Phone: 613-936-6620 Ext: 225
Fax: 613-936-1803
bats@riverinstitute.ca

B.Sc. (Honours) Biology Queen’s University
M. Sc. Biology York University
Ph.D. Biology York University

I received my graduate training in biology at York University where I studied behavioural and physiological variation of red (Lasiurus borealis) and hoary (Lasiurus cinereus) bats in response to changing environmental conditions.

My research has involved a wide range of taxa including bats, birds, fish and invertebrates, in both temperate and tropical ecosystems. The unifying theme throughout all of my research is an interest in understanding the role environmental variation plays in determining responses of individual animals, and how these responses ultimately structure animal populations and communities.

My research has involved both basic and applied aspects of this question. For example, much of my current research efforts are directed at evaluating the responses of fish communities to habitat degradation (habitat loss and mercury contamination) and restoration efforts.

In addition to current research on mercury contamination in wildlife (fish and bats), ecological effects of water level variation, and the efficacy of fish habitat restoration, I oversee public education and outreach programs at the St. Lawrence River Institute.

PUBLICATIONS IN REFEREED JOURNALS

1. Hickey, M. B. C. and M. B. Fenton. 1987. Scent dispersing hairs (osmetrichia) in some Pteropodidae and Molossidae (Chiroptera). Journal of Mammalogy 68:381-384.

2. Brigham, R. M., J. E. Cebek and M. B. C. Hickey. 1989. Variation in the echolocation calls of two species of insectivorous bats. Journal of Mammalogy 70:426-428.

3. Fenton, M. B., C. M. Swanepoel, R. M. Brigham, J. E. Cebek, and M. B. C. Hickey. 1990. Foraging behavior and prey selection by large slit-faced bats (Nycteris grandis; Chiroptera: Nycteridae). Biotropica 22:2-8.

4. Hickey, M. B. C. and M. B. Fenton. 1990. Foraging by red bats (Lasiurus borealis): do chases mean territoriality? Canadian Journal of Zoology 69:2477-2482.

5. Hickey, M. B. C. 1992. Effect of radiotransmitters on the attack success of hoary bats, Lasiurus cinereus. Journal of Mammalogy 73:344-346.

6. Fenton, M. B., L. Acharya, D. Audet, M. B. C. Hickey, C. Merriman, M. K. Obrist and D. M. Syme. 1992. Phyllostomid bats (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) as indicators of habitat disruption in the neotropics. Biotropica 24:440-446.

7. Hickey, M. B. C. 1993. Thermoregulation in Free-ranging Whip-poor-wills. Condor 95:744-747.

8. De La Cueva Salcedo, H., M. B. Fenton, M. B. C. Hickey and R. W. Blake. 1995. Energetic consequences of flight speeds of foraging red and hoary bats (Lasiurus borealis and Lasiurus cinereus; Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae). Journal of Experimental Biology. 198:2245-2251.

9. Hickey, M. B. C. and A. L. Neilson. 1996. Relative abundance and distribution of the bats of the Hamilton-Wentworth Region as determined by monitoring with bat detectors. Canadian Field-Naturalist 109:413-417.

10. Hickey, M. B. C., L. Acharya, and S. Pennington. 1996. Resource partitioning by two species of vespertilionid bats (Lasiurus cinereus and Lasiurus borealis) feeding around streetlights. Journal of Mammalogy 77:325-334.

11. Hickey, M. B. C. and M. B. Fenton. 1996. Behavioural and thermoregulatory responses of female hoary bats, Lasiurus cinereus (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae), to variations in prey availability. Ecoscience 3:414-422.

12. Hickey, M. B. C. and J. Dunlop. 2000. Nycteris grandis. Mammalian Species Account #632. Pages 1-4.

13. . Hickey,M. B. C., M. B. Fenton, K. C. MacDonald and C. Soulliere. 2001. Trace elements in the fur of bats (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae). Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 66:699-706.

14. Jung, T. S., I. D. Thompson, M. B. C. Hickey and R. D. Titman. 2002. Apparent capture myopathy in hoary bats, Lasiurus cinereus: a cautionary note. Canadian Field Naturalist 116:136-137.

15. Hickey, M. B. C. 2002. Successful spawning by Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, in the St. Lawrence River at Cornwall, Ontario. Canadian Field Naturalist 116:642-645.

PUBLICATIONS IN CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS, BOOKS & INVITED PAPERS

16. Hickey, M. B. C. and J. E. Cebek. 1995. Bats, conservation and habitat. Pages 65-66 in, Conservation and Environmentalism: an Encyclopaedia. R. Paehlke Ed. Garland Publishing Inc. New York.

17. Hickey, M. B. C., H. Palen, J. E. Fry, H. Hutchinson, A. Wolff, J. Lefebvre, J. Shea, K. T. Fry and K. Kovacs. 1996. Occupancy rates of artificial bat roosts in south-eastern Ontario: are they a useful conservation tool? Pages 233-242 in Sharing Knowledge, Linking Sciences: an International Conference on the St. Lawrence Ecosystem. Volume 1. Edited by R. Needham and N. Novakowski.

18. Hickey, M. B. C. , L. Knox and G. Rawnsley. 2002. Do anthropogenic contaminants play a role in the decline of bat populations? STAC Globe: Learned Discourses. Society of Environmental Toxicologists and Chemists.

19. Hickey, M. B. C., J. C. Gibson, J. R. Hill, J. J. Ridal, J. Davidson, G. M. Richardson, J. Holmes and D. R. S. Lean. Concentrations of mercury in fish consumed by wildlife: a comparison between lakes from Ontario and Nova Scotia. In: Mercury cycling in a wetland dominated ecosystem: a multidisciplinary study. Submitted July 2003. Society of Environmental Toxicologists and Chemists.