Lab members

Alex Grabham
​Postdoctoral Fellow working with kea parrots

Averill Moser
​PhD student. Project: Causes of vigilance decrement in spiders and machine learning approaches
Marlene Leggett
​PhD student. Project: Salticid taxonomy and behaviour. Supervised with Cor Vink (Lincoln University)
​​Mark MacDougall
​PhD student. Project: Biotremology and passion vine hopper natural histtory. Supervised with Lloyd Stringer (PFR)
​​Mathilde Eriksen
PhD student. Project: Probabilistic inference in kea. Supervised with Alex Taylor (Barcelona)
Anisiia Prokshina 
PhD student. Project: Probabilistic inference in kea. Supervised with Alex Taylor (Barcelona)
​Rohan Baird
​MSc student. Project: Markers of joy in parrots
Marshall Patrick
​MSc student. Project: Planning in spiders
Francesco Cannone
PhD student. Project: Planning in spiders

Alumni

M.Sc. & B.Sc. (hons)

​​​Greer Borthwick-Taylor MSc (2023).
Biotremology and behaviour of passion vine hopper. Supervised with Lloyd Stringer (PFR)

Robin Long MSc (2023).
New Zealand scree spiders. Supervised with Cor Vink (Lincoln University).

Elizabeth de Jongh MSc (2022).
Moth biodiversity in the NZ Alps. Elizabeth now works for the NZ Department of Conservation. 

Lauren Scott MSc (2018).
Project: Jumping spider vision

Bonnie Humphrey MSc (2017).
Project: Causes of vigilance decrement in spiders

Julie Kim ​MSc (2016).
Project: NZ fur seal behaviour at rookeries.

Tess O'Malley BSc (hons) (2015). 
Project: In vitro assessment of 1080 toxicity using a mitochondrial endpoint.

​Amber Melrose MSc (2015). 
Project: Causes of vigilance decrement in jumping spiders.

Emily Tighe MSc (2013).
Project: African wild dog non-vocal communication.

Kristy Udy MSc (2012). 
Project: Dung beetle behaviour and ecology.
Kristy went to Germany to do a PhD.

Ash Card MSc (2012). 
Project: Ant mimicry.
Ash now works in Amazonian ecotourism.

Dean Harliwich MSc (2012).
Project: Octopus learning.

Dan Garnett BSc (hons) (2008). Macquarie U.
Project: Sensory exploitation of Jacky dragons by the caudal lure of Australian Death adders.
Ph.D.

​Alex Grabham PhD (2024).
Ecology and conservation of leopard seals in New Zealand waters. Alex is now a Postdoc in my lab.

​Bonnie Humphrey PhD (2024).
Causes of vigilance decrement in spiders. Bonnie is an entrepreneur.

Lydia McLean PhD (2023).
Kea cognition and conservation. Lydia now works for the NZ Department of Conservation

Samuel Aguilar PhD (2020).
​Spatial ability in salticids. Samuel went on to work for Scion (NZ forestry research institute).

Carol Bedoya PhD (2020).
Acoustic tools for detecting unwanted organisms. Carol went on to work as a bioacoustician for the Verum Group, New Zealand.

Pariya Tork PhD (2018).
Spatiotemporal patterns of behaviour in salticids.
Pariya went to to work as a biosecurity advisor at the Ministry of Primary Industries in Wellington, New Zealand.

Manuel Fernandes PhD (2017).
Sperm whale communication.
​
Yinnon Dolev PhD (2016).
Jumping spider vision: psychophysics and visual neurophysiology.
Yinnon went on to work at Philips Medical Systems in Israel. 

​Amanda Greer ​PhD (2015). 
Cues, exploration, and learning mechanisms used by kea during foraging.
Amanda now works as an ecologist in Ireland.

​Raoul Schwing PhD (2014). U of Auckland.
Kea vocalisations: A study of variability, context and function.
Raoul continued as a postdoc at the University of Vienna, Austria and now works as the kea lab manager at the University of Vienna.

Sara Kross PhD (2012).
Falcon conservation and pest management.
Sara continued as a Smith Fellow based at U California Davis, USA, then at Columbia University, and now back at the University of Canterbury!

​Laura Young PhD (2012). 
Dispersal of NZ alpine plants through frugivory (main supervisor, Prof. Dave Kelly).
Laura went on to do a Post-doc and now works for the Kea Conservation Trust/DoC.
​
Daniel Zurek PhD (2012). Macquarie U.
Jumping spider vision: psychophysics and visual neurophysiology.
Daniel continued as a postdoc at Cornell, USA and now works for Apple.