Staff

Dr Raylene Cooke

Raylene is a lecturer in Wildlife and Conservation Biology at Deakin University and the supervisor of a number of PhD and Honours research projects. Raylene has been undertaking research on raptors since 1995 and this research has concentrated primarily on nocturnal raptors, with a focus on Powerful Owls.

Raylene completed her PhD in 2001 and her PhD research investigated different ecological attributes of Powerful Owls in a continuum of habitats throughout the Yarra Valley Corridor of Victoria. These habitats ranged from highly urbanized, through the urban fringe to relatively undisturbed closed forests.

Since completion of her PhD Raylene has continued research on Australia raptors and now supervisors students working on different raptor species across Victoria.                                          

Please contact Raylene Cooke if you are interested in knowing more about the groups research or because you are interested in honours and PhD opportunities.

Dr John White

John is a senior lecturer in Wildlife and Conservation Biology on the Burwood campus of Deakin University.  John has been involved in research within the raptor research group for several years.  His main areas of interest are how raptors respond to urbanization processes and ultimately how to manage for any negative impacts. 

Another area of research comes out of Johns interest in pest ecology.  Australia has suffered extensive changes to it’s biota due to introduced predators such as the red fox.  These predators have presumably also had impacts on top-order predators such as owls through direct competition for prey.  The question then arises as to how native top order predators such as owls may respond to the removal of introduced predators such as foxes.                                          

Please contact John White if you are interested in knowing more about the groups research or because you are interested in honours and PhD opportunities.