Captive Vertebrate Management

Staff

About the Lecturers

Kevin Evans

Kevin Evans is the subject author and lecturer for BIO489 Zoo Curatorship in 2008. Kevin is currently based at Adelaide Zoo employed by Zoos South Australia as the Director, Conservation Programs. Kevin has worked with 6 zoos both in Australia and United Kingdom over the past 27 years. Kevin was formerly the Manager, Birds and Animal Presentations at Taronga Zoo. Kevin has worked at London Zoo where he worked with ungulates, birds and small mammals and at Jersey Zoo working primarily with primates and carnivores. Kevin has held several roles for the Australasian Species Management Program (ASMP) including Taxon Advisory Group Convenor for Australian Passerines and more recently Primates and is currently on the ASMP committee.
Kevin's areas of interest include:

• developing new management procedures for improving animal welfare in zoos;
• devising effective, appropriate and measurable methods of enrichment that encourage species typical behaviours;
• improving human resource management in zoos with specific emphasis on professional development of zoo staff and the management of individual and team performance.

Kevin's present role includes; the development and management of conservation programs, curatorial services, husbandry, animal health programs, exhibit development, zoo security and capital development.

Gary Luck

Gary is an ecologist with an interest in a broad range of topics including the consequences of habitat fragmentation and degradation for native biota, ecosystem services, biogeographic patterns in species assemblages, human impacts on biodiversity, ornithology and market-based mechanisms for conservation. Gary currently lecturer in Wildlife Ecology/Natural Resource Management at Charles Sturt University, Albury and has studied or worked at five different universities including a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University in California.
Gary has a range of interests including;

• discovering the underlying mechanisms that explain the decline of certain species occupying fragmented or heavily degraded landscapes;
• developing a conceptual framework to acknowledge the importance of population diversity to the provision of ecosystem services and establishment of empirical research projects that examine the role of vertebrates in providing ecosystem services;
• with colleagues from WWF-US and Princeton University he is examining mechanistic explanations for continental patterns in species richness across Australia and North America. This includes deriving species-occurrence models using factors such as net primary productivity, temperature and evapotranspiration;
• examining how changes in the size, distribution and consumption patterns of human populations affect biodiversity;
• bird conservation, habitat use and cooperative breeding.
• Gary is a member of a large, international and interdisciplinary research group that plans to examine the utility of market-based mechanisms for conserving biodiversity.

Geoff Dutton

Geoff Dutton graduated from Newcastle University in 1986 with a BSc before undertaking a Veterinary science degree at the University of Sydney, graduating in 1990. After working as a veterinarian in numerous practices within NSW and Tasmania, he undertook more studies at Queensland University in Conservation biology before completing a PhD in reproduction at the University of Sydney. Geoff’s thesis was titled “Methods of assessing marine mammal reproduction”.

Geoff’s research interest is in assessment methods of reproduction particularly wildlife.

Margaret J Watson

Margaret Watson has been teaching at the tertiary level since 1998.  She joined Charles Sturt University in 2002 and has lectured in such diverse subjects as conservation biology, systematics and captive avian management.  At CSU, she teaches, Lecture's for BIO437, writes subjects and conducts research on avian reproductive behaviours.  She holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honours (English minor) from the University of Missouri Columbia.  She obtained her research Masters from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 1998.  Her dissertation research was on the reproductive behaviour of Roseate Terns (Sterna dougallii).  Margaret completed a Graduate Diploma in Secondary Education (Science) at CSU via distance education and is now enroled in a PhD.  She plans to teach both secondary and tertiary education in the future, as well as continue research on behaviour.

Margaret Hawkins

Margaret is presently employed as the behavioural biologist at Taronga Zoo and is a member of the Life Sciences team. With a 25 year history of involvement the zoo, originally as a volunteer, Margaret has now been on staff for more than 10 years. Margaret's original academic background is in biochemistry and she has several years experience in biomedical research.

Margaret's present role includes:

• designing data collection protocols and organisation of projects to provide answers to behavioural questions posed by Life Sciences staff;
• summarising, analysing and reporting on the results of such projects to initiating curatorial staff and carrying the project through to publication, where applicable;
• initiation of research projects in consultation with curatorial staff, especially in areas such as behavioural enrichment and assessment of zoo interpretations;
• organisation, recruitment and training of volunteer observers and the maintenance of watch standards and the coordination of all activities of volunteer observers within the zoo, by cooperation with the Zoo Friends Association and liaison with Life Sciences staff, and
• the facilitation of environmental enrichment within the zoo, through the provision of information to staff, preparation of devices and evaluation of effectiveness.

Margaret's particular research interests are the behaviour of platypus in captivity, chimpanzee behaviour both in the wild and in captivity and all aspects of environmental enrichment.

Chris Banks

Chris Banks is curator of Herpetofauna, Primates and Education Animals at Melbourne Zoo. Chris is also coordinator of South East Asian Conservation Programs for the Zoological Board of Victoria. He has worked in zoos for 30 years, mainly Melbourne Zoo but also London and Bristol Zoos in the UK and Brookfiled Zoo in Chicago and has specialised in captive management and breeding of reptiles and amphibians. Over the last decade, this has extended into conservation programs for these animals in Australia, Vietnam and the Phillipines.
Chris convenes the Reptile and Amphibiban Taxon Advisory Group for the Australasian Regional Association of Zoological Parks and Aquaria and is advisor to the IUCN/SSC Specialist Groups for Crocodiles and Tortoises and Freshwater Turtles. He has published over 100 papers, particularly in herpetofauna and conservation in both scientific and popular journals.

Shane Raidal

Shane joined the CSU veterinary program in early 2006 after 11 years of teaching and research at Murdoch University. He is an experienced veterinary pathologist with particular interests in fish and avian pathology. Shane’s outstanding contribution to avian veterinary medicine was acknowledged in 2000 by the award of the Ian Clunies Ross Award by the Australian College of Veterinary Scientists. He has co-authored with 12 post-graduate students over 60 peer-reviewed publications and is active in a number of professional organisations and scholarly networks. At CSU, Shane will have responsibility for the teaching of pathology in the third year subject Principles of Pathobiology and will contribute to the diagnostic pathology activities of the CSU VDL.

Joanne Connolly

Joanne Connolly graduated with a BVSc from Sydney University and worked for several years in mixed animal practice in Tasmania and then small animal/dermatology practice in Brisbane. While in private practice, she received funding from the estate of W. V. Scott for a twelve-month investigation into the ulcerative skin disease of platypus based at Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries in Tasmania. This was followed by a PhD on the immunopathological characterisation of infectious disease in the koala and the platypus at the University of Sydney. Joanne taught histology, anatomy and microbiology to veterinary science students at the University of Sydney and microbiology to veterinary science and veterinary nursing students at Massey University in New Zealand. She is currently the coordinator of the Captive vertebrate management courses and is based at Charles Sturt University’s Wagga Wagga campus. Joanne’s academic interests include wildlife biology, husbandry and disease; veterinary microbiology, zoonoses and veterinary pathology.
Joanne’s recent research interests include:

• Mucormycosis in the platypus.
• Investigation of the epidemiology, pathogenicity and immunogenicity of the New Zealand Salmonella Typhimurium DT160 strain.
• Public health implications of Campylobacter spp. in dairy cattle and poultry (from farm to fork).
• Campylobacter spp. and Cryptococcus neoformans in the kiwi.
• Investigation of bacterial infections of marine mammals, particularly Salmonella.
• Lymphoid neoplasia, cryptococcosis and chlamydial disease in the koala.

Acknowledgements

Photographs are courtesy of Shallon McReadie (Western Plains Zoo), Heidi Austin (CSU), Claire Beastall (consultant to Singapore Zoo) and Joanne Connolly (CSU).