Wendy Turner completed her PhD in the department of Environmental Science, Policy and
Management, and am now a post-doc in the same department. She is a wildlife and disease
ecologist, with a focus on diseases of wildlife in African savanna ecosystems. Her PhD was
on the ecology of orally ingested parasites in ungulates of Etosha National Park, Namibia
Wendy’s talk will address how in many host-parasite systems, hosts become infected with
environmentally-transmitted parasites while foraging, through ingestion of infectious stages
or vectors along with food. However, feeding behavior varies in time and space with
changes in the quality and quantity of resources. Therefore variation in host foraging
behavior may affect parasite transmission and disease dynamics. In her Ph.D. research, I
studied gastrointestinal parasites in an assemblage of herbivorous mammals and how these
host-parasite relationships were modulated by host ecology, parasite interactions and
environmental variability. In my proposed post-doctoral work, I will examine changes in the
foraging behavior of springbok (/Antidorcas marsupialis/) and plains zebra (/Equus quagga/)
and how these relate to the seasonal timing of anthrax outbreaks (caused by the bacterium,
/Bacillus anthracis/) in Etosha National Park, Namibia.
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