When I was a little kid, I used to help my mum breed and raise rabbits for showing. Back then, I wanted to be involved solely because of how cute baby rabbits were (pretty good excuse if you ask me). It was no surprise to anyone but myself that this would be the beginning of a career in zoology!

I was born and raised locally in Hobart, and though not initially aware of it myself, I was always looking for an excuse to bring my animals into school for show and tell or to a community group, so I could talk about how to raise them correctly and how to tell them all apart. When I got to college, I thought to myself, “it wouldn’t be a bad job working with animals, I’d get paid to play with them!”. I attended the University of Tasmania, completing a Bachelor of Science with a double major in Zoology and Geography following college.

What really caught my attention though was how fascinating and complex animals are, from their behaviour, to the way they move and the way the interact with each other. I ended up doing a project in honours focusing on how a mother’s hormones during pregnancy could affect her babies behaviour and development. Complicated but fascinating stuff, who knew so much of our life can be determined by our mum’s hormones?

Currently I teach practical classes at the University, with a major focus on practical classes and field trips for undergraduate zoology. Teaching people about animals is such an amazing experience, the reactions you get when you tell someone an obscure fact is priceless (Jellyfish don’t have a brain!) I love to share strange things that I know about animals when we see them, and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

 

For further information: www.utas.edu.au/science-engineering-technology/biological-sciences