Information for prospective lab members
If you are a highly motivated undergrad or prospective grad student and are excited about wildlife research in ecology, physiology, evolutionary biology and/or conservation biology I’d love to hear from you. I am especially interested in students with NSERC PGS or other scholarship support and I encourage students to apply for grants and scholarships, to help finance their research, because it is great practice and will help your CV. Grades are important but I place just as much emphasis on attitude, work ethic, quantitative skills and enthusiasm. If this sounds like you email me your CV or resume, an unofficial transcript and a paragraph explaining your interest in doing research in the lab.
If you are a highly motivated undergrad or prospective grad student and are excited about wildlife research in ecology, physiology, evolutionary biology and/or conservation biology I’d love to hear from you. I am especially interested in students with NSERC PGS or other scholarship support and I encourage students to apply for grants and scholarships, to help finance their research, because it is great practice and will help your CV. Grades are important but I place just as much emphasis on attitude, work ethic, quantitative skills and enthusiasm. If this sounds like you email me your CV or resume, an unofficial transcript and a paragraph explaining your interest in doing research in the lab.
Current Lab Members
Lab Manager
Heather Mayberry, M.Sc.
Heather studied at McMaster University in Hamilton, ON with Dr. Paul Faure. For her master's work, Heather researched the development of frequency modulated vocalizations in big brown bat pups. Heather is currently the lab manager for the Willis bat lab.
Post Doc
Liam McGuire, Ph.D. (NSERC Post-Doctoral Fellow)
Liam is broadly interested in how animals cope with situations of energy limitation. For his Ph.D. research, Liam studied the ecophysiology of bat migration. His post-doctoral research will address questions of hibernation physiology in North American and European bats, and the implications for white-nose syndrome.
Ph.D. Students
Mary-Anne Collis, M.Sc.
MAC is a UK import who has traveled widely across the globe studying various species and aspects of conservation and behavioural ecology. She joins our lab as a PhD student working on the pre- and post- white-nose syndrome (WNS) survival and movement of little brown bats assessed using PIT-tags and remote data logging systems. See her website here.
M.Sc. Students
Kaleigh Norquay, B.Sc. Hons. (NSERC Canada Graduate Scholar)
For her Honours project, Kaleigh used temperature telemetry to test the hypothesis that, during summer, free-ranging silver-haired bats, which migrate for the winter, rely more heavily on torpor than free-living little brown bats, which hibernate. She began working on her M.Sc. project in fall 2010 looking at factors influencing over-winter survival in hibernating little brown bats.
Allyson Menzies, B.Sc. Hons (NSERC Canada Graduate Scholar)
For her Honours project, Ally tested the hypothesis that individual personality correlates with energetics in bats. She has helped develop the first behavioural test for personality in bats modeled on the “open-field” and “hole-board” tests often used to quantify personality in rodents. For her master's research Ally is co-supervised by Dr. Jens Franck and is using molecular markers and quantitative genetics to study the heritability of physiological and behavioural traits that could help bats survive white-nose syndrome.
Zenon Czenze, B.Sc. Hons (NSERC Canada Graduate Scholar)
Zen is an import to the lab from St. Mary's University in Halifax where he studied the ectoparasites of bats with Dr. Hugh Broders. For his M.Sc., Zen is using a combination of temperature radio-telemetry and PIT-tagging to study hibernation energetics in little brown bats. His work will address effects of huddling or clustering on energetics and the relationship between torpor patterns during hibernation and the date that individual bats emerge from hibernation.
Nadine Price, B.Sc. Hons
Nadine is a University of Manitoba M.Sc. student co-supervised by Dr. Kevin Campbell, studying molecular methods for determining sex in the star-nosed mole, one of our least-studied but most fascinating North American mammals. Male and female star-nosed moles cannot be distinguished based on morphology and Nadine is working on non-invasive methods for sex determination using molecular markers obtained from samples of hair or other tissues.
Alana Wilcox, B.Sc. Hons, B.A. Hons (NSERC Canada Graduate Scholar)
For her honours project, Alana examined the behaviour of bats with white-nose syndrome (WNS) as a part of a larger collaborative study. She analysed behaviours of bats infected with the North American and European isolates of Geomyces destructans, the causative agent behind WNS, to test hypotheses about the mechanisms underlying mortality from this devastating disease. For her master's research, Alana will be looking at the relationship between personality and energetics. Specifically, she will be assessing if there is a phenotypic and genetic correlation between these traits, and if this relates to a tendency to use torpor.
Quinn Webber
Quinn has recently completed an honours project at the U of W titled "Is there a correlation between personality and ectoparasite load in little brown bats?". Quinn is interested in the ecological aspects of behavior, physiology, and evolutionary biology and is beginning to apply these interests as he begins his first field season as an M.Sc. student. Specifically, he will be changing his study animal from bats to chipmunks and investigating the relationship between torpor use and personality in least chipmunks.
Honours Students
Shelby Bohn
Shelby is interested in how personality relates to life history and ecology in small mammals. For her honours project she will be looking at the correlation between personality and ectoparasite load in free ranging chipmunks. Using open field testing she will be assessing if boldness in personality and high levels of activity are related to ectoparasite load.
Shelby is interested in how personality relates to life history and ecology in small mammals. For her honours project she will be looking at the correlation between personality and ectoparasite load in free ranging chipmunks. Using open field testing she will be assessing if boldness in personality and high levels of activity are related to ectoparasite load.
Research Assistants
Dylan Baloun
Dylan first joined the lab in the summer of 2009 as a high school student to help with mortality surveys for bats at the St. Leon wind farm. He spent the summer of 2011 in the field, helping to PIT tag bats and perform behavioural experiments.
Kristina Muise
Kristina is a third year undergraduate student working as a research assistant in the bat lab. She has gained experience with field work and animal handling by assisting with various behaviour projects, PIT tagging projects and animal care. Kristina plans to apply to the Western College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan to complete her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine.
Nastashya Wall
Nastashya is interested in animal social behaviour and physiology. She is currently completing her undergraduate thesis on paternal care in red-winged blackbirds. During the summer, Nastashya was part of a crew testing for white-nose syndrome in North-Central Manitoba and placing pit-tags in little brown bats.
Former Lab Members
James Turner, Ph.D. (Post-Doctoral Fellow)
James (shown here with his field assistant) is also an Australia PhD import who completed his thesis on thermoregulation in pygmy possums in 2010. He will use his experience with open-flow respirometry and energetics to address physiological effects of WNS in bats.
Lisa Warnecke, Ph.D. (Government of Canada Post-Doctoral Research Fellow)
Lisa earned her Ph.D. studying thermoregulation and torpor in small marsupials in Australia and has won a prestigious Government of Canada PDRF to apply her expertise in ecophysiology, thermoregulation and behaviour to questions about white-nose syndrome (WNS) in bats.
Mary Timonin, Ph.D, NSERC PDF (Cornell University)
Mary completed her PhD on the neuroendocrine basis of paternal behaviour at Queen's University in 2008 and worked on a range of projects in the lab as a Post-Doc from testing the efficacy of thermal refuge sites as a possible mitigation for white-nose syndrome to addressing links between animals’ individual “personalities”, energetics and physiological stress. She is now a NSERC Post-Doctoral Fellow at Cornell University.
Felix Martinez-Nunez, M.Sc.
Felix has worked on a range of projects using molecular techniques to study the biology of plants. Co-supervised by Dr. Sara Good, Felix is now applying his molecular skills to questions about bat populations in Manitoba and Ontario, using molecular markers to assess relatedness of little brown bats from winter and summer sites throughout Manitoba.
Joël Jameson, M.Sc. (NSERC Post-Graduate Scholar)
Joel completed his Honours research in 2007 at the University of Manitoba on echolocation and joined our group to study wind power impacts on bats in Manitoba. Joel used acoustic recording and mortality surveys in the vicinity of the St. Leon wind farm to test the reproductive landmarks hypothesis as an explanation for the apparent attraction of bats to wind turbines.
Kristin Jonasson, M.Sc. (NSERC Canada Graduate Scholar)
Kiristin studied hibernation energetics in little brown bats, and in particular, differences in male and female hibernation patterns. Questions about the energetics of hibernation have become extremely important with the emergence of WNS which has killed hundreds of thousands of bats in the eastern U.S. WNS-affected bats apparently starve before the end of hibernation and it is critical that we better understand the normal hibernation energetics of this species.
Chantal Carriere, B.Sc. Hons (NSERC USRA Scholar)
Chantal’s honours research in 2010 addressed geographic variation in torpor expression and energetics of bats from throughout Manitoba, as well as repeatability of torpor expression in little brown bats, after controlling for variation in body condition.
Tracie Parkinson, B.Sc. Hons. (NSERC USRA Scholar)
Tracie completed her Honours work in our lab spring 2008 on thermal energetics of silver-haired bats and helped us set up a system for use of passive transponders (PIT tags) combined with molecular techniques to study social networks and population genetic structure in little brown bats.
Claire McKibbin, (NSERC USRA Scholar)
Claire worked in the lab as an undergraduate assistant in summer 2009 assisting with mortality and acoustic surveys for bats at wind turbines and other sites, as well as coordinating our insect sampling for the summer.
Amanda Matheson, B.Sc. Hons (University of Manitoba, NSERC USRA Scholar)
For her Honours project, co-supervised by Dr. Kevin Campbell at the U of Manitoba, Amanda tested the influence of recent feeding on individuals’ decisions about torpor expression. Her work is important for understanding the timescale of small mammal energy budgets and the role of the heat-increment of feeding (i.e., the heat released by the gut during digestion) on thermoregulation during torpor entry and arousal.
Scott Unruh, B.Sc. Hons
For his Honours project, Scott used meadow voles to test the hypothesis that animal personality or temperament is correlated with resting energy expenditure. His test of this hypothesis has implications for understanding physiological variation in free-living animals and for understanding the fitness costs and benefits of different energetic and behavioural strategies of mammals.
Derek Donald, B.Sc. Hons. (Research Assistant)
Derek finished his B.Sc. (Honours) at the University of Regina in 2006 and spent the summer of 2007 with us assisting with research on energetics and roost selection in migratory bats. Derek returned to Regina to work on his M.Sc. quantifying human impacts on water quality in Saskatchewan prairies lakes.
Aaron Trachtenberg, B.Sc. Hons (Research Assistant)
Aaron helped with a project aimed at improving our ability to differentiate torpid from normothermic skin temperatures for small mammals using data from Australian eastern horseshoe bats. We weren’t able to convince Aaron to turn down his Rhodes Scholarship to stay and study wildlife ecology and he began Ph.D. work in neuroimaging at Oxford University in Sept. 2008.
