Dr. Laura M. Bolt is an Assistant Professor (research tenure-stream) of Forest Conservation Biology. Dr. Bolt is a broadly-trained conservation biologist who holds degrees from the University of Cambridge (U.K.), 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 the American Journal of Biological Anthropology and most-cited in Primates and the 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 and the U.K.’s Daily Mail.

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, squirrels, and predators living in human-impacted tropical forests in Costa Rica. This research is important given the ongoing deforestation in Central America and other tropical regions globally, with mammals acting as important indicator species to signal habitat change.

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 Groups for Africa and Central America.

Research Opportunities

Dr. Bolt is currently recruiting high-achieving and highly-motivated students to join the Forests + Animal Behavioural Ecology Lab, and is especially interested in potential graduate students with external funding. Please visit the FABE Lab website for more information.

2025/26 Courses

• FOR302H1: Societal Values and Forest Management
• FOR3009H: Forest Conservation Biology
• FOR3011H: International Forest Conservation Field Camp