Dr Greg Johnston

Contact Details

Key Responsibilities

• Senior Lecturer in Biodiversity & Conservation
• Conservation Biologist with Zoos SA (Royal Zoological Society of SA)
• Course Coordinator for Graduate Certificate, Diploma and Masters Degree in Biodiversity

Teaching

• BIOD1102 - Biodiversity & Conservation 1
• BIOD2100 - Biodiversity & Conservation 2
• BIOD3001 - Biodiversity & Conservation 3
• BIOL7004 - Scientific Method & Data Presentation

Research

My position at Flinders University commenced in February 2008 and is jointly funded by the Royal Zoological Society of South Australia (Zoos SA). I have been a conservation biologist with Zoos SA since 2000.

My interests are broad, lying in the general areas of evolution, ecology, behaviour and conservation. I have worked on mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and scorpions in Australia, New Guinea, the Middle East and Central America.

I am currently involved with several projects that bring scientific approaches to applied conservation. These include optimising methods for translocating bilbies, wallabies and woma pythons.

See publication list

Community Service

• President of the Australian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour (ASSAB)

• Australian representative to the International Council of Ethologists

• Member of the Pelican Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

• Member, Board of Directors, Barbara Hardy Centre for Sustainable Urban Environments, University of South Australia

• Honorary Research Associate, South Australian Museum

• Member of the South Australian Mainland Tammar Wallaby Recovery Team

• Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo Recovery Team

Research Group

Postgraduate Students

• Julie Riordan - ecology cormorants to assess whether fishing is affecting their diet and reproductive success.

• Rachel Correll - size and shape in extant kangaroos with a view to interpreting the ecology of fossil kangaroos (co-supervised with Gavin Prideaux).

• Josh Griffiths – experimental reintroduction of bilbies - co-supervised with Sue Carthew at University of Adelaide).

• Leah Kemp - experimentally reintroduction of South Australian Mainland Tammar Wallabies - co-supervised with Sue Carthew at University of Adelaide).

Honours Students

• Angharad Johnston – development of microsatellites for Australian pelicans

• Kellie Howell – the role of food in sibling conflict in Australian pelicans

• Chelsea Simms – parent-offspring conflict in budgerigars

• Bronwyn Bade – movement and home range in echidnas

• Samantha Blight – terrestrial vertebrate response to fire on Kangaroo Island (co-supervised with Duncan Mackay)

• Sally South – evolution of melanism in dragon lizards

Alumni

2008

• Jade Adams - demography of urban marbled geckoes (First class Honours) 

• Michael Geen - influence of colour, body size and posture on heat flux in reptiles (First Class Honours)

• Jennifer Munro – ecology of an endemic South Australian scorpion (First Class Honours)

2007

• Beiha-Malen Yanez  - Ecology of brush-tailed possums in urban parklands (Honours)

• Alice Dunbar - Function of spots in diamond firetail finches (Honours)

2006

• Carly Roworth - Behavioural ecology of the tawny dragon lizard (Honours)

• Ingrid Stirneman - Dietary carotenoids and immunocompetence in diamond firetail finches (First Class Honours)

2004

• Amy Campain - Bats in urban environments (Honours)

• Danae Taylor - The ecology of marbled geckoes in urban parklands (Honours)

• Karen Young - Birds as indicators of the ecological value of street trees in the urban landscape (First Class Honours)

2003

• Devi Stuart-Fox – evolution of colour variation and species richness in dragon lizards (PhD)

• Joanne Lee - The importance of hypogeous fungi in the diet of reintroduced Brush-tailed Bettongs (Honours)

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