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ThomasMatternEmail: t.mattern@eudyptes.net
Website: https://www.tawaki-project.org

Research Interests

I am a movement ecologist and for the past 20 years have been applying various bio-logging and wildlife telemetry technologies to study the at-sea behaviour of seabirds. My work also encompasses demography and population dynamics as well as physiological consequences of human disturbance on wildlife. I focus primarily on New Zealand penguins and have worked with all our endemic species but have also contributed to other seabird research in South America, Australia, Antarctica, and the Russian Arctic. Together with my wife Ursula Ellenberg I lead the Tawaki Project (www.tawaki-project.org), a long-term study of Fiordland penguins/tawaki and other crested penguins. I am also the chair of the charitable Tawaki Trust which aims at improving our understanding and conservation of New Zealand's crested penguin species.

Current Projects

  • Foraging ecology and population dynamics of Fiordland penguins/tawaki across their distributional range
  • Utilization of the marine habitat by Yellow-eyed penguins/hoiho on the New Zealand mainland and examination of potential fisheries interactions
  • Climate-related effects on the at-sea behaviour and population developments of Erect-crested and Eastern Rockhopper penguins
  • Foraging ecology of Humboldt penguins in northern Chile: what are potential and actual effects of increased coastal developments?

Publications

Hall, A. A., Mattern, T., Rexer-Huber, K., Pütz, K., & Weir, J. S. (2026). First New Zealand fur seal population assessment at the Bounty Islands in 30 years. PeerJ, 14, e20975. doi: 10.7717/peerj.20975 Journal - Research Article

Bastías-Aguilar, I., Mattern, T., Ellenberg, U., Daigre, M., & Simeone, A. (2026). Spatio-temporal overlap between purse seine fisheries and Humboldt penguin feeding areas in northern Chile. PeerJ, 14, e20714. doi: 10.7717/peerj.20714 Journal - Research Article

VanCompernolle, M., Morris, J., Calich, H. J., Rodríguez, J. P., Marley, S. A., Pearce, J. R., … Ellenberg, U., … Mattern, T., … Sequeira, A. M. M. (2025). Vulnerability of marine megafauna to global at-sea anthropogenic threats. Conservation Biology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1111/cobi.70147 Journal - Research Article

White, J., Lavretsky, P., Garcia Borboroglu, P., Díaz, A., Ellenberg, U., Houston, D., … Mattern, T., … Seddon, P. J., & McCracken, K. G. (2025). Population structure of three New Zealand crested penguins identifies current conservation challenges for the Fiordland penguin/tawaki, erect-crested penguin, and eastern rockhopper penguin. PLoS ONE, 20(8), e0329545. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0329545 Journal - Research Article

Mattern, T., Pütz, K., Garcia Borboroglu, P., Ellenberg, U., Houston, D. M., Luthi, B., & Seddon, P. J. (2025). A Jack of all trades: Tawaki/Fiordland penguins are able to utilise diverse marine habitats during winter migration. PeerJ, 13, e19695. doi: 10.7717/peerj.19695 Journal - Research Article

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