Staff Profile
A/Prof Robert Harcourt
Director of Marine Science
| Room: | E8A 386 |
|---|---|
| Phone: | +61 2 9850 7970 |
| Fax: | +61 2 9850 7972 |
| Email: | rharcour@gse.mq.edu.au |
Profile
I started snorkelling at age four and knew right there and then I wanted to be a marine biologist. I was an undergraduate at Adelaide University and was lucky enough to be awarded a place at Cambridge in England for my PhD. For my PhD thesis I got to go to Peru for two fantastic years to study South American fur seals. While I was there we had a severe El Niño year with a massive mortality for many marine predators including seals. Witnessing this overwhelming influence of El Niño on the otherwise highly productive Peruvian marine ecosystem first hand, left me with a deep impression of the importance of focussing on environmental variability if we are to understand natural systems and the strategies animals have evolved to cope with them.
After Cambridge I worked in Scotland, the USA and Mexico with seals, dolphins and whales, then onto a postdoc at the University of Otago in New Zealand on New Zealand fur seals and Adelie penguins. I came back to Australia ten years ago and set up the Marine Mammal Research Group, where I have worked with some great people on a whole range of marine wildlife.
In my spare time I am a keen bodysurfer, kayaker and scuba diver and dedicated, some might say fanatic, underwater photographer.
Research Interest
Animal Behaviour and Ecology My main interests revolve around the importance of individual variation in behaviour to foraging, communication, mating tactics and life experience. Recently much of my research has focused on individual differences and evolutionary mechanisms, combining observation and experimental manipulation of behaviour in the field with genetic methods. My second major thrust has been the use of technology to 'open a window' into the world of large marine predators. We were the first team to successfully deploy satellite transmitters on otariid seals and wintering Adelie penguins and have developed methods of measuring and interpreting dive data in two and three dimensions. This research has helped transform our understanding of how warm-blooded animals cope with environmental extremes as they forage and breed in the marine environment. I am now Team Leader the Australian Acoustic Tagging and Monitoring System (AATAMS) a national initiative to observe large marine life.
Biological Conservation Members of the MMRG have made valuable contributions to conservation of large marine vertebrates including sharks, seals, and whales. A small sample of recent work includes conservation of grey nurse and wobbegong sharks, managing human impacts and disturbance on wildlife, whale and dolphin stock structure. Apart from academic output we directly contribute to conservation in a hands-on fashion. We have drafted species recovery plans for the Federal Government, provided expert comment to many groups including state and federal government, NGOs and the United Nations Environment Program, made Expert Witness appearances in court, sat on Ecological Risk Assessment Technical panels and authored public submissions.
Teaching
Developed and convene or co-convene:
- ELS201 Introduction to Marine Science (Convene and part-teach)
- ELS303 Marine Science Project (Co-convene and part-teach)
- BIOL245 Tropical Marine Ecosystems (Co-convene)
- BIOL372 Marine Birds and Mammals
- ELS490 Marine Science Honours (co-teach)
Program Co-ordinator for the GSE program in Wildlife Conservation and the Masters of Wildlife Management (Habitat)
- BIOL861 Management of Wild Australian Mammals, (Co-convene and teach 50%)
- BIOL860 Wildlife Project, (Co-convene and teach 50%)
Selected Publications
- Harcourt, R., R. Kingston, J.J., Waas J.R., Hindell, M.A. (In press) Foraging while breeding: alternative mating strategies by male Weddell seals? Aquatic Conservation accepted 19 March 2007 (IF=1.833)
- Bilgmann, K., Möller, L., Harcourt, R., Gibbs, S., Beheregaray, L. (In press) Genetic differentiation in bottlenose dolphins from South Australia: a correlation with local oceanography and coastal geography? Marine Ecology Progress Series. Accepted 22 Nov 2006. (IF= 2.315)
- Littnan, C.L. Arnould, J.P.Y Harcourt, R G. (in press) Effect of proximity to the shelf edge on the diet of female Australian fur seals. Marine Ecology Progress Series Accepted Oct 24 2006 (IF= 2.315)
- Harcourt, R.G., Kingston, J.J., Cameron, M., Waas, J.R. and Hindell, M.A. 2007 Paternity analysis shows experience, not age, enhances mating success in an aquatically mating pinniped, the Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii) Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 61: 643-652 (IF=2.232)
- Zenger KR, Stow AJ, Peddemors, V., Briscoe DA, Harcourt RG. 2006. Wide-spread utility of highly informative AFLP molecular markers across divergent shark species Journal of Heredity 97: 607 - 611 (IF=2.110)
- Möller,. L., Beheregaray, L. Allen, S., Harcourt, R. 2006. Association patterns and kinship in female Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) of southeastern Australia Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 61: 109-117. (IF=2.232)
- Charrier, I., Harcourt, R. 2006.Individual vocal identity in mother and pup Australian sea lions, Neophoca cinerea Journal of Mammalogy. 87: 929-938. (IF=1.265)
- Wheatley, K.E., Bradshaw, C.J.AS., Davis, L.S., Harcourt, R.G., Hindell, M.A. 2006. Influence of maternal mass and condition on energy transfer in Weddell seals. Journal of Animal Ecology. 75: 724-733. (IF= 3.399)
- Stow, A., Zenger, K., Briscoe, D., Gillings, M., Peddemors, V., Otway, N. Harcourt, R. 2006. Isolation and genetic diversity of endangered grey nurse shark (Carcharias taurus) populations. Biology Letters. 2: 308-311.
- Lemon, M, Lynch, T., Cato, D. Harcourt, R. 2006.Response of travelling bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) to experimental approaches by a powerboat in Jervis Bay, New South Wales, Australia. Biological Conservation 127: 363-372. (IF = 2.581)
- Otway, N.M., Bradshaw, C.J.A, Harcourt, R.G. 2004. Estimating the rate of quasi-extinction of the Australian grey nurse shark (Carcharias taurus) population using deterministic age- and stage-classified models Biological Conservation 119:341-350. (IF = 2.581)
- Hindell, M.A, Harcourt, R.G., Waas, J.R and Thompson, D. 2002. Fine-scale, three dimensional spatial use of diving lactating female Weddell seals, Leptonychotes weddellii Marine Ecology Progress Series 242: 275-284. (IF= 2.315)
- Harcourt, R.G., C.J. Bradshaw, K. Dickson and L.S. Davis. 2002. Foraging ecology of a generalist predator, the New Zealand fur seal. Marine Ecology Progress Series 227: 11-24 (IF= 2.315)