People

Principal Investigator

Dr Danielle Levesque

Find me on Bluesky!

Danielle wearing thick leather gloves and using a caliper to measure a squirrel held in a handling bag.

Danielle was recently interviewed for the Journal of Experimental Biology, you can read all about it here.

Graduate Students

Eric Brown (PhD, 2022- Present)- “Physiological and Behavioral Determinants of Energy Use in Tropical Mammals”

Eric wearing glasses looking seriously at a small mouse held in his gloved hand.

Kit Carpenter (MS, 2023- Present)- “Pine Marten Thermal Ranges and Adaptations”

Claudia Saldaña DeCamillis (MS, 2024-Present)- “Energetics of Tropical Rodents”

Undergraduate Students

Natalie Snyder (Honors Thesis student)

Undergraduate Research Technicians

 Stephanie Ross (2019- 2020)

Lab Alumni

Graduate Students

Ana Breit (PhD, 2018 – 2023)-“Comparative physiology and the evolution of thermolability in mammals”

Ana in field clothes holding calipers in front of a squirrel that is held in a handling bag.

Check out Ana’s trip to the van Breukelen lab at the University of Nevada Las Vegas! Ana is now doing a postdoc at UNLV.

Elise Gudde (MSc, 2019-2022)- “Thermoregulation and energetics of the Northern Flying Squirrel” You can read more about Elise’s research here.

Elise smiling while standing in a field.

Jake Gutkes (MSc, 2017- 2019)- “Modeling thermoregulation Peromyscus”

Jake standing next to a tree that has an empty trap at it's base and a red squirrel partway up the trunk, taunting him.

Vanessa Hensley (MSc, 2016-2018)-“Living on the edge: thermophysiology of the southern flying squirrel at its northern range margin”

Vanessa wearing work gloves, kneeling down and showing off a squirrel in a handling bag.

Teumbo Ngunte (MSc, 2016-2018)- “Assessing the upper critical limit of the thermoneutral zone in laboratory mice”

Ngunte and Danielle in academic robes at Ngunte's graduation.

Undergraduate Students

Abe Grunwald (Honors Thesis, 2024)-“Temperature and Energy Interactions in Small Tropical Mammals”

Jordyn Morel (Honors Thesis, 2023)- “An Overview Of The Potential Effect Of Climate Change On American Pine Marten”

Colin Flynn (Honors Thesis, 2021)- “Heat Tolerance and Thermography of Flying Squirrels”

Colin wearing heavy work gloves looking at a flying squirrel in a plastic handling bag.

Marissa Edwards (Honors Thesis, 2021)- “Thermoregulation and Heat Tolerance in Maine Small Mammals”. You can read more about Marissa’s research here.

Marissa measuring the foot length of a small mouse held in her gloved hands.

Caleigh Charlebois (Honors Thesis, Spring 2021) “Forward Genomics of a Complex Trait: Mammalian Basal Metabolic Rate”

Sara Griffin (Honors Thesis, Spring 2021) “Predicting Range Shifts for the Virginia Opossum Based on Climate Change”

Jessica Beneski (CUGR Undergraduate Research Fellow, Fall 2019-Spring 2020)- “A Comparative and Genomic Analysis of Mammalian Bladder Phenotypes”

Jess smiling next to a waterfall.

Molly Bennett (Honors Thesis, Spring 2019)- “Ranges of Peromyscus in Maine: Disease Potential and a Model for the Future”

Molly smiling with holding a pet rat.

Emily Gagne (Honors Thesis, Spring 2019)- “Uncoupling Protein 1 in Bornean Treeshrews”

Emily smiling in front on an elephant.

Tal Kleinhause (Honors Thesis, Fall 2018) – “Fire and Blood: Behavior and Thermoregulation in Small Nocturnal Mammals”

Tal holding three black bear cubs with researchers working in the background.

The lab at graduation

Edward Medeiros (Capstone, Spring 2018)- “Skull morphology trends in Maine rodents across mid-Nineteenth Century specimens”

Tashawna Spellen (Capstone, Fall 2017- Spring 2018)-“The possibility of hybridization in Maine flying squirrels”

Jahzmin Walker (Capstone,Fall 2017- Spring 2018)- “Strongyloides robustus and its influence on northern and southern flying squirrels”

Kelsey Rose (Capstone, Fall 2017)- “Variability of canines in carnivorous Canidae dentition”

Jake Gutkes (Capstone, Fall 2017)- “Thermal windows in tenrecs”

Kaylei Bergeron (Capstone, Fall 2016) – “The effects of weather and temperature on eastern gray squirrels”

Helen Churchill (Capstone, Fall 2016) – “Home range analysis through radio tracking American gray squirrels in University of Maine forest”

Michelle Bassis

Zachary Hamel

Caroline Spangenberg