iEcoLab graduate student Payton Phillips has spent the 2019 summer sampling the forest fragments of southeastern Pennsylvania for mammals and ticks. She is researching how forest fragments–caused by people cutting down the forest for homes, shops, etc.–affects mammal diversity, which may then influence tick abundance and the prevalence of Lyme disease. Her team uses small mammal traps, game cameras, tick drags and genetic analyses. We will post more about Payton’s work as it develops!
This raccoon did not like Paytons marking flag
tick drag in an understory of invasive plants
The team set up a camera trap, and later on, a raccoon took umbrage with it