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
Reposted by Zoology Department, University of Otago
Otago has joined forces with Ngāti Hine Health Trust, one of the largest Māori health providers in Aotearoa, to address and improve persistent inequities in diabetes care for Māori ❤️🩹
Read more here ⬇️
Read more here ⬇️
Groundbreaking partnership to tackle diabetes inequities
The University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka has joined forces with Ngāti Hine Health Trust, one of the largest Māori health providers in Aotearoa, to improve diabetes care for Māori.
www.otago.ac.nz
November 14, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Otago has joined forces with Ngāti Hine Health Trust, one of the largest Māori health providers in Aotearoa, to address and improve persistent inequities in diabetes care for Māori ❤️🩹
Read more here ⬇️
Read more here ⬇️
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. 💧✨
Reposted by Zoology Department, University of Otago
Huge thanks to Dr. Jerusha Bennett at the University of Otago @zoologyotago.bsky.social for the opportunity for us to create the animation of this incredible trematode parasite Copiatestes!! ❤️ Check out the video and learn more about the mysterious anklets on sea bird legs!
youtu.be/EAt9cONTD88
youtu.be/EAt9cONTD88
Threads of Trouble: The Story of Copiatestes and Our Manu by Dr. Jerusha Bennett
YouTube video by Global Parasitologist Coalition
youtu.be
November 13, 2025 at 12:05 AM
Huge thanks to Dr. Jerusha Bennett at the University of Otago @zoologyotago.bsky.social for the opportunity for us to create the animation of this incredible trematode parasite Copiatestes!! ❤️ Check out the video and learn more about the mysterious anklets on sea bird legs!
youtu.be/EAt9cONTD88
youtu.be/EAt9cONTD88
How Important Is the Precise Matching of Provenance in Weed Biocontrol? A Case Study With Acacia auriculiformis Herbivores
doi.org/10.1111/eea....
doi.org/10.1111/eea....
How Important Is the Precise Matching of Provenance in Weed Biocontrol? A Case Study With Acacia auriculiformis Herbivores
We compared the fecundity and damage caused by Calomela intemerata beetles on Acacia auriculiformis plants from different provenances. Beetles from Queensland laid more eggs and caused significantly ...
doi.org
October 29, 2025 at 1:42 AM
How Important Is the Precise Matching of Provenance in Weed Biocontrol? A Case Study With Acacia auriculiformis Herbivores
doi.org/10.1111/eea....
doi.org/10.1111/eea....
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...
Reposted by Zoology Department, University of Otago
We're hosting a #career panel for #WomenInOceanScience with a lovely panel of #marine-focused #women. They'll talk about their #career #journey and how they contribute to #ocean #science.
@universityofotago.bsky.social @hollykoch20.bsky.social @zoologyotago.bsky.social @tuhura.bsky.social
@universityofotago.bsky.social @hollykoch20.bsky.social @zoologyotago.bsky.social @tuhura.bsky.social
October 27, 2025 at 11:09 PM
We're hosting a #career panel for #WomenInOceanScience with a lovely panel of #marine-focused #women. They'll talk about their #career #journey and how they contribute to #ocean #science.
@universityofotago.bsky.social @hollykoch20.bsky.social @zoologyotago.bsky.social @tuhura.bsky.social
@universityofotago.bsky.social @hollykoch20.bsky.social @zoologyotago.bsky.social @tuhura.bsky.social
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.
Reposted by Zoology Department, University of Otago
If you want to study a genetic disorder of growth, in a non-mammalian model system, Xenopus 🐸 has a unique advantage. As we show with Recql4 in G3 this month, it is possible to knock out a gene with CRISPR on just one side of the animal doi.org/10.1093/g3jo... 🧪
Unilateral loss of recql4 function in Xenopus laevis tadpoles leads to ipsilateral ablation of the forelimb, hypoplastic Meckel's cartilage, and vascular defects
Abstract. RECQL4 encodes a RecQ helicase, one of a family of DNA unwinding enzymes with roles in DNA replication, double-strand break repair, and genomic s
doi.org
October 9, 2025 at 10:09 AM
If you want to study a genetic disorder of growth, in a non-mammalian model system, Xenopus 🐸 has a unique advantage. As we show with Recql4 in G3 this month, it is possible to knock out a gene with CRISPR on just one side of the animal doi.org/10.1093/g3jo... 🧪
🐣 3rd Place - Video | Zoology Photo/Video Competition 2025: “Tūturiwhatu” (NZ dotterel, Charadrius obscurus) by Ava Thomas (2nd-year Zoology & Ecology). Endangered (~2,500 left). Filmed in Coromandel: a chick tucks into its parent’s feathers to dodge the wind. 🐦🌿 www.facebook.com/share/v/16BJ...
October 3, 2025 at 1:57 AM
🐣 3rd Place - Video | Zoology Photo/Video Competition 2025: “Tūturiwhatu” (NZ dotterel, Charadrius obscurus) by Ava Thomas (2nd-year Zoology & Ecology). Endangered (~2,500 left). Filmed in Coromandel: a chick tucks into its parent’s feathers to dodge the wind. 🐦🌿 www.facebook.com/share/v/16BJ...
🧠💚 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 👇
🎬 2nd Place — Video | Zoology Photo/Video Comp 2025: “Microplastic Sampling in the Central Lakes Area.” By Alice Gilbert (MSc, Freshwater). On Lake Dunstan with WAI Wānaka, Alice samples for microplastics. No animals on camera (invertebrates likely lurking!).
www.facebook.com/share/v/1Chp...
www.facebook.com/share/v/1Chp...
September 29, 2025 at 12:53 AM
🎬 2nd Place — Video | Zoology Photo/Video Comp 2025: “Microplastic Sampling in the Central Lakes Area.” By Alice Gilbert (MSc, Freshwater). On Lake Dunstan with WAI Wānaka, Alice samples for microplastics. No animals on camera (invertebrates likely lurking!).
www.facebook.com/share/v/1Chp...
www.facebook.com/share/v/1Chp...
🐝 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.
Another case of island gigantism: the extinct Hodgens’ Waterhen (Tribonyx hodgenorum) is a member of Porzana (Aves: Rallidae)
doi.org/10.1007/s103...
doi.org/10.1007/s103...
Another case of island gigantism: the extinct Hodgens’ Waterhen (Tribonyx hodgenorum) is a member of Porzana (Aves: Rallidae) - Journal of Ornithology
Tribonyx hodgenorum (Scarlett, Rec Canterb Mus 6:265–266, 1955) was a flightless rail (Rallidae) endemic to Aotearoa New Zealand that became extinct in the eighteenth century. The affinities of this r...
doi.org
September 10, 2025 at 12:24 AM
Another case of island gigantism: the extinct Hodgens’ Waterhen (Tribonyx hodgenorum) is a member of Porzana (Aves: Rallidae)
doi.org/10.1007/s103...
doi.org/10.1007/s103...
Brain-Encysting Trematodes Increase the Frequency
but Reduce the Repeatability of Surfacing Behaviour in
Mottled Triplefin
doi.org/10.1111/eth....
but Reduce the Repeatability of Surfacing Behaviour in
Mottled Triplefin
doi.org/10.1111/eth....
Brain‐Encysting Trematodes Increase the Frequency but Reduce the Repeatability of Surfacing Behaviour in Mottled Triplefin
In Otago Harbour, New Zealand, the trophically transmitted trematode Cardiocephaloides ovicorpus infects the brain of a population of mottled triplefin (Forsterygion capito) with high prevalence and ....
doi.org
September 10, 2025 at 12:22 AM
Brain-Encysting Trematodes Increase the Frequency
but Reduce the Repeatability of Surfacing Behaviour in
Mottled Triplefin
doi.org/10.1111/eth....
but Reduce the Repeatability of Surfacing Behaviour in
Mottled Triplefin
doi.org/10.1111/eth....
Population structure of three New Zealand crested penguins identifies current conservation challenges for the Fiordland penguin/tawaki, erect-crested penguin, and eastern rockhopper penguin
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
Population structure of three New Zealand crested penguins identifies current conservation challenges for the Fiordland penguin/tawaki, erect-crested penguin, and eastern rockhopper penguin
Identifying contemporary population structure and genetic connectivity among seabird populations is essential for developing conservation plans for threatened species, especially as factors like philo...
doi.org
September 10, 2025 at 12:21 AM
Population structure of three New Zealand crested penguins identifies current conservation challenges for the Fiordland penguin/tawaki, erect-crested penguin, and eastern rockhopper penguin
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
doi.org/10.1371/jour...