Dr. Craig Willis
Associate Professor of Biology
University of Winnipeg

Evolutionary Physiology, Behaviour and Conservation

Research Interests
We aim to understand what motivates small bodied mammals in their decisions about where to live, when to be active and inactive, and how to maintain a balance between energy intake and expenditure. We use insect-eating bats and small ground-living mammals as model organisms and a range of lab and field techniques including temperature radio-telemetry to track animals and record their body temperatures, and open-flow respirometry to record oxygen consumption under different conditions. There are opportunities in the lab for graduate and undergraduate research students to test ideas about within-individual plasticity in metabolic rates, the physiological bases of lifespan in mammals, predictions about climate change impacts on species’ distributions, and the evolution of social networks.

Our work is important for wildlife and ecosystem conservation in general, and we are also working hard on two conservation issues specific to North American bats: the effects of wind farms on migratory bats and white-nose syndrome, a devastating disease of hibernating bats. See the research page for more details.

Lab News

Allyson Menzies has shown short-term repeatability of personality in little brown bats! Read more on the study in PLoS ONE. PDF
Well done! Nadine Price successfully defended her MSc thesis on star-nosed moles.
Congratulations to Zenon Czenze for successfully defending his MSc thesis!
Great job! Kaleigh Norquay successfully defended her MSc thesis with distinction.
Bats with white-nose syndrome become severely dehydrated. Lisa Warnecke and James Turner report effects of fungal infection on physiology of hibernating bats in Biology Letters. Read more at the University of Winnipeg News Centre and hear the interview on Quirks & Quarks.
Cold weather bats stay cold through dinner. Zen Czenze investigates whether bats rewarm with roost-mates or with sunset in J Comp Physiol B. PDF
Kaleigh Norquay and Felix Martinez-Nunez show that little brown bats travel vast distances in Journal of Mammalogy. PDF

Got Bats?

The Manitoba Bat Blitz team is looking for bat colonies in Manitoba. Please click here for more information and to get involved in wildlife conservation research.

White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) Alert 

Bats need your help!
WNS has not been found in Manitoba yet but bats with the disease often behave strangely in winter and spring, flying outside of hibernation sites, even when there is still snow on the ground. Reports from the public have been critical for early detection in the Northeastern U.S., Ontario and Quebec. If you observe bats flying or roosting outside anytime during winter please immediately contact Manitoba Conservation (or your provincial equivalent if outside Manitoba) or contact us at (204) 789-1463 or mbbatblitz@hotmail.com.