Ecology in a rapidly urbanizing world
Dr. Visscher from the King’s University has been appointed new Canada Research Chair in Urban Ecology, and he has exciting projects in the works.
Dr. Darcy Visscher, associate professor of biology at The King’s University in Edmonton, has always loved animals; from farm creatures to large African mammals, Visscher is fascinated by animal behaviour and the role humans play in impacting it. Visscher analyzes the role of animal behaviour patterns in both rural and urban landscapes by building and testing theoretical models. In late 2025, he was appointed the new Canada Research Chair in Urban Ecology.
“This appointment provides funding to release me from as many of my teaching obligations as possible so that I can do research,” Visscher told Christian Courier. It’s an exciting prospect. The funding will pay for his salary at King’s or hire people to teach the courses he’d otherwise lead. A smaller portion of the funding goes towards student research employment.
Visscher says it was a lengthy process to receive the Canada Research Chair appointment. The institution (The King’s University) must have met the proper criteria over the last decade to qualify. “But the individual who’s applying has to go through a whole fairly rigorous review process [too], and peers in ecology generally decide [whether they’ve met the] criteria,” he explains.
Back to King’s
“King’s has been my home for a long time,” Visscher says. He jokes that his mom filled out his undergrad application – Visscher wanted to be a farmer after high school. “I didn’t realize that there were jobs that marry the things that I really love,” he says, “which are animals, animal behaviour, and why they do the things that they do.”
As an Environmental Studies student at King’s, he discovered the possibility of a career in ecology research when he took an animal behaviour class with Dr. Harry Cook. Then, Dr. Colleen Cassady St. Clair from the University of Alberta presented a guest lecture on penguins and their reproductive investment, and his interest was further piqued.
From there, Visscher went to South Africa to complete a year-long Master’s in African Mammalogy. “It’s obviously not a degree that you use very much in Edmonton anymore,” he jokes. With its diverse park systems and population of large animals (and, not to mention, Afriakaans’ similarity to Dutch, which helped Visscher stumble his way through communication), South Africa provided ample opportunity to study animal behaviour.
Back in Canada and freshly equipped with a Master’s, Visscher pursued a PhD in Ecology at the University of Alberta. In a full circle moment, one of the members of his research committee was Dr. St. Clair, the same professor who had given the talk about animal behaviour at King’s that inspired Visscher as an undergraduate. Dr. St. Clair is now a frequent collaborator on Visscher’s projects.
Urban wild
During his PhD, Visscher’s interest in ecology centred around how animals respond to the risks posed by humans. Thinking about human disturbance gets you “closer to the city,” he says.
On a sabbatical in the Netherlands with his wife Dr. Leah Martin-Visscher, Visscher experienced living in a country that is far more urbanized than Canada. Working with colleagues answering ecological questions in urban settings “stoked the fire to return” to Edmonton.
Back in Edmonton, the city proved more accessible for students at King’s, too. “I love wild places, but the impediments to bringing students to wild places to do field work are quite high,” Visscher explains. He adds: “Edmonton is actually a global hub for urban ecology research.”
Whitetail jack rabbits
The North Saskatchewan River runs through the city of Edmonton in meandering curves, creating a diverse ecosystem of walking paths for humans and habitats for animals. The abundance of wildlife in the river valley trickles into the residential uplands, mixing human populations with coyotes, whitetail jackrabbits, great horned owls and many other species. Visscher says that “this makes our city a perfect place to think through some of these ideas of how our behaviour and our use of places influence the animals that share these spaces with us.”
Currently, Visscher is researching whitetail jack rabbits, a project that he inherited from colleague Dr. John Wood, who examined population numbers in the early 1990s. Visscher is fitting them with GPS collars and analyzing genetic data to see how roads might interrupt their population mixing. He is also moving his previous epidemiologic research on coyote zoonotic parasites from rural areas into the city.
“I have a couple of urban bird projects, which we are just starting to get a little bit more excited about,” Visscher says. These projects examine how human material (such as garbage) has become more incorporated into bird nests by comparing museum samples.
His research grant will allow him to hire King’s students for these projects. “In the research I do, I try very hard to ensure that the educational aspect of it is not lost,” he says.
Visscher leverages these research opportunities into student projects that can be published, giving students a boost in their careers. A brand new course in urban ecology is currently underway, and students are busy completing photo journals of the interplay between nature and the city, learning about various models of the ideal city, and brainstorming ways to re-naturalize backyards.
Our urbanized world
“Urban ecology is one of those disciplines where a large piece of it involves how we might apply it to make cities better, and how we might make small changes in our behaviours that can facilitate how wildlife move and live in the city,” Visscher says.
He explains that the world is urbanizing at an increasing rate. By 2050, 68 percent of the world’s population is predicted to live in cities.
“The world is becoming more urban,” Visscher says, “and if one of our Christian callings is to work towards the renewal and restoration of this world, then we’re going to have to apply that to urban areas as well.”
‘If one of our Christian callings is to work towards the renewal and restoration of this world, then we’re going to have to apply that to urban areas as well.’
Visscher recalls the Bible’s first mention of a city, which Cain built as a place of refuge from the murder he committed. The cities of the Bible are often tied to the idea of empire, Visscher says. But the end of Revelation brings the biblical story back into the city of God.
“The city of God has a river that runs through it and trees and fruit that provide healing for the nations,” he says. “And to me that’s [a call to ask]: how do we avoid the cities of empires and imagine a city like Edmonton’s with a river running through it, and how can that be a place of healing?”
