detect and learn to distinguish threats from non-threats in their environment, and how environmental change is affecting these processes. Her work on invasive species, ocean acidification and coral bleaching showcases the profound ways human impacts influence prey risk perception. Understanding how animals are affected by global change is a critical first step towards mediating our effects on the natural world.

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