About Shakeel
Shakeel joined the McLoughlin Lab at the University of Saskatchewan as a postdoctoral research fellow in September 2026 through the Canada Impact+ Research Training Award (CITRA). His research focuses on the development of a predictive framework to understand how climate-driven trophic restructuring governs both the southern retraction and northern expansion of threatened boreal caribou in Canada, with important consequences for large barren-ground caribou herds that share winter range with boreal caribou and are themselves threatened or, in some cases, endangered. He uses spatial and quantitative ecology and predictive modelling to inform wildlife conservation.
Shakeel’s research interests include wildlife population ecology, conservation biology, human–wildlife interactions, predator–prey dynamics, and the impact of climate change on wildlife populations. During his PhD, he investigated snow leopard population dynamics in relation to resource availability in Pakistan, integrating noninvasive genetics and spatial capture–recapture approaches. His research experience spans more than a decade, including conservation research in high-altitude mountain ecosystems in northern Pakistan and desert ecosystems in Qatar. He holds a BS in Zoology from Islamia College University, Peshawar, and a Master’s and PhD in Wildlife Ecology from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.