Guest Speaker: Joseph Curti, UCLA Researcher
Joseph (Joey) Curti will share with us his wide-ranging and intimate familiarity with two of California’s largest bat populations – their life stories, their movements, the condition of their habitats, and how they are dealing with the challenges posed by human activity.
Joey Curti was raised in the foothills of Yosemite National Park which has inspired his passion for conservation and the outdoors. Joey received his B.S. in Environmental Science and Conservation Biology from UCLA. Following his undergraduate education, Joey worked as the Grants and Science Administrator for Mountains Restoration Trust where he managed a team of biologists to remove invasive red swamp crayfish from Santa Monica Mountain streams (see De-Palma Dow et al. 2019 for more) and secured grants for native habitat restoration. Since completing his undergraduate degree at UCLA, Joey has worked on bat conservation projects, including investigating the impact of pesticides on big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus) foraging behavior in the Central Valley and radio tracking California leaf-nosed bats (Macrotus californicus) in the lower Colorado River. Joey also assisted the National Park Service to plan and implement the North American Bat Monitoring Protocol (NABat) in the Santa Monica Mountains. Joey is currently in his first year of a doctoral program at UCLA where he is studying the impact of long-term small population size on the genomes of California Red-legged Frogs (Rana draytonii) and how roads of varying traffic volume act as barriers to California quail (Callipepla californica) gene flow across the Santa Monica Mountains.
If you’re interested in joining our Zoom meeting and enjoying Joey’s presentation, please contact us at info@sfvaudubon.org and we’ll send you a link to the meeting. The link will not be active until a few minutes before the start of the meeting. See you there!