Dr. Marcella Kelly is the Associate Department Head For Graduate Affairs & Graduate Program Director for the Virginia Tech Department of Fish & Wildlife Conservation. Her research focuses primarily on carnivore population ecology, management, and conservation using emerging and evolving techniques such as camera trapping combined with advances in population modeling to estimate population sizes and densities for elusive, hard-to-track, carnivores; non-invasive genetic sampling and molecular scatology to determine carnivore abundance, growth rates, genetic diversity, and gene flow across fragmented landscapes; Global Positioning System (GPS) collaring combined with landscape modeling to investigate carnivore habitat selection and fine scale movement across multi-use landscapes; and finally conservation physiology of captive black bears to better understand hibernation/torpor ecology and its potential link to human-wildlife conflict.

This May, attendees of the Mount Rogers Spring Naturalist Rally will have a chance to meet Marcella during her presentation, THE VIRGINIA APPALACHIAN CARNIVORE PROJECT: ECOLOGICAL FINDINGS FROM 10 YEARS OF RESEARCH ON BEARS, BOBCATS, AND COYOTES. The Virginia Appalachian Carnivore Project (VACS) began 2011, primarily in response to a perception of increased coyote populations and potential impacts of coyotes on white-tailed deer in the region. Due to initial findings, the VACS project was expanded in 2016 to include bobcats and bears. Come find out what we have learned about these 3 carnivores and whose eating bambi.

To attend Marcella’s presentation at the Mount Rogers Spring Naturalist Rally on May 12, 2023, please register online!