There's a new tick establishing itself across the region, and it's not the one most people are used to watching for. The Asian longhorned tick, first detected in the U.S. in 2017, has been steadily expanding its range along the East Coast — including into the backyards, parks, and preserves of Long Island. Unlike the blacklegged tick most associated with Lyme disease, this invasive species reproduces asexually, meaning a single tick can start an entire population, and it's showing up in numbers that are hard to ignore.
Russell Burke, professor of biology at Hofstra University, has spent more than a decade studying the ecology of Lyme disease on a continental scale — including how tick host diversity affects disease risk across the eastern U.S. That work has now expanded to track a newer arrival: the Asian longhorned tick, and how its invasion and spread is reshaping the tick communities long dominated by the blacklegged tick, the primary vector of Lyme disease.
What he can speak to:
How the Asian longhorned tick got to the U.S., and why its ability to reproduce without mating makes it uniquely fast at colonizing new areas What the tick's expansion means for the local ecology of ticks on Long Island, and how it may be competing with or displacing established blacklegged tick populations Why the Asian longhorned tick is not currently considered a significant carrier of Lyme disease itself, but why its presence still raises concerns for public health and agriculture What residents, hikers, and pet owners should know about identifying and avoiding exposure to this new tick species The broader pattern of invasive species establishing themselves on Long Island, and what that signals about changing ecosystems Connect with: Russell Burke Professor of Biology Dr. Burke's current research involves diamondback terrapins at Jamaica Bay, wood turtles in northern NJ, ticks and Lyme disease, and the coyote invasion of Long Island. Key Topics: Ecology · Conservation Biology · Herpetology · Urban Ecosystems Reach Professor Burke through the Contact button on his profile below.
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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.
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.
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."
Coyotes born in Queens will multiply, spread to LI, say experts
Newsday
2016-08-31
“Multiple individuals will be dispersing and looking for new territory,” said Russell L. Burke, chairman of Hofstra University’s biology department. “Eventually, all the spaces on Long Island that can take coyotes will be filled. That might take 50 years, but by then we’ll all be used to it.”
A female terrapin lays one or two clutches of eggs, each containing anywhere from three to 18 eggs — if she is not hit by a car, waylaid by a roadside curb, tangled in vegetation or killed by a raccoon. Research conducted by Russell Burke of Hofstra University suggests that less than 3 percent of turtle eggs in Jamaica Bay survive; this is troubling in the context of an ever-increasing population of urban raccoons, but not unusual throughout the terrapin’s range...
Turtles Lay Eggs And Build Nests at New York's JFK Airport, Causing Flight Delays
Nature World News
2016-07-17
The turtle population around Jamaica Bay had also been kept in check by raccoons, which are natural predators of the newborn terrapins. Dr. Russell Burke, a biologist at Hofstra University, hypothesized that something must have happened to the raccoons at JFK several years ago that led to the survival of those eggs that were laid in the area.
Coyote breeding on Long Island 'inevitable,' researchers say
Newsday
2015-04-26
One goal of the group of 12 to 15 researchers is to prepare the public, letting residents know that, like raccoons and opossums, coyotes "are very afraid of humans and will stay as far away as they can get," said Russell L. Burke, chairman of Hofstra University's biology department. He is one of six co-authors of "Coyotes Go 'Bridge and Tunnel,' " a report on the value of starting research and education programs well before the creatures' mass arrival.
Studying What Lures Turtles to a Tarmac at Kennedy Airport
New York Times
2014-07-03
But on that July day five years ago, Russell Burke, the chairman of the biology department at Hofstra University, said, “Something made a huge number of turtles come up to Runway 4L.”
Two years later, it happened a second time. And on Thursday, a group of turtles appeared on Runway 4L yet again, despite recent steps aimed at keeping them away.
For Dr. Burke, who has long studied the terrapins that live in the wildlife refuge, the reptiles’ repeated forays onto the tarmac are the subject of serious study. Shortly after the first invasion, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey enlisted him to help it come to a better understanding of the turtles and their mysterious ways. As part of that effort, he works closely with the Port Authority’s chief wildlife biologist, Laura Francoeur, who described the turtle takeovers as among the more vexing challenges confronting her unit...
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.
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...
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
Cues Used by Raccoons to Find Turtle Nests: Effects of Flags, Human Scent, and Diamond-Backed Terrapin Sign
Journal of Herpetology
2005
We simulated nests constructed in an area heavily used by ovipositing Diamond-backed Terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin) and foraging raccoons (Procyon lotor), to investigate the cues used by raccoons to locate terrapin nests. Marking nests with flags did not increase predation rates, and human scent decreased predation rates. Raccoons seemed to locate nests based on soil disturbance, ocean-water scent, or a combination of these cues...
Nesting Ecology and Predation of Diamondback Terrapins, Malaclemys terrapin, at Gateway National Recreation Area, New York
Journal of Herpetology
2003
We studied Diamondback Terrapins, Malaclemys terrapin, at Gateway National Recreation Area, New York. We found evidence of nesting terrapins at three locations within the Recreation Area and focused our research on the islands of Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. Female terrapins nested from early June through early August and oviposited at least two clutches per year...
