Research Associate
New York State Museum
3140 CEC
Albany NY 12230
Email: rkays at mail.nysed.gov
Research Interests
Roland Kays is the Curator of Mammals at the New York State Museum where his research addresses a broad array of behavioral, ecological, and evolutionary questions with mammals, primarily carnivores. In New York he is studying the effects of human disturbance and habitat fragmentation on the distribution of carnivores at a fine scale in the suburban Albany Pine Bush Preserve, and at larger scales across the Adirondacks. In Kenya he collaborates in studies of lion-human conflict and the evolution of manelessness in the Tsavo area. In Panama Kays is collaborating to develop an Automated Radio Telemetry System and use it to track animal movement and survival on Barro Colorado Island. Kays is coauthor of The Mammals Of North America, with Don Wilson (Princeton University Press Field Guides).
Current Research Projects
http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/WildSci/
Current or Projected Exhibits
Mammals Revealed @ New York State Museum; Telemetry exhibit @ SI Mammals Hall.
Recent Publications
Kays, R. W. and Slauson, K. M. In Press. Remote cameras. - In: Long, R. A., MacKay, P., Ray, J. C. and Zielinski, W. J. (eds.), Noninvasive Survey Methods for North American Carnivores. Island Press.
Wikelski, M., Kays, R., Kasdin, J., Thorup, K., Smith, J. A., Cochran, W. W. and Swenson, G. W. Jr. 2007. Going wild: what a global small-animal tracking system could do for experimental biologists. - Experimental Biology 210: 181-186.
Herzog, C. J., Kays, R. W., Ray, J. C., Gompper, M. E., Zielinski, W. J., Higgins, R. and Tymeson, M. 2007. Using patterns in track plate footprints to identify individual fishers. - Journal of Wildlife Management 71: 955-963.
Moreno , R. S., Kays, R. W. and Samudio, R. Jr. 2006. Competitive release in diets of ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) and puma (Puma concolor) after jaguar (Panthera onca) decline. - Journal of Mammalogy 87: 808-816.
Gompper, M. E., Kays, R. W., Ray, J. C., LaPoint, S. D., Bogan, D. A. and Cryan, J. A. 2006. A comparison of non-invasive techniques to survey carnivore communities in Northeastern North America. - Wildlife Society Bulletin 34: 1142-1151.
Aliaga-Rossel, E., Moreno, R. S., Kays, R. W. and Giacalone, J. 2006. Ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) predation on agouti (Dasyprocta punctata). - Biotropica 36: 691-694.
Johnson, D., Kays, R., Blackwell, P. and Macdonald, D. 2002. Does the resource dispersion hypothesis explain group living? - Trends in Ecology & Evolution 17: 563-570.
Kays, R. W. and Gittleman, J. G. 2001. The social organization of the kinkajou Potos flavus (Procyonidae). - Journal of Zoology 253: 491-504.
Kays, R. W. and Allison, A. 2001. Arboreal tropical forest vertebrates: current knowledge and research trends. - Plant Ecology 153: 109-120.
Kays, R. W., Gittleman, J. G. and Wayne, R. K. 2000. Microsatellite analysis of kinkajou social organization. - Molecular Ecology 9: 743-751.
Updated -11/09/07
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