I have been fortunate to work on African mammal biodiversity across several countries including Angola, Botswana, Djibouti, and Kenya as well as traveling to various other countries for research or wildlife viewing. My specialization is small carnivores with a focus on documenting biodiversity patterns and disease in these and other mammals including rodents, bats, and insectivores Our work is helping elucidate patterns of mammalian biodiversity at the local and country-wide scale through intensive museum-based surveys and research.
I have seen first hand how human activities/land use impact biodiversity with direct research focused on small carnivore behavior and parasite burdens in East Africa as well as more general biodiversity surveys across various countries. For example, we found that small carnivores living in human-dominated systems maintain larger home ranges than those living in adjacent, uninhabited habitats, but that small carnivores living in protected areas had greater tick burdens. The interactions between small carnivores and domestic carnivores has direct implications for transmission of human rabies in this system and we are working to better understand the interplay between the domestic and sylvatic cycle across this landscape.
