Closing 30 May 2025

The Geospatial Research Institute at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand is now accepting applications for their 2025 scholarship. Learn more and apply here: https://geospatial.ac.nz/jobs-and-scholarships/

Aim: This research aims to track kiwi movements through logging operations to study kiwi behaviour, assess potential risks and inform improved management strategies.

Summary: The North Island brown kiwi is a national icon and taonga species. Although kiwi are often found in commercial forestry plantations, little is known about how harvest operations affect them. This project, in collaboration with Save the Kiwi, the Kiwi Recovery Group, and forestry industry partners, will tag kiwi and track their movements before, during, and after harvest. Using telemetry and advanced movement analytics, we’ll generate detailed spatial data and we hope to develop methods for real-time monitoring using a network of forest-based receivers. By mapping spatial patterns of kiwi behavior, the research can pinpoint risks like territorial displacement or proximity to hazards during logging.

Skills required: The ideal candidate for this PhD position will have experience gathering and processing geospatial data and a track record of conducting independent research (e.g. through having completed a masters research thesis). They will also have experience/interest in ornithology, animal behaviour, forestry management, and/or landscape ecology. We strongly encourage applicants who are from communities in forestry-growing regions of Aotearoa.