Bats and climate change and their role in urban ecology

Hi,

Join us for the fifth webinar of the One Health Wonders series at 2-3pm AEST on Tuesday 13 May 2025. Brought to you by CSIRO and Interim CDC to showcase One Health and the critical relationship between human, animal and ecosystem health.

The webinar will feature presentations from speakers followed by a panel discussion exploring bats and climate change and their role in urban ecology.

The fifth webinar will feature the following speakers and topics:

• Dr Michelle Baker (The rich diversity of bats, their importance in the ecosystem and lessons for human health)
• Eric Vanderduys (Bats, One Health and their role in urban ecology)
• Dr Alison Peel (The ecology of One Health approaches of bat viral spillover)
• Prof Justin Welbergen (Emerging threats to flying-foxes - implications from a One Health perspective)

Please note: this webinar will be recorded.

If you would like to attend the One Health Wonders webinar, please register by clicking the 'Register now' button.

Please share with your network(s) as appropriate and we look forward to having you attend the event!

Kind regards,

CSIRO & ICDC One Health Unit and team

Pricing

• Free

Dates and Times

Contact

Sophia Wang

More information

Speakers Bios

Michelle Baker

Dr Michelle Baker is a Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP) in Geelong. Her main research interests are in the areas of emerging infectious diseases and antiviral immunity of reservoir hosts, including bats. Her work has uncovered mechanisms responsible for the ability of bats to coexist with highly pathogenic viruses such as Hendra virus in the absence of disease. She has also led studies investigating the viral diversity and seroprevalence to viruses in Australian bats to better understand potential risks to humans and other susceptible species.

Eric Vanderduys

Eric is an ecologist working with CSIRO Environment for 20 years working on a wide range of wildlife-related, and landscape ecology projects. His focus has been on effects of management practices on community ecology, especially in poorly known areas of northern Australia. He has been involved in the National Flying-fox Monitoring Programme since its inception.
 

Alison Peel

Dr Alison Peel is a veterinarian and wildlife disease ecologist in the Sydney School of Veterinary Science. She holds a Sydney Horizon Fellowship and her research investigates associations between bat ecology, bat virome dynamics and the human health risk of emerging bat viruses.

 

Justin Welbergen

Justin is Professor at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment (Western Sydney University), where he leads the “Lab of Animal Ecology” along with “BatsLab” – a primary academic destination for bat research in Australia. Justin is Immediate Past President (2016-2024) of the Australasian Bat Society and founding member of the Pacific Bat Conservation Network. He sits on a range of state and Commonwealth committees and boards advising government on wildlife conservation and management matters, particularly involving bats. In his lab he uses emerging technologies, such as large-scale animal tracking, acoustic monitoring, and drone and radar remote sensing, for understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics of populations, from local to subcontinental scales, to enable more effective wildlife management trans-jurisdictionally. Justin and his students have worked on flying-foxes for 25 years, starting with his study on the social organisation of the grey-headed flying-fox for his PhD from the University of Cambridge.