Matt W. Hayward

Matt is one of the rare academics with genuine experience in the 'real' world - having worked as an environmental consultant, conservation manager and researcher in the private sector, for NGOs, government and now in academia. Matt conducted a PhD on the conservation ecology of the vulnerable quokka – a small wallaby that the introduced red fox loves to kill – in the Western Australian jarrah forest. He then conducted two post docs in South Africa; the first on bushmeat hunting in the coastal forests of the Transkei with the Walter Sisulu University, and the second at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University to study the reintroduction of lions, spotted hyaenas and a leopard to Addo Elephant National Park. After this Matt undertook a Marie Curie Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Polish Academy of Science’s Mammal Research Institute in Białowieża Primeval Forest. He then moved back to Australia to work as the Australian Wildlife Conservancy’s regional ecologist for six reserves in south-eastern Australia covering over 700,000ha and ranging from the deserts of Lake Eyre through the mallee to Sydney’s North Head where reintroduction, ecosystem services, feral eradication/control and fire management were key research issues. Most recently, Matt lectured at Bangor University in beautiful North Wales where his research teams were working on reintroducing red squirrels and pine marten; ascertaining the impact of pine marten on squirrels; the context dependence of humans on wolf ecology; spatial ecology of peccaries, leopards and elephants; invasive snakes; and the impact of neonicotinoids on fossorial mammals. Matt moved to the University of Newcastle in 2017 where he leads the Conservation Science Research Group.

Matt's research interests include the conservation ecology of threatened species, the factors that threaten them and the methods we can use to effectively conserve them. Matt has researched these conservation issues in Australia, South Africa and Poland on marsupials, rodents, reptiles, invertebrates, ungulates and large predators. Matt has published on predator-prey interactions, reintroduction biology, population dynamics, spatial ecology, intra-guild competition, diet, ecosystem services, conservation effectiveness and status assessments. Matt also has experience in conservation management (reintroduction, pest animal control, conservation fencing, fire management) and he has sat on several Australian threatened species recovery teams and is a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (Marsupials and Monotremes; Translocation specialist groups).