Ursula is an ecologist with keen interest and broad background in both terrestrial and marine systems. She enjoys employing novel technologies to understand how animals use their environment or respond to stressors to inform anticipatory conservation management decisions. Ursula has more than 20 years of experience in coordinating fieldwork and leading research projects in New Zealand, Australia, Chile, Canada, Germany, the Russian and Norwegian Arctic – and a soft spot for seabirds!
Ursula is a founding member of the Tawaki Trust (https://tawaki-trust.org/) and together with her partner Thomas Mattern she leads the Tawaki Project (https://www.tawaki-project.org/), a long-term study of the biology and marine ecology of Fiordland penguins/Tawaki and other crested penguins.