Our research work on human wildlife interactions continues to move forward with exciting results. Pete Laver and Bonnie Fairbanks, PhD students in Dr. Alexander's program, have presented their findings a conference of the Ecological Society of America in Blacksburg, Virginia. Their presentations focused on the effects of urban centers on the behavior, physiology and health of banded mongoose. Their work has provided important insight into the impacts of  human mediated  land transformation on the health animals in the system. Using banded mongoose as a model system to evaluate pathogen tranmission, Risa Pesapane, a MS student in Dr. Alexander's program, has found high levels of microorganism exchange occur between human and animals and wide spread antibiotic resistance among E. coli isolates collected from mongoose even in protected areas.