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Phil Seddon 2020 imageEmail philip.seddon@otago.ac.nz
Tel +64 3 479 7029

Teaching

Research Interests

Assoc. Prof. Phil Seddon with a Fox on his head

  • 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

Current and Recent Postgraduate Students

Black-fronted Tern, threatened by introduced predators

  • 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

Publications

Patterson, C. R., Lustig, A., Seddon, P. J., Wilson, D. J., & van Heezik, Y. (2024). Eradicating an invasive mammal requires local elimination and reduced reinvasion from an urban source population. Ecological Applications. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1002/eap.2949

Gimeno, M., Giménez, J., Chiaradia, A., Davis, L. S., Seddon, P. J., Ropert-Coudert, Y., … Ramírez, F. (2024). Climate and human stressors on global penguin hotspots: Current assessments for future conservation. Global Change Biology, 30, e17143. doi: 10.1111/gcb.17143

van Heezik, Y., Simpson, L., Patterson, C. R., Seddon, P. J., & Wilson, D. J. (2023). Spatially explicit capture-recapture estimate of hedgehog population density in exotic grassland, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Ecology, 47(1), 3555. doi: 10.20417/nzjecol.47.3555

Davis, R. A., Seddon, P. J., Craig, M. D., & Russell, J. C. (2023). A review of methods for detecting rats at low densities, with implications for surveillance. Biological Invasions. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1007/s10530-023-03133-0

Hickcox, R. P., Mattern, T., Young, M. J., Rodríguez-Recio, M., van Heezik, Y., & Seddon, P. J. (2023). Risks, resources, and refugia: Spatial overlap between yellow-eyed penguin foraging distribution and prey, commercial fisheries, and marine protected areas. Biological Conservation, 284, 110197. doi: 10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110197

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