"Usually when you have humans arriving on these islands, they often bring with them unfortunately a suite of predators like rats, cats…and they wipe out lots of native species. And we know that introduced species, especially rodents, have been the major cause of losses of island biotas.”

Dr Melanie Massaro shares what we need to do to save endangered species, especially with animal populations on islands. What makes island species particularly vulnerable to extinction and how can we reduce our impact on these populations?

Melanie is an evolutionary and behavioural ecologist with an interest in a broad range of topics, including life-history evolution, contemporary adaptation, consequences of population bottlenecks, interactions between native and exotic species and conservation physiology (for more details, please refer to her research page). Melanie joined Charles Sturt University after completing two postdoctoral fellowships in New Zealand.

Episode recorded: June 2019

Host: Wes Ward, Charles Sturt Media

Production: Adam Thompson, 2MCE

Due to our many regional locations, Charles Sturt’s podcast recordings range from phone, to studio, to in-person recordings, leading to some natural variance in recording sound.