Joy O'Keefe, Ph.D.
College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Assistant Professor and Wildlife Extension Specialist
Expertise:
WildlifeWildlife BiologyConservationBirdsANIMAL ECOLOGYbatsanimal conservation
Dr. Joy O'Keefe's research primarily focuses on ways to facilitate the coexistence of bats and humans in human-altered landscapes. She works to understand the roosting and foraging ecology of bats, identify best practices for studying bat ecology, characterize bat behaviors, and assess the quality of mitigation practices designed to help bats. Dr. O'Keefe collaborates with many organizations and people who interact with bats, including private landowners, USDA Forest Service, National Park Service, and state agencies.
More information:
O'Keefe's lab conducts research that facilitates the coexistence of wildlife and humans in human-altered landscapes. We focus on bats, working to understand roosting and foraging ecology, identify best practices for studying bat ecology, characterize bat behaviors, and assess the quality of mitigation practices designed to help bats. We collaborate with many organizations and people who interact with bats, including private landowners, USDA Forest Service, National Park Service, and state agencies. We regularly communicate with a variety of stakeholders to share practical management solutions topics ranging from effective bat house deployments to best practices for protecting bats and their habitat during prescribed burns.Our research encompasses distribution and population status of imperiled bats, human-wildlife interactions in urban areas, bats in anthropogenic structures, ecosystem services of forest-dwelling bats, wildlife health and ecology in managed forests, and urban ecology of bats in small cities.
Affiliations:
O'Keefe is an assistant professor and wildlife extension specialist in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences and Illinois Extension, both part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
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Illinois expert available for Bat Week
26-Oct-2023 05:05:58 PM EDT
Bats take spotlight during October's Bat Week: Illinois expert available
19-Oct-2023 08:05:13 AM EDT
Do artificial roosts help bats? Illinois experts say more research needed
Artificial roosts for bats come in many forms, but a new conservation practice and policy article from researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign suggests the structures haven’t been studied rigorously enough and may harm bats in some scenarios.
31-Aug-2023 11:45:56 AM EDT
If you have the space, consider planting trees that will one day serve as a natural home for bats. “Plant long-lived trees like oaks, which will provide both foraging and roosting habitat,” says Joy O’Keefe, an assistant professor and wildlife extension specialist at the University of Illinois, as well as “fast-growing trees like pines and maples, which will provide roosting space under the bark, or in cavities inside dead branches.”
“I think it’s important to stress the value of this type of experimental work with bats, to really try to dig into what their ecosystem services are in a deliberate manner. While we can probably extrapolate out and say bats are important in other types of forest, I wouldn’t discount the value of doing the same kind of work in other systems, especially if there are questions about certain insect or tree species and how bats affect them. So rather than extrapolating out across the board, let’s do the work to try to figure out how bats are benefiting plants. And before they’re gone, hopefully,” O’Keefe concluded.
“Usually, it’s just the occasional bat that gets indoors. It’s kind of a “whoops” thing for the bat, like ‘I didn’t mean to go in this place but hey, here I am. Now how do I get out?’” O’Keefe said. “And you can help those bats by turning off the lights, opening the doors and windows and bats will usually find their way out.”
- IDPH warns of rabid bats, U of I professor says not to worry yet
‘This was an in-depth study of these two imperiled species in landscapes where they co-occur. Nobody’s done that before,’ said Joy O’Keefe, assistant professor and wildlife extension specialist at the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at Illinois. ‘This investigation gives us a much better sense of how bats not only coexist, but also how they benefit our forests and how we can thus manage the forest to provide bats with better habitat.’
- Diets of bats provide clues on how to protect endangered species
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