Michael R. Gannon

Michael R. Gannon
Professor of Biology

Tropical Ecology
Ecology of Bats

Ph. D. Texas Tech University 1991 - Biology and Ecology
M.S. SUNY Brockport 1984 - Biology
B.A. SUNY Oswego 1980 - Biology
A.A.S. Rockland Community College (SUNY) 1978- Applied Science

Department of Biology
Penn State Altoona College
3000 Ivyside Park
Altoona, PA 16601-3760
Phone: 814-949-5210
Fax: 814-949-5547
E-Mail: mrg5@psu.edu

Other Appointments

Research Associate, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Section of Mammals

Pennsylvania Biological Survey, Mammal Technical Committee

Send E-MAIL to Michael Gannon

Dr. Gannon interviewed about Pennsylvania's Bat Populations

Bats in the News at Penn State

Penn State News - Emergency Bat Signals 1 November 2015
Penn State Extension - Value of Bats 29 September 2015
Penn State News - Plight of Pennsylvania's bats 28 October 2013
Penn State News - Bats at Shaver's Creek 3 June 2013
Penn State News - Listening for Bats 1 January 2002

My research interests are broad and lie in many areas of zoology, evolution, and museum science. Current research activities focus on topics in population, and community ecology of bats, with emphasis on both temperate and tropical systems, and using statistical techniques to answer questions of interest to both theoretician and field biologist.

I have conducted ecological research on bats on the Caribbean Islands of Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Dominica, and St. John, U. S. Virgin Islands. Much of this work is concerned with long-term monitoring of bat populations and the effects that Hurricanes have on them. In addition, I have worked in the Allegheny National Forest, Canoe Creek State Park, and other locations in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Here, my students and I have been developing ultrasonic bat survey techniques which may be used to identify different species of bats by their ultrasonic calls. This includes the endangered Indiana Bat.

Doctoral Dissertation:

Photographs of bats on this page © by M. R. Gannon. They may not be used,
reproduced, copied, or posted elsewhere, for any reason, without permission.
All rights reserved.

Gannon, M. R. 1991. Foraging Ecology, Reproduction, and Systematics of Stenoderma rufum in the Tabonuco Rain Forest of Puerto Rico. Texas Tech University, 189 pp.
Dissertation Adviser: Michael R. Willig

Selected Publications:

Books

Gannon, M. R., C. A. Iudica, and S. Mistry. 2013. The Bats of Pennsylvania. Center for Bat Research, Outreach, and Conservation, Indiana State University

Gannon, M. R., A. Kurta, A. Rodriguéz-Durán, and M. R. Willig. 2005. The Bats of Puerto Rico. Texas Tech Press.

Book Chapters - Click on a link below to download a pdf version of that publication.

Gannon, M. R. and B. N. Bovard. 2016. The Value of Bats: Keystone species in the Keystone State: IN: Conservation and Ecology of Pennsylvania's Bats (C. M. Butchkoski, D. M. Reader, G. G. Turner, and H. P. Whidden, eds.). Pennsylvania Academy of Science.

Brokaw, N., J. Zimmerman, M. Willig, G. Camilo, A. Covich, T. Crowl, N. Fetcher, M. Gannon, B. Haines, J. Lodge, A. Lugo, R. Myster, C. Pringle, J. Sharpe, F. Scatena, T. Schowalter, W. Silver, J. Thompson, D. Vogt, K. Vogt, R. Waide, L. Walker, L. Woolbright, J. Wunderle, X. Zou. 2012. Response to Disturbance. In: A Caribbean Forest Tapestry: The Multidimensional Nature of Disturbance and Response (N. Brokaw, T. Crowl, A. Lugo, W. McDowell, F. Scatena, R. Waide, and M. Willig. eds.) Oxford University Press.

Gannon, M. R. and M. R. Willig. 2009. Island in the Storm: Disturbance Ecology of Plant-visiting bats on the Hurricane-prone island of Puerto Rico. In: Island Bats: Evolution, Ecology, and Conservation (T. H. Fleming and P. A. Racey, eds.), pp 281-301. Univ. of Chicago Press.

Gannon, M. R., and M. R. Willig. 1998. Long-term monitoring protocol for bats: Lessons from the Luquillo Experimental Forest. In: Forest diversity in North, Central, and South America, and the Caribbean: Research and monitoring (F. Dallmeier and J. Comiskey, eds.). Man and Biospehere series, vol. 21:271-291. UNESCO and the Parthenon Publishing Group, Carnforth, Lancashire, UK.

Willig, M. R., M. F. Secrest, S. B. Cox, G. R. Camilo, J. F. Cary, J. Alvarez, and M. R. Gannon. 1998. Long-term Monitoring of Snails in the Luquillo Experimental Forest of Puerto Rico: Heterogeneity, Scale, Disturbance, and Recovery. In: Forest diversity in North, Central, and South America, and the Caribbean: Research and monitoring (F. Dallmeier and J. Comiskey, eds.). Man and Biospehere series, vol. 21:293-322. UNESCO and the Parthenon Publishing Group, Carnforth, Lancashire, UK.

Willig, M. R., and M. R. Gannon. 1996. Mammals. In: The Food Web of a Tropical Rain Forest (D. P. Reagan and R. B. Waide, eds.), pp. 399-431. Univ. Chicago Press.

Journal Publications - Click on a link below to download a pdf version of that publication.

Sikes, R. S. and the Animal Care and Use Committee of the American Society of Mammalogists, 2016. 2016 Guidelines of the American Society of Mammalogists for the use of wild mammals in research and education. Journal of Mammalogy, 97(3):663–688. This committee includes John A. Bryan II, SCWDS/University of Georgia; David Byman, Pennsylvania State University–Worthington; Brent J. Danielson, Iowa State University; Janna Eggleston, Old Dominion University; Michael R. Gannon, Pennsylvania State University–Altoona; William L. Gannon, University of New Mexico; David W. Hale, United States Air Force Academy; Brett R. Jesmer, University of Wyoming; Daniel K. Odell, Hubbs–SeaWorld Research Institute; Link E. Olson, University of Alaska Fairbanks; Richard D. Stevens, Texas Tech University; Tracy A. Thompson, United States National Park Service; Robert M. Timm, University of Kansas; Stephanie A. Trewhitt, San Jose State University; Janna R. Willoughby, Purdue University.

Phillips, C. J., C. D. Phillips, J. Groecks, E. P. Lessa, C. Sotero-Caio, B. Tandler, A. Nekrutenko, M. R. Gannon, R. K. Chesser, and R. J. Baker. 2014. Dietary and flight energetic adaptations in a salivary gland transcriptome of an insectivorous bat. PLOS ONE, 9 (1):1-13.

Sikes, R. S., W. L. Gannon, and the Animal Care and Use Committee of the American Society of Mammalogists. 2011. Guidelines of the American Society of Mammalogists for the use of wild mammals in research. Journal of Mammalogy, 92(1): 325-353. This committee included Darrin S. Carroll, Centers for Disease Control; Brent J. Danielson, Iowa State University; Jerry W. Dragoo, University of New Mexico; Michael R. Gannon, Pennsylvania State University, Altoona College; William L. Gannon, University of New Mexico; David W. Hale, United States Air Force Academy; Christy McCain, University of Colorado; Daniel K. Odell, Hubbs–SeaWorld Research Institute; Link E. Olson, University of Alaska; Sarah Ressing, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale; Robert S. Sikes (Chair), University of Arkansas at Little Rock; Robert M. Timm, University of Kansas; Stephanie A. Trewhitt, San Jose State University; and Janet E. Whaley, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Krichbaum, K, S. Perkins, and M. R. Gannon. 2009. Host-parasite interactions of tropical bats in Puerto Rico. Acta Chiropterologica, 11:157-162.

Olnhusen, L. R., and M. R. Gannon. 2004. An evaluation of bat rabies prevention in the United States, based on an analysis from Pennsylvania. Acta Chiropterologica, 6: 163-168.

Vaughan Jennings, N., S. Parsons, K. E. Barlow, and M. R. Gannon. 2004. Echolocation calls and wing morphology of bats from the West Indies . Acta Chiropterologica, 6: 75-90.

Gannon, M. R. 2004. Bat Man in the tropics: Stories of one man’s career in field studies of bats (book review). Ecology, 85:2912-2913

Dick, C. W., M. R. Gannon, W. E. Little, and M. J. Patrick. 2003. Ectoparasite Associations of Bats from Central Pennsylvania. Journal of Medical Entomology 40(6):813-819.

Jones, K. E., K. E. Barlow, N. Vaughan, A. Rodríguez-Durán, and M. R. Gannon. 2001. Short term impact of extreme environmental disturbance on the bats of Puerto Rico. Animal Conservation, 4:59-66.

Barlow, K. E., N. Vaughan, K. E. Jones, A. Rodríguez-Durán, and M. R. Gannon. 2000. Are bats which pollinate and disperse forest plants particularly sensitive to disturbance? A case study on the effects of Hurricane Georges on bats of Puerto Rico. Bull. British Ecol. Soc., 31: 36-37

Willig, M. R., E. A. Sandlin, and M. R. Gannon. 1998. Habitat selection by a Puerto Rican land snail: structural and taxonomic correlates, Southwestern Naturalist, 43:70-79.

Gannon, M. R., and M. R. Willig. 1997. The effect of lunar illumination on movement and activity of the red fig-eating bat (Stenodermarufum), Biotropica, 29:525-529.

Willig, M. R., and M. R. Gannon. 1997. Gradients of species density and turnover in Marsupials: A hemispheric perspective. Journal of Mammalogy, 78:756-765.

Gannon, M. R., and M. R. Willig. 1995. Ecology of ectoparasites from tropical bats. Journal of Environmental Entomology, 24:1495-1503.

Gannon, M. R. 1994. A new technique for marking bats. Bat Research News, 34:88-89.

Gannon, M. R., and M. R. Willig. 1994. The effects of Hurricane Hugo on the bats of the Luquillo Experimental Forest of Puerto Rico. Biotropica, 26:320-331.

Gannon, M. R. and M. R. Willig. 1994. Records of bat ectoparasites from the Luquillo Experimental Forest of Puerto Rico, Caribbean Journal of Science, 30:281-283.

Gannon, M. R., K. Pardieck, M. R. Willig, and R. B. Waide. 1993. Movement and home range of the Puerto Rican Screech-Owl (Otusnudipes) in the Luquillo Experimental Forest. Caribbean Journal of Science, 29:174-178.

Willig, M. R., E. A. Sandlin, and M. R. Gannon. 1993. Structural and taxonomic components of habitat selection in the neotropical folivore Lamponiusportoricensis (Phasmatodea: Phasmatdidae). Environmental Entomology, 22:634-641.

Gannon, M. R., and M. R. Willig. 1992. Bat Reproduction in the Luquillo Experimental Forest of Puerto Rico, Southwestern Naturalist, 37:414-419.

Gannon, M. R., M. R. Willig, and J. K. Jones, Jr. 1992. Morphometric variation, measurement error, and fluctuating asymmetry in the Red Fig-eating Bat (Stenoderma rufum). Texas Journal of Science, 44:389-404.

Rylander, K., M. R. Gannon, and P. B. Blessing. 1991. Rodent populations in the Chihuahuan Desert of Western Texas. Texas Journal of Science, 43:435-436.

Gannon, M. R., M. R. Willig, K. B. Willis, and M. P. Moulton. 1990. Intraspecific comparisons of diet of Cnemidophorus gularis (Sauria:Teiidae) in Central Texas. Texas Journal of Science, 42:263-272.

Gannon, M. R., and K. B. Willis. 1990 . Clutch size and parasitism of the Texas Spotted Whiptail, Cnemidophorus gularis (Sauria: Teiidae), from South-Central Texas. Southwestern Naturalist, 35:215-217.

Losos, J. B., M. R. Gannon, W. J. Pfeiffer, and R. B. Waide. 1990. Notes on the ecology and behavior of Anolis cuvieri (Lacertilia: Iguanidae) in Puerto Rico. Caribbean Journal of Science, 26: 65-66.

Gannon, M. R., M. R. Willig, and J. K. Jones, Jr. 1989. Sturnira lillium, Mammalian Species, 333:1-5.

Gannon, M. R. 1987. New western distributional record of Terrapene carolina triunguis. Texas Journal of Science, 39: 293.

Teaching:

Undergraduate courses taught at Penn State Altoona College

Biology 110: Basic Concepts and Diversity - This four credit course covers the study of evolution of the major groups of organisms and includes the fundamental concepts of biology.

Biology 129: Mammalian Anatomy - Anatomy of a mammal, with special reference to that of man. Four credits.

Biology 141: Introductory Physiology Explanation of the normal structure and function of
the animal body, with special emphasis on human body systems. Three credits.

Biology 142: Physiology laboratory - Experiments demonstrating basic physiological principles, with
special reference to man. Prerequisite: or concurrent: BIOL 141. One credit.

Biology 240W: Function and Development of Organisms - This four credit course includes the study of development, and physiological processes at the organismic level.

Biology 296/Biology 496: Independent Studies - This is a special to be arranged course where students can receive credit in a variety of different areas related to research and teaching.

Biology 297: Special topics - Biology in the Cinema - This is a seminar course open to all majors. Students view films with a current biological theme, and discuss these films as well as pertinent literature on those topics in a seminar discussion format.

Biology 450W: Experimental Field Biology - A practical introduction to modern experimental techniques for ecological study of terrestrial, marine, and fresh water habitats. Prerequisite: BIOL 220W , BIOL 240W. Five credits.

WSF 408/WSF 409: Mammalogy - This three credit course covers the study all aspects of mammals including identification, systematics, ecology, and evolution - Prerequisite: Biology 110.