John F. McEvoy

I have recently joined a team at the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) to help analyse data from their Cattle, Land and Fire (CaLF) project in the Kimberley. The project has been using GPS collars to track the movements of cattle on several cattle stations around the AWC's Mornington Sanctuary in the Kimberley. The aim is to assess how the cattle interact with the EcoFire program, a precise fire management program that uses small prescribed burns to maximise the area of

I've recently started collaborating on a fantastic project looking at the foraging behaviour and nesting success of endangered swift parrots (Lathamus discolor) in Tasmania. My good friends and colleagues Dejan Stojanovic and Matthew Webb at ANU have been studying these beautiful and vulnerable birds for years and have recently deployed GPS tags on a select few of them as well as painstakinly gathering data on flowering trees and nestling success. I'm pitching in to help out

I recently published a paper with Paul McDonald and Graham Hall at University of New England in Australia where we evaluated the potential of UAVs (drones) for large scale waterfowl surveys. Most large scale waterfowl surveys are currently done using fixed wing aircraft with one or two trained observers looking out a window and counting/identifying birds as they go. We thought we could harness some of the power of UAVs to provide detailed photographic surveys of targeted wetl

I recently did a segment on an ABC radio show called "Creepy But Curious" where scientists from University of New England Talk about all the glorious and gross things nature has to offer. Click here to listen to me talking about ants, butterflies deception and death. #Wildlife #Ecology #GPS #Conservation #Science #MovementEcology #Australia

A big part of my PhD work involved looking into potential cues for long distance movement in nomadic desert waterfowl. The arid landscapes of Australia are dominated by 'boom and bust' dynamics where long periods of drought are punctuated by periods of intense and continental-scale flooding. All life in the arid zone has to be able to respond to these rapid changes in resource distributions and many birds adopt nomadic movement behaviours. I used a combination of GPS tracking

My colleague Raoul and I have a tradition of buying Kinder eggs while on the road. Given that our field trips have sometimes lasted two months at a time that leads to a lot of cool toys on the dashboard. One of particular note was a scientist Papa Smurf, complete with test tube and thoughtful expression. Papa Smurf travelled all over Australia with us even into the Simspon Desert. At one point we wanted to get a photo of him at the famous Birdsville Hotel (in the middle of th