Australia and the South-west Pacific are rich in mammalian biodiversity, and many species are found nowhere else on the planet. But much work remains to better document this diversity and put conservation actions in place, because our region’s mammal extinction rates are extraordinarily high.
Dr Tyrone Lavery uses field surveys, museum collections and molecular data to answer questions about how mammals are distributed and related, how their distributions are shaped by geographic and biological variables, how they interact with their environments, and how we can best conserve them. He focuses on documenting new species so that we can properly protect them, and he also searches for the ones that are missing (just in case they’re out there somewhere and still need our help).