Russell Burke

Professor of Biology Hofstra University

  • Hempstead NY

Dr. Burke's current research involves diamondback terrapins at Jamaica Bay, wood turtles in northern NJ and the coyote invasion of LI

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Biography

Dr. Burke is primarily interested in the ecology, evolution, and conservation biology of vertebrates and the ecology of Lyme Disease. Most of the species he has studied have either been introduced species or rare species, thus population control (both positive and negative) is usually involved.

Currently, he has three major research projects: diamondback terrapins at nearby Jamaica Bay, the ecology of Lyme Disease on a continental scale, and the effects of coyotes on the ecosystems of Long Island. The terrapins face a number of interesting conservation issues, including decreasing salt marsh habitat, pollutants in the Bay, raccoon and plant predation on eggs, and rat predation on hatchlings.

Lyme Disease is fairly well studied in the places where human cases are high, but its rarity in the rest of the U.S. is an enigma. Burke joined a team of researchers from numerous institutions to investigate the biogeography of Lyme Disease in North America.

His courses at Hofstra include Ecology, Biostatistics, and Conservation Biology.

Industry Expertise

Education/Learning

Areas of Expertise

Urban Ecosystems
Urban Environments
Suburban Spaces and Development
Ecology
Evolution
Conservation Biology
Herpetology

Education

University of Michigan

Ph.D.

1994

University of Florida

M.S.

1987

Ohio State University

B.S.

1981

Media Appearances

Coyotes spotted in the Bronx

FOX 5 News NY  tv

2022-10-31

Biology Professor Russell Burke was interviewed by FOX 5 NY about coyote sightings in the Bronx. He said that for the most part they aren’t dangerous, are afraid of people and often change their behavior to avoid people.

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Coyotes are making Long Island their home

FOX 5 News NY  tv

2021-11-16

The birth of four pups in Nassau County earlier this year marks a significant milestone for the coyote population on Long Island.

Biologists expect the coyotes to easily integrate into habitats across Long Island and fully colonize within a decade or two.

As for conflicts and confrontations, experts explain they can easily be avoided.

"If we get people to not feed or tame them we have most of the problem solved," Hofstra University biology professor Russell Burke said. "When people see them, we scare them — make loud noises and they'll run away."

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Possible coyote sighting in Middle Island, experts say

Newsday  print

2017-01-31

There they were — a couple of dogs in the middle of the road, ravaging a neighbor’s trash.

Or were they?

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Research Focus

Diamondback terrapins, wood turtles in northern NJ, ticks and Lyme Disease, coyote migration

Ecology, conservation, and sex determination of diamondback terrapins

Ecology and conservation of wood turtles in northern NJ
The effects of tick host species diversity on Lyme Disease risk

Box turtle resources use and its life history implications

The effects that the coyotes making their way to Long Island will have on current vertebrate communities

Novel ways of estimating the number of vertebrates in an area; this includes using parasite densities to estimate local terrapin numbers, and using camera traps to count mammals

Courses

General Ecology, Conservation Biology, Field Ecology, Advanced Conservation Biology

General Ecology
Lecture on the basic principles determining the distribution and abundance of populations and species, including ecological tests of adaptation. Structure and relationships at the population, community, landscape, and biosphere levels. Emphasis on applied topics such as pollution abatement, ancient and contemporary climate change, pest and wildlife management, and human population growth.

Conservation Biology
Lecture and discussion of the basic principles of the conservation of biological diversity. Review of the main causes of extinction events past and present, sustainable development, and the importance of zoos and laws to species conservation.

Field Ecology
The study abroad class meets for two to three days on campus in the fall, then we head for Ecuador for about 20 days. This includes about 11 days in the Galapagos Islands and 3 days in the rainforest.

Advanced Conservation Biology

Lecture and discussion of the basic principles of the conservation of biological diversity. Review of the main causes of extinction events past and present, sustainable development, and the importance of zoos and laws to species conservation. Computer simulations to compare management/restoration strategies for endangered species and ecological communities.

Articles

Why Lyme disease is common in the northern US, but rare in the south: The roles of host choice, host-seeking behavior, and tick density

PLOS Biology

Russell Burke, Howard S. Ginsberg, Graham J. Hickling, Nicholas H. Ogden, Lorenza Beati, Roger A. LeBrun, Isis M. Arsnoe, Richard Gerhold, Seungeun Han, Kaetlyn Jackson, Lauren Maestas, Teresa Moody, Genevieve Pang, Breann Ross, Eric L. Rulison, Jean I. Tsao

2021-01-28

Ticks in the southeastern US search for hosts in different ways than those in the northeast, which accounts for the fewer human cases of Lyme Disease in regions to the south, according to a study co-authored by Hofstra Professor of Biology Russell Burke.

The results of the project were published in PLOS Biology. Burke says that lizards are the host choice for ticks in the southeast US. In the US and Canadian northeast, where the lizard population is much smaller, Lyme Disease cases are more prevalent. In this area, mice and other mammals are ticks’ host of choice.

Ticks like to feed on both lizards and small mammals, but lizards are much less likely to pass along the bacteria that cause Lyme disease.

The analysis also showed that southern ticks tend to stay below leaf litter (dead plant material on the ground) when seeking hosts, while northern ticks tend to climb atop leaves and twigs, making it more likely that they would bite passing humans.

For more than a decade, Dr. Burke – with the assistance of graduate students Eric Rulison, Kaetlyn Kerr Jackson, and Breann Ross – has conducted field work at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and the Franklin Parker Preserve in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Undergraduate students have also been involved by analyzing collected data.

Supported by the National Science Foundation Ecology of Infectious Diseases Award, the research study was led by Howard Ginsberg of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. It involved a total of eight field sites up and down the eastern and central US.

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Development of sexing primers in Glyptemys insculpta and Apalone spinifera turtles uncovers an XX/XY sex-determining system in the critically-endangered bog turtle Glyptemys muhlenbergii

Conservation Genetics Resources

2017

In species or developmental stages where the sex of an individual cannot be reliably identified through external morphology, molecular markers can provide a critical tool to study sex-specific traits that are elusive otherwise. Here we generated two sets of sex-diagnostic PCR primers for each of two focal turtle species with contrasting genotypic sex determination (GSD) systems: the wood turtle, Glyptemys insculpta (XX/XY), and the spiny softshell turtle, Apalone spinifera (ZZ/ZW). These markers identified males and females with 100% accuracy as validated with numerous individuals of known sex...

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Coyotes Go "Bridge and Tunnel": A Narrow Opportunity to Study the Sociological Impacts of Coyote Range Expansion

Cities and the Environment

2015-04-22

Currently, Long Island, NY is without a breeding population of northeastern coyote (Canis latras var.), yet
recent evidence of dispersing individuals on the island, coupled with the “dogged” momentum of coyote
range expansion across North America, suggests a Long Island coyote population is close at hand. We
highlighted the fleeting opportunity to takes advantage of this natural experiment by developing a
multidisciplinary research framework to investigate the ecological and social impacts of the coyote, pre- and
post- range expansion. We reviewed coyote spatial ecology, community ecology, and human dimensions
research and identified three components of future investigation: predicting future occupancy, monitoring
colonization, testing hypotheses of trophic cascades by leveraging and expanding existing ecological data, and
exploring attitudes towards coyotes to better understand and mitigate human-wildlife conflicts. Each
proposed component will integrate for a comprehensive investigation to advance theory and applied
management of northeastern coy

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