Welcome

The School of Animal Biology was formed in 2002 from the amalgamation of the Departments of Zoology and Animal Science, from the former Faculties of Science and Agriculture. The School continues the traditional strengths of each of these departments in basic and applied animal science, and provides new strengths from the synergy of the two former departments.

Our goal is to teach and conduct high quality research in animal biology and animal production at both fundamental and applied levels. 

The interests of the School’s staff are broad, covering native animal species (vertebrates and invertebrates) and species used in agriculture and aquaculture. 

Our research strengths are in:

• evolutionary biology including speciation, systematics, sexual selection, population ecology and animal acoustics;
• ecology at population and community levels, and in marine and terrestrial environments;
• conservation biology of vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as the genetics of conservation;
• animal physiology including nutrition, ecophysiology, comparative physiology, energetics, and lactation;
• neurobiology including nerve development and regeneration and comparative studies on visual system function and evolution;
• animal production including nutrition, pest management, endocrinology and reproductive biology, dairy production, entomology, and genetics.

An overall theme amongst these various topics is conservation and environmental biology, covering endangered species management, genetics and population biology, and impact assessment.

The school teaches both undergraduate students and postgraduates at Masters and Ph D level.  Our courses broadly reflect our research interests, and contribute to degrees in Agriculture, Natural Resource Management, Animal Science, Science, Environmental Science, Marine Science, Neuroscience, and Medicine and Dentistry.