Description

The first Highlands Bird and Nature Club meeting for 2026 is scheduled for Monday, April 13 at 7 pm at The Highland Center (61 Highland Center Dr, Monterey, VA 24465).

Our speaker will be Marcella Kelly, Ph.D. and her presentation will be on "The Appalachian Carnivore Project.”

Marcella Kelly came to Virginia Tech in 2001 after completing her PhD degree at the University of California at Davis in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology. She works on carnivore populations in the US and abroad.

In Virginia, Dr. Kelly and her team began a project in 2011 on coyotes in the central Appalachian Mountains (Bath and Rockingham Counties). That project expanded to the Virginia Appalachian Carnivore Project (VACS) in 2016 and focused on black bears, bobcats, and coyotes, and their potential impacts on deer populations, primarily in Bath County, VA. 

Currently, her team is working on understanding the impacts of Sarcoptic mange in black bears via use of hair snares in a high mange prevalent area (Alleghany, Bath, Botetourt, and Rockbridge Counties) and a no-mange area (Grayson, Smyth, and Wythe Counties). She combines non-invasive methods (e.g. camera traps, hair snares) with more traditional means (e.g. wildlife capture and GPS collaring) to better understand population dynamics of elusive carnivore species.

For more information about programs and membership contact: 

Contact: Patti Reum, Club President, 540-292-2959, pareum@gmail.com