We are delighted to share the news that Victoria Austin has joined our team as our new Ecological Programs Manager.
Victoria is a Fulbright scholar and PhD candidate at the Lab of Animal Ecology at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, University of Western Sydney.
She is submitting her thesis this month on the topic Investigating the structure and function of mimetic song in female superb lyrebirds.
Victoria brings a wealth of experience in scientific methodology development, fauna camera trapping, scientific monitoring and community engagement.
Victoria’s role at the Institute will have a broad ecological monitoring remit. Her first task is restarting our citizen science ecological monitoring program that includes links to the WWF Eye on Recovery program and the RSPCA cat monitoring program. Victoria will also be taking over the management of our Blue Gum Forest project and our Upland Swamps project as well as working with our wider research community to develop new project ideas and secure grants funding.
Victoria has already met several of our citizen science volunteers, project staff and interns and is looking forward to meeting everyone involved in our programs as soon as possible.
You can contact Vicky on v.austin@bmwhi.org.au or follow her on twitter @avianbehaviour. You can learn more about her research on the Animal Ecology Lab site.
Victoria capturing bird vocalisations, Jamison Valley
MORE ABOUT VICTORIA
Victoria - or Vicky, as she prefers to be called - is passionate about avian behavioural ecology and is particularly interested in how and why birds (especially female birds) use song and vocalisations. Vicky has a Bachelor of Science from Macquarie University and completed her honours on the nocturnal behaviour and habitat use of waterfowl and the implications for conservation. After honours she travelled to remote Paraguay and completed a research internship at Reserva Natural Laguna Blanca, studying the burrowing owl, comparing nest site characteristics and behaviour of owls between pristine Cerrado and cleared farm land. She then received a scholarship from Macquarie University for a Masters of Research based at Fowlers Gap Arid Zone Research Station in Central Australia where she studied the behavioural ecology of the chirruping wedgebill, an arid zone endemic species of passerine known for its highly conspicuous singing behaviours. Her field work involved a mixture of observations and playback experiments to determine the function of song and duets during the breeding season. It was here that her interest in female bird song further developed, leading to her current PhD project on the structure and function of mimetic song in female superb lyrebirds.