F2023 - ECOL 429 - Ecology of Individuals | ||||||||||
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The research in my lab focuses on the behavioural and physiological ecology of mammals and birds. We are particularly interested in the relationships among roosting and foraging behaviour, thermoregulation, reproduction and life histories of bats. The ability to use torpor provides bats with a means of saving energy, but torpor is detrimental to offspring growth and avoidance of predators. We are thus investigating how bats select roosts to balance predation risk and thermoregulatory benefits. As suitable roosts may limit the distribution of bats, we are also using DNA techniques to determine the landscape-scale patterns of movement among populations.
We also study the effects of various types of disturbance on bats. For example, we are investigating the causes and consequences of migratory-bat fatalities at wind energy facilities, and the impact of urbanization on prairie bats. In the Yukon, we are studying how bats cope with short seasons, low temperatures and short nights, and how logging, fire and bark-beetle infestations influence habitat selection.
I am currently not accepting any new graduate students.
Black, Sandra | PhD | Climate change and narwhals |
2021 - Faculty of Science Research Excellence Award
2016 - U Make a Difference
2014 - SU Teaching Excellence Award
2011 - SU Teaching Excellence Award
2007 - Faculty of Science Public Outreach Award
2005 - Faculty of Graduate Studies Award for Outstanding Achievement in Graduate Supervision
2004 - Canadian Society of Zoologists' Public Awareness of Science Award
2002 - Gerrit S. Miller Award for Contributions to the Study of Chiropteran Biology
Barclay, R.M.R. and D.S. Jacobs. 2023. Inter-individual communication in bats via echolocation. Canadian Journal of Zoology.DOI10.1139/cjz-2022-0121
Micalizzi, E.W., C.R. Olson, S.A. Forshner and R.M.R. Barclay. 2023. The flight speed of a migrating silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans). Northwestern Naturalist. 104(2): 141-144.
Maucieri, D.G, and R.M.R. Barclay. 2021. Consumption of spiders by the little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) and the long-eared bat (Myotis evotis) in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta. Canadian Journal of Zoology 99: 221–226. dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2020-0160
Findlay, S.V. and R.M.R. Barclay. 2019. Acoustic surveys for bats are improved by taking habitat type into account. Wildlife Society Bulletin 44:86–93 DOI: 10.1002/wsb.1053
Thomas, J.P., M.L. Reid, T.S. Jung, and R.M.R. Barclay. 2019. Site occupancy of little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) in response to salvage logging in the boreal forest. Forest Ecology and Management 451: 117501. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2019.117501