Email philip.seddon@otago.ac.nz
Tel +64 3 479 7029
Teaching
- Wildlife Management Programme
- WILM 402 Techniques of Wildlife Management
- WILM 406 Conservation Biology for Wildlife Management
- WILM 501 Research Placement in Wildlife Management
- ZOOL 319 Conservation Biology
- ZOOL 417 Harvest Management
- ZOOL 423 From Extinction to De-Extinction
Research Interests
- Restoration of threatened species
- Ecology of mammalian pest species
- Seabird, specifically penguin, ecology
- Assessment of the impacts of nature-based tourism
- Reintroduction Biology, including Assisted Colonisation and other Conservation Introductions
- De-extinction: implications for conservation
Projects
- Strategic planning for wildlife reintroductions in collaboration with the IUCN Conservation Translocation Specialist Group. See here for a Policy Statement on Assisted Colonization
- De-extinction: the pros and cons of creating versions (functional proxies) of extinct species for conservation benefit; download the IUCN Guiding Principles on De-extinction
- Application of remote sensing, GIS and GPS technology to quantify spatial ecology at all scales
- Spatial ecology of mammalian pests in NZ alpine regions, as part of the Te Manuhuna Aoaraki Project, in collaboration with Yolanda van Heezik
- Conservation Management of native species (current/recent collaborative and student projects include work on takahe, with Glen Greaves and Andrew Digby (DOC), black stilt (kaki), with Richard Maloney and Simone Clelland (DOC), yellow-eyed penguins, Fiordland penguins (tawaki) with Thomas Mattern (NZ Penguin Initiative), and Adelie penguins, with Matt Scofield (Maths & Stats) and Dean Anderson (Manaaki Whenua)
- Assessment, mitigation and management of human/tourism influences on seabirds.
Other Roles
- Member of Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) Wallaby Research Advisory Group
- Advisor to the Endangered Species Foundation of New Zealand (ESFNZ)
- Member of the IUCN/SSC Conservation Translocation Specialist Group
- Founding member of the IUCN/SSC Penguin Specialist Group
- Trustee of the Mamaku Point Conservation Trust ( View a short film about the Reserve)
- Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the International Conservation Forum for Arabian Biodiversity
Current and Recent Postgraduate Students
- Jamie McAulay (MSc): Diet of stoats in the New Zealand alpine zone
- Melanie Young (PhD): Foraging ecology of Yellow-eyed Penguins
- James Hunter (PhD): Modeling post-release performance of reintroduced Takahe
- Rachel Hickcox (PhD): Macro-ecology of yellow-eyed penguins
- Saif Khan (PhD): Remote sensing applications in braided rivers
- Nick Foster (PhD): Altitudinal distribution of mammalian pest species
- Taylor Hamlin (PhD): Spatial ecology of Adelie penguins
- Asher Soryl (PhD): Animal welfare biology
- Charlotte Patterson (MSc): Predicting reinvasion pathways for urban possums
- Scott Forrest (MSc): Spatial ecology of urban kaka
- Myrene Otis (MSc): Foraging ecology of tawaki/Fiordland penguins
- Thor Elley (MSc): Foraging ecology of yellow-eyed penguins on Rakiura
- Peter Doyle (MSc): Spatial ecology of Norway rats
- Hayley Lister (MSc): Resource selection by Norway rats in dryland ecosystems
- Abby Clarke (MSc): Efficacy of probiotics for yellow-eyed penguins
- Lena McNaughton (MSc): Invertebrate diversity across and urban gradient