“Eucalypts as food for folivores” presented by Karen Marsh

Dr Karen Marsh leads the Nutritional Ecology Lab in the Research School of Biology at the Australian National University (ANU). She completed a PhD on the nutritional ecology of eucalypt-feeding marsupials at the ANU in 2006. Since then, she has worked on a variety of research projects, including why captive possums and koalas are “picky eaters”, how variation in the nutritional quality of eucalypts in the landscape affects the distribution of eucalypt-eating marsupials, and how hot weather affects food quality and diet selection. She is currently investigating how fire and other disturbance events alter habitat quality and landscape use by koalas.

“Applying what we know about the nutritional ecology of marsupial folivores to landscape management” presented by Kara Youngentob and Karen Marsh

Originally presented as part of the Restoring Nutritional Landscapes workshop in December, 2021.

Dr Karen Marsh and Dr Kara Youngentob discuss applying what we know about nutritional ecology to revegetation practice. They also talk about important directions for future research to fill critical knowledge gaps.

“Temperature and feeding in marsupial folivores” presented by Phillipa Beale

Dr Pip Beale is an ecophysiologist with an interest in the intersections between the environment and animal physiology and what they may mean into the future. After a BSc in biology from UNSW and obtaining a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from MelbUni, she moved into a PhD at the ANU studying the effects of ambient temperature on feeding in marsupial folivores. She taught in comparative animal physiology at ANU before working as a veterinarian at the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital. She is currently contracting in animal health standards and food safety for trade between Australia and North Asian countries while attempting to publish her research, and learning to surf in Tasmania.