The Movement Ecology of Animals GRC is a premier, international scientific conference focused on advancing the frontiers of science through the presentation of cutting-edge and unpublished research, prioritizing time for discussion after each talk and fostering informal interactions among scientists of all career stages. The conference program includes an array of speakers and discussion leaders from institutions and organizations worldwide, concentrating on the latest developments in the field. The conference is five days long and held in a remote location to increase the sense of camaraderie and create scientific communities, with lasting collaborations and friendships. In addition to premier talks, the conference has designated time for poster sessions from individuals of all career stages, and afternoon free time and communal meals allow for informal networking opportunities with leaders in the field.
Movement is a fundamental biological process shaping individual fitness, population dynamics, species interactions, ecosystems, and evolutionary trajectories. The 2027 GRC focuses on animal movement ecology in rapidly changing environmental, technological, and societal contexts.
A central focus of the meeting will be the drivers and consequences of movement across levels of biological organization. Sessions will span individual-level variation in movement behavior, including variation in behavioral types, cognition, and decision-making, through social interactions and collective dynamics, to population-level patterns and the evolutionary processes that shape movement strategies over time. The conference will also focus on how animals move and respond under extreme or rapidly changing conditions and how these responses reveal underlying mechanisms of resilience, adaptation, and vulnerability. Finally, the conference will examine how movement is mediating species interactions, disease dynamics, and ecosystem processes under changing environments. By explicitly connecting animal movement to global change, conservation challenges, land use, and infrastructure, the meeting aims to promote cross-disciplinary perspectives and translational insights.
Addressing these complex questions increasingly relies on technological innovation and new analytical tools that allow movement to be studied in unprecedented detail – including miniaturization, multi-sensor datastreams, renewable power sources, on-board data processing, and near real-time data availability – combined with AI-driven and advanced analytical approaches. These developments position animals not only as study systems, but also as sentinels of local environmental conditions and changes, providing sensitive indicators of shifting climates, habitat alteration, and anthropogenic pressures.
Ultimately, this conference seeks to integrate technological innovation, theory, and application to advance movement ecology as a unifying framework for understanding animals in an increasingly dynamic world.
PROGRAM IMAGE PHOTO CREDIT: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
