Melanie Richter

Melanie Richter is a comparative physiologist who specializes in endocrinology. She is broadly interested in how animals cope with changing environments and how their reproduction is affected. She has worked on projects as far-ranging as cold temperature limits of hibernation and metabolism in ground squirrels to paternal behaviors and sleeps in high arctic breeding songbirds. She is currently working on a research project in collaboration with Beth Roberts investigating the possible use of non-invasively collected biomaterials to determine pregnancy in domestic (cow/sheep/goat) ruminants in the hopes of finding a test that will also work with exotic ruminants such as the Reticulated giraffe, Père David’s deer, and bongo.