Zoology Department, University of Otago
@zoologyotago.bsky.social
A page for past and present students to keep informed about what is currently happening in Zoology at Otago.
https://www.otago.ac.nz/zoology
https://www.otago.ac.nz/zoology
Mixing in Moderation: Slow Transmission of Non-Local Macroparasites Following a Population Augmentation of an Endangered Australian Skink
doi.org/10.1111/mec....
doi.org/10.1111/mec....
November 15, 2025 at 2:40 AM
Mixing in Moderation: Slow Transmission of Non-Local Macroparasites Following a Population Augmentation of an Endangered Australian Skink
doi.org/10.1111/mec....
doi.org/10.1111/mec....
🦭📸 Student entry for the Zoology Photo/Video Comp 2025! “Kekeno” by Ava Thomas, a beautiful shot of an NZ fur seal, one of Aotearoa’s coastal regulars and classified as Least Concern.
Ava is a second-year Zoology & Ecology major with a soft spot for native birds. 🌿✨
Ava is a second-year Zoology & Ecology major with a soft spot for native birds. 🌿✨
November 13, 2025 at 10:38 PM
🦭📸 Student entry for the Zoology Photo/Video Comp 2025! “Kekeno” by Ava Thomas, a beautiful shot of an NZ fur seal, one of Aotearoa’s coastal regulars and classified as Least Concern.
Ava is a second-year Zoology & Ecology major with a soft spot for native birds. 🌿✨
Ava is a second-year Zoology & Ecology major with a soft spot for native birds. 🌿✨
🦅📸 Student entry - Zoology Photo/Video Comp 2025! “A Collection of Native Birds” by Diego Carena-Santiago featuring a feeding Tarapirohe, stretching Tōrea pango, strutting Hoiho, intense Kārearea portrait, and Pāpango in flight. Diego is a BSc student in Ecology & Zoology 🌿✨
November 13, 2025 at 10:33 PM
🦅📸 Student entry - Zoology Photo/Video Comp 2025! “A Collection of Native Birds” by Diego Carena-Santiago featuring a feeding Tarapirohe, stretching Tōrea pango, strutting Hoiho, intense Kārearea portrait, and Pāpango in flight. Diego is a BSc student in Ecology & Zoology 🌿✨
🐦📸 Juvenile tern contemplating life… and fish traps 🐟😂
Shot by Ross Thompson (Carolyn Burns Chair in Freshwater Science) for the 2025 Zoology Photo/Video Comp. 💧✨
Shot by Ross Thompson (Carolyn Burns Chair in Freshwater Science) for the 2025 Zoology Photo/Video Comp. 💧✨
November 13, 2025 at 10:26 PM
🐦📸 Juvenile tern contemplating life… and fish traps 🐟😂
Shot by Ross Thompson (Carolyn Burns Chair in Freshwater Science) for the 2025 Zoology Photo/Video Comp. 💧✨
Shot by Ross Thompson (Carolyn Burns Chair in Freshwater Science) for the 2025 Zoology Photo/Video Comp. 💧✨
Diet‐Faeces Trophic Discrimination Factor and Gut Passage Time of an Aotearoa New Zealand Insectivorous Bat, Chalinolobus tuberculatus, Determined via Controlled Feeding Experiment
doi.org/10.1111/jpn....
doi.org/10.1111/jpn....
October 29, 2025 at 1:41 AM
Diet‐Faeces Trophic Discrimination Factor and Gut Passage Time of an Aotearoa New Zealand Insectivorous Bat, Chalinolobus tuberculatus, Determined via Controlled Feeding Experiment
doi.org/10.1111/jpn....
doi.org/10.1111/jpn....
Assessing how biofilms modulate stream periphyton metacommunity assemblage: A translocation experiment
doi.org/10.1002/ecy....
doi.org/10.1002/ecy....
October 29, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Assessing how biofilms modulate stream periphyton metacommunity assemblage: A translocation experiment
doi.org/10.1002/ecy....
doi.org/10.1002/ecy....
Commonly used funnel trap causes rostral damage in Lakes skink (Oligosoma aff. chloronoton ‘West Otago’)
doi.org/10.20417/nzj...
doi.org/10.20417/nzj...
October 29, 2025 at 1:34 AM
Commonly used funnel trap causes rostral damage in Lakes skink (Oligosoma aff. chloronoton ‘West Otago’)
doi.org/10.20417/nzj...
doi.org/10.20417/nzj...
Ground‐Truthing of MaxEnt Models Reveals Poor Predictive Accuracy for Lizards in the Mackenzie Basin, New Zealand
doi.org/10.1002/ece3...
doi.org/10.1002/ece3...
October 29, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Ground‐Truthing of MaxEnt Models Reveals Poor Predictive Accuracy for Lizards in the Mackenzie Basin, New Zealand
doi.org/10.1002/ece3...
doi.org/10.1002/ece3...
Acoustic monitoring reveals widespread distribution of pekapeka across an isolated forest ecosanctuary, Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari doi.org/10.20417/nzj...
October 29, 2025 at 1:30 AM
Acoustic monitoring reveals widespread distribution of pekapeka across an isolated forest ecosanctuary, Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari doi.org/10.20417/nzj...
🦎 Student Non-Bird Photo | Zoology Photo/Video Comp 2025: “Sleepy Stumpy Bumpy” by Becca Barnett (3rd-yr Zoology). Meet Bumps, a shingleback/sleepy lizard from Orana Wildlife Park mid-“climb” attempt—she bailed soon after 😴. Herp joy, captured. 📸🌿
October 20, 2025 at 10:37 PM
🦎 Student Non-Bird Photo | Zoology Photo/Video Comp 2025: “Sleepy Stumpy Bumpy” by Becca Barnett (3rd-yr Zoology). Meet Bumps, a shingleback/sleepy lizard from Orana Wildlife Park mid-“climb” attempt—she bailed soon after 😴. Herp joy, captured. 📸🌿
🐦 Student Bird Photo | Zoology Photo/Video Comp 2025
“Urban Aviary” by Sam Clark (2nd-yr Zoology & Microbiology, Otago).
Ōtepoti’s everyday avifauna: Kererū, Pīwakawaka, Tiu, Pūtangitangi. Urban birds doing their thing. 📸🌿
“Urban Aviary” by Sam Clark (2nd-yr Zoology & Microbiology, Otago).
Ōtepoti’s everyday avifauna: Kererū, Pīwakawaka, Tiu, Pūtangitangi. Urban birds doing their thing. 📸🌿
October 20, 2025 at 10:33 PM
🐦 Student Bird Photo | Zoology Photo/Video Comp 2025
“Urban Aviary” by Sam Clark (2nd-yr Zoology & Microbiology, Otago).
Ōtepoti’s everyday avifauna: Kererū, Pīwakawaka, Tiu, Pūtangitangi. Urban birds doing their thing. 📸🌿
“Urban Aviary” by Sam Clark (2nd-yr Zoology & Microbiology, Otago).
Ōtepoti’s everyday avifauna: Kererū, Pīwakawaka, Tiu, Pūtangitangi. Urban birds doing their thing. 📸🌿
🔬🪱 Video entry | Zoology Photo/Video Comp 2025: “Hey, I am alive!” by Xuhong Chai (3rd-yr PhD). At 100×, an upside-down, invitro-reared Maritrema poulini trematode stretches and expels waste on a slide. Xuhong studies the parasite’s microbiome and its freshwater isopod hosts.
October 20, 2025 at 10:25 PM
🔬🪱 Video entry | Zoology Photo/Video Comp 2025: “Hey, I am alive!” by Xuhong Chai (3rd-yr PhD). At 100×, an upside-down, invitro-reared Maritrema poulini trematode stretches and expels waste on a slide. Xuhong studies the parasite’s microbiome and its freshwater isopod hosts.
🧠💚 Mental Health Awareness Week (6–12 Oct)! We’re celebrating the Five Ways to Wellbeing with chill, drop-in events. Grab a Self-Care Bingo sheet at the front desk & complete one for a prize. Uni-wide events too for staff/students (tinyurl.com/3xze36fd). Poster 👇
October 2, 2025 at 2:55 AM
🧠💚 Mental Health Awareness Week (6–12 Oct)! We’re celebrating the Five Ways to Wellbeing with chill, drop-in events. Grab a Self-Care Bingo sheet at the front desk & complete one for a prize. Uni-wide events too for staff/students (tinyurl.com/3xze36fd). Poster 👇
🐝 3rd Place — Staff Photo | Zoology Photo/Video Comp 2025: “Bumble Bee Inspired Progress Flag” by Senior Lecturer Jenny Jandt @thewasplady.bsky.social. Bees across Ōtago—field, backyard & glasshouse—celebrate colour and pride in our Rainbow Community. 🌈
September 29, 2025 at 12:52 AM
🐝 3rd Place — Staff Photo | Zoology Photo/Video Comp 2025: “Bumble Bee Inspired Progress Flag” by Senior Lecturer Jenny Jandt @thewasplady.bsky.social. Bees across Ōtago—field, backyard & glasshouse—celebrate colour and pride in our Rainbow Community. 🌈
🏆 2nd place Staff Photo – Zoology Comp 2025! 🦂
Seriously cool scorpion by Jo Monks, snapped under UV during night-time escapades in Borneo at the World Congress of Herpetology.
Jo is a Senior Lecturer who loves lizards & champions science for their conservation.
Seriously cool scorpion by Jo Monks, snapped under UV during night-time escapades in Borneo at the World Congress of Herpetology.
Jo is a Senior Lecturer who loves lizards & champions science for their conservation.
September 11, 2025 at 11:11 PM
🏆 2nd place Staff Photo – Zoology Comp 2025! 🦂
Seriously cool scorpion by Jo Monks, snapped under UV during night-time escapades in Borneo at the World Congress of Herpetology.
Jo is a Senior Lecturer who loves lizards & champions science for their conservation.
Seriously cool scorpion by Jo Monks, snapped under UV during night-time escapades in Borneo at the World Congress of Herpetology.
Jo is a Senior Lecturer who loves lizards & champions science for their conservation.
Incidental distribution and activity of the flightless Campbell Island teal (Anas nesiotis) on Campbell Island/Motu Ihupuku, New Zealand
www.birdsnz.org.nz/wp-content/u...
www.birdsnz.org.nz/wp-content/u...
September 10, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Incidental distribution and activity of the flightless Campbell Island teal (Anas nesiotis) on Campbell Island/Motu Ihupuku, New Zealand
www.birdsnz.org.nz/wp-content/u...
www.birdsnz.org.nz/wp-content/u...
Congratulations to Katie Buschang, PhD student from Zoology, who finished runner-up at the University 3 minute-thesis competition grand finale.
www.facebook.com/share/p/14Gh...
www.facebook.com/share/p/14Gh...
September 8, 2025 at 12:00 AM
Congratulations to Katie Buschang, PhD student from Zoology, who finished runner-up at the University 3 minute-thesis competition grand finale.
www.facebook.com/share/p/14Gh...
www.facebook.com/share/p/14Gh...
🌟 1st Place – Staff Category! 🌟
Zoology Photo/Video Comp 2025
📸 Crawlin’ in the Deep by Allison Miller
A curious Milford Sound wheke strolling the marine block 🐙💙
Allison is a postdoc researching evolutionary ecology, phylogenetics & zoonoses.
Zoology Photo/Video Comp 2025
📸 Crawlin’ in the Deep by Allison Miller
A curious Milford Sound wheke strolling the marine block 🐙💙
Allison is a postdoc researching evolutionary ecology, phylogenetics & zoonoses.
September 7, 2025 at 10:08 PM
🌟 1st Place – Staff Category! 🌟
Zoology Photo/Video Comp 2025
📸 Crawlin’ in the Deep by Allison Miller
A curious Milford Sound wheke strolling the marine block 🐙💙
Allison is a postdoc researching evolutionary ecology, phylogenetics & zoonoses.
Zoology Photo/Video Comp 2025
📸 Crawlin’ in the Deep by Allison Miller
A curious Milford Sound wheke strolling the marine block 🐙💙
Allison is a postdoc researching evolutionary ecology, phylogenetics & zoonoses.
🌟 3rd place in the Student Non-Bird Photo category of the Zoology Photo/Video Comp 2025!
📸 Sea Lion Pups — playful pups in the chaos of Enderby Island’s sea lion beach.
👤 Photographer: Oskar Ehrhardt, wildlife management student aiming for a seabird master’s!
📸 Sea Lion Pups — playful pups in the chaos of Enderby Island’s sea lion beach.
👤 Photographer: Oskar Ehrhardt, wildlife management student aiming for a seabird master’s!
September 7, 2025 at 10:04 PM
🌟 3rd place in the Student Non-Bird Photo category of the Zoology Photo/Video Comp 2025!
📸 Sea Lion Pups — playful pups in the chaos of Enderby Island’s sea lion beach.
👤 Photographer: Oskar Ehrhardt, wildlife management student aiming for a seabird master’s!
📸 Sea Lion Pups — playful pups in the chaos of Enderby Island’s sea lion beach.
👤 Photographer: Oskar Ehrhardt, wildlife management student aiming for a seabird master’s!
🏆 3rd place Student Bird Photo – Zoology Comp 2025! 🐧 Faces of the Subantarctic by Bianca Keys shows rare moments of erect-crested & eastern rockhopper penguins.
Bianca, a penguin-obsessed PhD student, studies their ecology & trends in remote subantarctic colonies.
Bianca, a penguin-obsessed PhD student, studies their ecology & trends in remote subantarctic colonies.
August 14, 2025 at 6:05 AM
🏆 3rd place Student Bird Photo – Zoology Comp 2025! 🐧 Faces of the Subantarctic by Bianca Keys shows rare moments of erect-crested & eastern rockhopper penguins.
Bianca, a penguin-obsessed PhD student, studies their ecology & trends in remote subantarctic colonies.
Bianca, a penguin-obsessed PhD student, studies their ecology & trends in remote subantarctic colonies.
📸 2nd Place – Student Non-Bird Photo, Zoology Photo/Video Competition 2025
Morena by Pearl Barry 🦎
A young Otago green skink basks with its siblings at Orokonui Ecosanctuary 🌿
Pearl Barry is an ecology grad researching keystone behaviour and species translocations.
Morena by Pearl Barry 🦎
A young Otago green skink basks with its siblings at Orokonui Ecosanctuary 🌿
Pearl Barry is an ecology grad researching keystone behaviour and species translocations.
August 8, 2025 at 1:21 AM
📸 2nd Place – Student Non-Bird Photo, Zoology Photo/Video Competition 2025
Morena by Pearl Barry 🦎
A young Otago green skink basks with its siblings at Orokonui Ecosanctuary 🌿
Pearl Barry is an ecology grad researching keystone behaviour and species translocations.
Morena by Pearl Barry 🦎
A young Otago green skink basks with its siblings at Orokonui Ecosanctuary 🌿
Pearl Barry is an ecology grad researching keystone behaviour and species translocations.
🐧 2nd Place – Student Bird Photo Category
📸 Hoiho and Megaherbs on Enderby
A stunning shot of a Hoiho soaking in the view from Enderby’s cliffs!
Congrats to Oskar Ehrhardt, wildlife management student and future seabird scientist 🐦🌿
📸 Hoiho and Megaherbs on Enderby
A stunning shot of a Hoiho soaking in the view from Enderby’s cliffs!
Congrats to Oskar Ehrhardt, wildlife management student and future seabird scientist 🐦🌿
August 1, 2025 at 3:02 AM
🐧 2nd Place – Student Bird Photo Category
📸 Hoiho and Megaherbs on Enderby
A stunning shot of a Hoiho soaking in the view from Enderby’s cliffs!
Congrats to Oskar Ehrhardt, wildlife management student and future seabird scientist 🐦🌿
📸 Hoiho and Megaherbs on Enderby
A stunning shot of a Hoiho soaking in the view from Enderby’s cliffs!
Congrats to Oskar Ehrhardt, wildlife management student and future seabird scientist 🐦🌿
Pollen specialisation of native bees in Dunedin
doi.org/10.1080/0077...
doi.org/10.1080/0077...
July 25, 2025 at 2:03 AM
Pollen specialisation of native bees in Dunedin
doi.org/10.1080/0077...
doi.org/10.1080/0077...
A Jack of All Trades—Tawaki/Fiordland penguins are able to utilise diverse marine habitats during winter migration
doi.org/10.7717/peer...
doi.org/10.7717/peer...
July 25, 2025 at 2:00 AM
A Jack of All Trades—Tawaki/Fiordland penguins are able to utilise diverse marine habitats during winter migration
doi.org/10.7717/peer...
doi.org/10.7717/peer...
Inter-colony and inter-annual behavioural plasticity in the foraging strategies of a fjord-dwelling penguin—good news in the face of environmental change?
doi.org/10.7717/peer...
doi.org/10.7717/peer...
July 25, 2025 at 2:00 AM
Inter-colony and inter-annual behavioural plasticity in the foraging strategies of a fjord-dwelling penguin—good news in the face of environmental change?
doi.org/10.7717/peer...
doi.org/10.7717/peer...