OneHealth, conservation, parasitology, vector-borne disease,
citizen/open science, ecological restoration
Link to my 2021 public (Café Scientifique) talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa2oYUs5cjc&t=2s
Title: 'New Zealand’s bird malaria, and why it is not always a bad thing'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa2oYUs5cjc&t=2s
Title: 'New Zealand’s bird malaria, and why it is not always a bad thing'
Conservation BiologyNZ Mainland versus Island conservation
The primary challenge in NZ conservation is the control and eradication of introducedmammalian predators. The battle against constant reinvasion is the biggest problem for mainland conservation. Whereas, if an island is distant enough from potential reinvasion source populations, we can create predator free zones. This means that control and management approaches are very different for these two land-types. |
Blood parasites of wildlifeCuriously, parrots do not carry many haemosporidian blood parasites
These are kea (above); extraordinarily interesting New Zealand alpine parrots. You never know what you will find ...if you just look: When a Duvaucel gecko (a large endemic NZ species, photo below) voluntarily shed its tail, the wriggling appendage carried a tiny trace of blood. The subsequent thin blood smear revealed that the gecko carried a Rickettsia-like organism in its red blood cells. The likely vector is the native mite (Geckobia naultina) seen in this photo clustered around this fellow's eye (picture below). Here is a link to the subsequent paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S030440171100121X |