Stephanie Godfrey

Postgraduate Student

Contact Details

Academic Qualifications

• BSc Biodiversity and Conservation (Honours)

Research

Social connectivity and parasite transmission in the territorial reptile, the tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) 
Parasites play a central role in the ecology and evolution of their hosts. However, disease is a major threat to the survival of wildlife populations, therefore it is increasingly important to understand how parasites affect the ecology of their hosts. As parasite transmission may directly be determined by host behaviour, parasites are hypothesized to play a key role in the evolution of social organisation. This project investigates how social connectivity affects parasite transmission in the territorial reptile, the tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus).

The tuatara is an endangered reptile from New Zealand that exhibits stable, long term territories. While females tend to occupy a small home range area around their burrow, larger male territories are actively defended through aggressive encounters. The tuatara is host to ticks (Aponomma sphenodonti), mites (Neotrombicula sphenodonti), a protozoan blood parasite (Haemogregarina tuatarae) and intestinal nematodes. Little is known of these host-parasite interactions and the impacts of these parasites on the fitness and ecology of their host.

This research is based on Stephens Island (Cook Strait, New Zealand), and is part of an international collaboration with researchers from Victoria University of Wellington and the Allan Wilson Centre. Field research involves a mark recapture study of populations of tuatara, examining seasonal dynamics of parasitism, and how parasite load correlates with variation in territory structure, which is being investigated in parallel with this study by Jennifer Moore (PhD student). Specifically, we will use social network analyses to determine how social connectivity drives the dynamics of parasite transmission, and whether some individuals may act as ‘superspreaders’. This study will allow us to examine how social connectivity in a stable, long term territorial social system may affect the transmission dynamics of parasites with different transmission modes.

Grants/Funding

• Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment

• Australian Society of Herpetology Student Research Grant

• Wildlife Disease Association (Australiasian) Research Grant

• Flinders University of South Australia Overseas Field Trip Grant

• San Diego Zoo (to Dr. Nicky Nelson)

• Allan Wilson Centre (to Dr. Nicky Nelson)

• Victoria University of Wellington Research Fund (to Dr. Nicky Nelson)

Publications

• Godfrey SS, Bull CM, and Gardner MG (in press) Associations between blood parasite infection and a microsatellite DNA allele in an Australia scincid lizard (Egernia stokesii). Parasitology Research.

• Godfrey SS, Bull CM, Murray K, and Gardner MG (2006) Transmission mode and distribution of parasites among groups of the social lizard Egernia stokesii. Parasitology Research. 99(3): 223 – 230.

Conferences

Supervisors

Dr Nicola Nelson - Victoria University of Wellington

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