Riley Bernard

Riley Bernard is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Zoology & Physiology at the University of Wyoming’s Casper campus, affiliated with the College of Agriculture, Life Sciences, and Natural Resources. His research focuses on wildlife ecology, conservation biology, and disease management, with a particular emphasis on bat populations and their interactions with environmental stressors.

Key research interests include understanding how bats respond to diseases like White-nose Syndrome, their habitat use patterns (e.g., bridges, rivers), and the impacts of extrinsic stressors on immunity and behavior. He employs integrative approaches, combining field surveys, molecular detection, and decision-support modeling to address conservation challenges.

His work spans from 2014 to 2025, with publications addressing disease mitigation strategies, bat behavior during winter, and the ecological roles of bats as habitat engineers. Collaborations include studies on bat-roosting behavior in urban structures and the implications of pathogen spread across ecosystems.

No scientific awards or advising activities are explicitly noted in the provided texts. His research has contributed to policy discussions on equitable conservation practices and climate-sensitive management frameworks.