Boston University Department of Biology

Faculty Profiles

Current Research

My laboratory focuses on roosting behavior and ecology, physiological ecology, population dynamics, life-history evolution, and conservation biology of temperate and tropical bats. One aspect of our research examines the ecological role of bats in both natural and human-altered ecosystems. To facilitate these studies, we have pioneered the use of thermal infrared imaging to census large bat colonies, investigate roosting behavior, and to quantify the energetics of flight. We also are examining patterns of parental investment and the energetic costs of pregnancy and lactation. The latter studies involve measurements of field metabolic rates, time budgets, and direct observations of roosting and flying. Related areas of interest involve assessing intrinsic and extrinsic factors that influence postnatal growth rates, including the quality and quantity of food available to the mother, energy and nutrient quality and quantity of milk output of the mother, and characteristics of the maternity roost environment. We also are evaluating the roosting behavior and ecology of tropical species that modify leaves of epiphytes, palms, and other plants by chewing both primary and secondary veins so that leaves collapse downward, forming so-called tents. Most recently, we have begun to assess the impacts of wind energy development on bat populations using thermal imaging, the effects of environmental stressors on life-history characteristics based on assays to assess stress hormones and immune responses, the role of leptin in seasonal reproduction, chemical cues used in mate selection, and chemical cues used by plant-visiting bats for detecting suitable food resources.

Courses Taught

• BI 303 Ecology
• BI 415/615 Biology of Mammals
• BI 512 Mammalian Ecology

Selected Publications

• Kunz TH, Gauthreaux SA, Hristov NI, Horn JW, Jones, Kalko EKV,Larkin RP, McCracken GF, Swartz SW, Srygley RB, Dudley R, Westbrook JK, Wikelski M. (2008). Aeroecology: probing and modelling the aerosphere. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 48, 1-11.
• Hristov NI, Betke M, Kunz TH. (2008). Applications of thermal infrared imaging for research in aeroecology. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 48, 50-59.
• Horn JW, Arnett EB, Kunz TH. (2008). Behavioral responses of bats to operating wind turbines. Journal of Wildlife Management, 72, 123-132.
• Betke M., Hirsh DE, Makris NC, McCracken GF, Procopio M, Hristov NI, Teng S, Bagchi A, Reichard JD Horn JW, Crampton S, Cleveland CJ, Kunz TH. (2008). Thermal imaging reveals significantly smaller Brazilian free-tailed bat colonies than previously estimated. Journal of Mammalogy, 89, 18-24.
  
• Hodgkison R, Ayasse M, Kalko EKV, Haberlein C, Schulz S, Mustapha WA.W, Zubaid A, Kunz TH. (2008). The chemical ecology of fruit bat foraging behavior, in relation to the fruit odors of two species of bat-dispersed figs (Ficus hispida) and Ficus scortechinii) in the Paleotropics. Journal of Chemical Ecology, 33, 2097-2110.
  
• Kunz TH, Arnett EB, Erickson WP, Johnson GD, Larkin RP, Strickland MD, Thresher RW, Tuttle MD. (2007).  Ecological impacts of wind energy development on bats: questions, hypotheses, and research needs. Frontiers in Ecology and Environment, 5, 315-324.
  
• Kunz TH, Arnett EB, Cooper BM, Erickson WP, Larkin RP, Mabee T, Morrison ML, Strickland MD, Szewczak JM. (2007). Assessing impacts of wind energy development on nocturnally active birds and bats: a guidance document. Journal of Wildlife Management, 71, 2449-2486.
  
• Chaverri G, Gamba-Rios M, Kunz TH. (2007). Ecological correlates of social strategies in the tent-making bat Artibeus watsoni: Roost fidelity and group stability. Ethology, 113, 598-605.