Working within a team, I identify animals of all types (e.g. Ringtail Possum), provide specific information and general advice to natural history enquiries received by the Museum.

I undertake research related to the enquiries received and as a team we deliver innovative projects, which increase the understanding of natural and cultural history to visitors, across the Museum (e.g. specimen wall).  These educational programs are also presented to audiences throughout regional South Australia.

For a number of years I have been working on a photographic field guide of Adelaide’s wildlife (e.g. Mole Cricket).  The Museum has supported this project and included it as part my current role.

On a professional level, but outside my work at the museum, I am involved in research on hollow nesting fauna.  The images below include installing a nesting box, an Adelaide Rosella visiting a box and six (6) almost fully grown Adelaide Rosella chicks in the bottom of a box.  I also work educating councils, arborists and the public in relation to attracting and managing wildlife in urban and peri-urban environments.

We commonly receive enquiries about insects (e.g. Psylid larvae), spiders (e.g. male Mouse Spider) and many other invertebrates (animals without backbones), as well as fish, frogs, reptiles, birds and mammals species.  Some enquiries are focused on pest animals, others are about potentially dangerous species, but many are simply about the creatures found across the Adelaide or regional South Australia.  Enquiries may be about the animal itself, some part of the animal or a trace of its presence (e.g. a track, scat, feather or bone).  Natural history related enquiries often vary, depending on the season and what species are active.

I am currently writing a book on the wildlife (e.g. Brushtail Possum and Lesser Long-eared Bat below) of the Adelaide region.  This project is supported by the University of South Australia, the Adelaide and Mt Lofty Ranges Natural Resource Management Board,  the South Australian Museum and the Thyne Reid Foundation, so any free time is spent researching, writing and photographing target species.

The South Australian Museum also has the largest collection of Australian aboriginal artefacts of any institution in the country.  While this is not an area of personal expertise, I am regularly called on to assist with identification of cultural material and associated research.