Professor Gary Bortolotti - In Memorium

In Memorium - Professor Gary Bortolotti

By Russell Dawson

The Department of Biology, the University of Saskatchewan, Canadian ornithology, and indeed ornithology around the world, has lost one of its most prominent scientists. Gary Roy Anthony Bortolotti was born in Smiths Falls, Ontario, and was raised in Willowdale, Ontario. Growing up in the suburbs of Toronto, Gary had little direct experience with the natural world, and in fact as he approached the end of high school, was very uncertain about the path he would take for his career. At one point, he considered becoming a recording engineer, which was a reflection of his love of music during this period of his life, in particular the blues. However, spending time during the summers at an aunt and uncle’s cottage on Georgian Bay allowed Gary to observe nature firsthand, and so by the end of high school, it was clear to Gary that whatever his career would be, it needed to involve the natural world. Gary became a student in the Faculty of Forestry at the University of Toronto, and received his B.Sc. in Forestry. Perhaps one of the major issues Gary had with forestry in general was that the fact that ultimate goal was to cut down trees! This was a pivotal revelation for Gary, and it made him realize that forestry was not the direction he wanted to go.

Jon M. Gerrard, a professor of hematology at the University of Manitoba with a keen interest in for birds of prey, had been studying the Bald Eagles that nested around Besnard Lake, in Saskatchewan’s boreal forest, since the late 1960s. Gary contacted Jon about the possibility of spending a summer doing surveys of the eagles, and Jon managed to find the funds to get Gary out to Saskatchewan and out onto the lake in 1976. And it was here that Gary found his true calling and passion. An excerpt from a book that Gary subsequently wrote with Jon sums up nicely the transformation that occurred; Gary wrote that being at Besnard provided “a sense of satisfaction, or perhaps relief, the way one feels when finally starting on the journey home after an extended absence”. Indeed, Besnard Lake played a central role in Gary’s life from that point right up until the end.

Gary continued to study the eagles at Besnard Lake, and completed his Ph.D. in 1984 under the supervision of Jon C. Barlow of the Royal Ontario Museum. The work he conducted at Besnard included the development of a simple and accurate method for determining the sex of Bald Eagles in the field; however, Gary’s best known research on eagles concerned how these birds facultatively manipulate the sex ratio of their offspring in order to achieve the maximum reproductive output possible under prevailing environmental conditions. After the completion of his dissertation, he continued as a postdoc at the University of Toronto, continuing to work on the biology of eagles as well as feather chemistry of grouse. In 1987, Gary came to the Department of Biology at the University of Saskatchewan as a University Research Fellow, a program of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to recruit and retain the most talented and promising young scientists in Canada. Being a faculty member at the U of S seemed to be the perfect opportunity to continue to study the eagles that had captivated Gary at Besnard Lake.

Studying eagles is difficult; it is nearly impossible to conduct rigorous experimental manipulations of their breeding biology, and equally as difficult to achieve the large sample sizes necessary to make robust inferences. And so it was another bird of prey species, a small falcon called the American Kestrel, that would become the nucleus of his research at Besnard Lake. Gary told of driving near Besnard when the idea of studying American Kestrels seemed like the direction to take; he stopped the car somewhere along the road and walked a few yards into the forest, and looked up. There in an aspen tree was a cavity that contained a pair of nesting kestrels. “This should be easy”, he thought. Nest boxes were put up at various places along the lakeshore, and eventually in the late 1980s out along the logging roads and other primitive trails that dissected the forest. By the mid-1990s, there were well over 370 nest boxes up for kestrels, along with assorted boxes for owls, ducks, and songbirds. And while those years studying kestrels at Besnard were perhaps not as easy as he had first envisioned, they were fruitful and productive. A number of graduate students (including myself), post-docs and summer students passed through the field camp at Besnard, and the work focused on an array of issues, including sex ratio variation, hatching asynchrony, parasitism, parental investment and immune function of kestrels.

In 1995, Gary made a trip to the Avian Science and Conservation Centre (ASCC) at MacDonald College of McGill University, where a captive colony of kestrels was kept. This work was primarily to extend some of our initial field research on coloration of kestrels within the context of sexual selection. And while this trip was short in duration, it was indeed significant, as it would ultimately change the direction of Gary’s research program, and lead to collaborations with new colleagues that would continue and expand right up to the time of his passing. Also at the ASCC during this initial visit were several researchers from the Estación Biológica de Doñana, in Sevilla, Spain. Together, they began to examine carotenoid pigments, their relation to colour, health, sexual selection and immune function. These collaborations were enduring, and Gary developed many friendships and close working relationships with other Spanish colleagues. Many research trips to Spain followed in subsequent years, and the number of Spaniards that came to Canada to work in Gary’s lab was in the double digits. Gary’s work subsequently branched out into ecotoxicology, and eventually into stress physiology, where he conducted pioneering research into non-invasive methods for quantifying stress in birds using corticosterone concentrations in feathers. All told, Gary published over 130 research articles, 8 book chapters, and 2 books. He rose quickly through the ranks, becoming a full professor in 1996, and was Assistant Head of the Department of Biology from 2000 through 2008. He was an assistant editor of The Wilson Bulletin (1979-1984), and an associate editor of The Journal of Raptor Research (1993-2000), Functional Ecology (2005-2010), and The Auk (2005-2008). In 1993, Gary was voted an Elective Member of the American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU), the largest group of avian scientists in North America, and in 2006 became a Fellow of the AOU. In recognition of his research accomplishments and service to the Department of Biology, he was named the first Stuart and Mary Houston Professor of Ornithology in 2002, and appointed as the Rawson Professor of Biology in 2008.

Gary was passionate and enthusiastic about the work that he did and the natural world around him, and had a remarkable ability to infect others with that same enthusiasm, regardless of whether they were his undergraduate students in the classroom, graduate students, colleagues, family or friends. From my own personal perspective, I was privileged to be all of these things. As a lecturer in an undergraduate setting, Gary was intense at the front of a classroom, and perhaps a bit intimidating. He paced as he spoke, but he very clearly conveyed his excitement and enthusiasm for biology, for birds, for animal behaviour. He was a person that truly has inspired a generation of undergraduates that have passed through the doors of the W.P. Thompson Building at the University of Saskatchewan. In addition, he contributed to the education of a large number of graduate students at the U of S through direct supervision or memberships on supervisory committees. I cannot ever remember a time when Gary was too busy for us; his door was always open to me and to other students. He shared with all of us his knowledge, his critical thoughts, and his time. As a graduate supervisor, a graduate committee member, and even as a reviewer for journals, I believe everyone would describe Gary as “tough”. If there was a weakness in a piece of work, Gary would call us on it. He was never afraid to tell us when we were wrong, and in the end all of us that interacted with him benefited greatly because of his input and his rigor. And he was always willing to give us the help that we needed to succeed and find a solution to those problems in our work. Most significantly, however, is that in addition to being constructively critical of our work, Gary would always be the first to compliment students when we had done a good job on something, or had achieved some goal, no matter how big or small.

As a scientist and a mentor, Gary influenced many people over the years, and for that he will be deeply missed. Beyond this, though, what most of us will miss about Gary is his friendship. He had a passion not just for research and birds, but for other people as well. He was warm, kind, and generous, and those of us who knew him well also knew that he cared about us. After I finished my graduate work with Gary and moved to British Columbia, I cannot ever recall a time where I would visit him and not be greeted with a hug. He cared about those around him, and was not afraid to show us that. Gary was also a very proud father, and he took great pride in his children, and all of their accomplishments. I think many of us that were fortunate enough to have Gary as a mentor also came to realize that this meant not only becoming his friend, but also becoming part of his family.

In late May 2011, Gary was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia. Gary Bortolotti – professor, biologist, photographer, mentor, husband, father, and friend – passed away on 3 July 2011 at the age of 56. His passion, enthusiasm, colorful language, warmth, humor, and friendship will be profoundly missed, but never forgotten.

To commemorate Gary´s work and life, the Gary Bortolotti Graduate Award in Ecology or Animal Behaviour was established in the Department of Biology. The endowment will be used for a $1000 dollar award annually to a graduate student at the University of Saskatchewan. The purpose of the award will be for professional development of the student, e.g. to fund travel and participation in conferences. Donations of any size will be gratefully accepted. Please send contributions to: Ms Kathryn Cousins, Development Office, U of S. # 501, 121 Research Drive, Saskatoon SK, S7N 1K2

Submitted by Russell D. Dawson, who received his BSc in the Department of Biology at the University of Saskatchewan in 1992, and later his PhD (1999) under Gary Bortolotti’s supervision. He is currently a professor of biology in the Ecosystem Science and Management Program at the University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George BC.