Kendra Phelps, Ph.D.

Research Interests:

My research interests lie at the nexus of applied ecology, wildlife epidemiology, and human wildlife interactions. My research focuses on the role of human disturbance in altering bat communities, from assemblage composition and population structure to individual health. I aim to integrate principles of ecophysiology and disease ecology to understand how human disturbance can enhance pathogen persistence and transmission between bat hosts and to proactively prevent spillover events into other wildlife, livestock, and humans. I believe a One Health approach is necessary to identify consequences of environmental manipulation on bat health and disease dynamics at the human-wildlife interface to promote bat conservation and protect public health.

Selected publications:

Phelps, K.L. and T. Kingston (In Review) Environmental and biological context modulates the physiological stress response of bats to human disturbance. Oecologia.

Willoughby, A.R., K.L. Phelps, K.J. Olival. (2017) A comparative analysis of viral richness and viral sharing in cave-roosting bats. Diversity 9, Special Issue “Microbial Diversity in Caves”, 35. doi:10.3390/d9030035

Phelps, K.L., R. Jose, M. Labonite, T. Kingston (2016) Correlates of cave-roosting bat diversity as an effective tool to identify priority caves. Biological Conservation, 201:201-209. doi: 10.1016/j.biocon.2016.06.023.

Voigt, C.C., K.L. Phelps, L. Aguirre, M.C. Schoeman, J. Vanitharani, A. Zubaid (2015) Bats and buildings: the conservation of synanthropic bats. In: Voigt, C.C. and T. Kingston (eds), Bats in the Anthropocene: Conservation of Bats in a Changing World. Springer International Publishing, pp. 427-462. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-25220-9_14.