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Colin Miskelly

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New Zealand ornithologist

Colin Miskelly
Born1962/1963 (age 61–62)
Alma materUniversity of Canterbury
Known forNew Zealand Birds Online website
AwardsCranwell Medal (2024)
Scientific career
FieldsOrnithology
InstitutionsDepartment of Conservation
Te Papa
ThesisSocial and Environmental Constraints on Breeding by New Zealand Snipe Coenocorypha aucklandica (1989)

Colin Miskelly (born 1962/1963) is a New Zealand ornithologist and museum curator.

Biography

Miskelly's father was a mechanical engineer and his mother was a nurse. At the age of 13 he became a member of the Ornithological Society of New Zealand, and at age 15, he spent six weeks on the Chatham Islands on an expedition focussed on the Chatham Island tāiko (Pterodroma magentae). In 1983 he received a Queen Elizabeth II Commonwealth Scholarship. From November 1983 to January 1984, alongside Don Merton, he was part of a team of conservationists who witnessed a successful breeding season of the Chatham Islands black robin (Petroica traversi) on Rangatira Island. During this period the total population was doubled from nine to 18 individuals. In 1985, Miskelly received a Bachelor of Science degree summa cum laude from the University of Canterbury. After studying for a doctorate at the same university, he received his Ph.D. in 1989 with the dissertation Social and Environmental Constraints on Breeding by New Zealand Snipe Coenocorypha aucklandica. He has spent six summers on the Snares Islands studying snipe.

From February 1991 to May 2010, Miskelly was a conservancy advisory scientist, technical support manager, and conservation analyst with the Department of Conservation (DOC), including representing DOC on the board of the Karori Sanctuary Trust (the operator of Zealandia) from 1998 to 2010. He then moved to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, where he became curator of vertebrates. He was the driving force behind the creation of the New Zealand Birds Online website, launched in 2013. Over a hundred expert authors and over 500 photographers have been involved in creating this digital encyclopedia, which records all of New Zealand's bird species (extant or extinct). As of December 2024, Miskelly remains as the site administrator.

Miskelly's special area of interest is the New Zealand snipe (Coenocorypha). In 2002, a revision of the genus carried out in collaboration with Trevor Worthy led to the elevation of the former subspecies Coenocorypha aucklandica iredalei, Coenocorypha aucklandica huegeli and Coenocorypha aucklandica barrierensis to species status. In 2010 he and Allan J. Baker (1943–2014) described the subspecies Coenocorypha aucklandica perseverance.

In 2018, Miskelly was part of a team of scientists that first described the critically endangered diving petrel species Whenua Hou diving petrel (Pelecanoides whenuahouensis) from Codfish Island / Whenua Hou. This taxon was originally considered a population of the broad-billed guillemot petrel (Pelecanoides georgicus).

Over the period November 2023 to March 2024, Miskelly undertook a trek along the full 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi) length of the Te Araroa Trail from Cape Reinga to Bluff making observations of birds at 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) intervals along the way. The observations were reported progressively in blog posts during the walk.

Selected publications

Scholia has a profile for Colin Miskelly (Q21502965).

Selected articles

Miskelly has written or contributed to numerous articles for the journal Notornis, including:

Books

In 2008 he edited the book Chatham Islands: Heritage and Conservation.

In 2020, along with co-author Craig Symes, Miskelly edited a collection of papers entitled Lost Gold: Ornithology of the subantarctic Auckland Islands.

Awards

In 2021, Miskelly and his co-author Craig Symes won the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales Whitley Award for the book Lost Gold: Ornithology of the subantarctic Auckland Islands.

In 2024, Miskelly was elected as a Fellow of the Ornithological Society of New Zealand.

In 2024, Miskelly was awarded the Cranwell Medal by the New Zealand Association of Scientists, for "excellence in communicating science to the general public in any area of science or technology".

References

  1. ^ Macdonald, Nikki (14 July 2018). "National Portrait: Colin Miskelly, Te Papa curator and bird expert". Stuff. Retrieved 27 November 2024.
  2. Miskelly, Colin M. (1989). Social and environmental constraints on breeding by New Zealand snipe Coenocorypha aucklandica (PhD thesis). University of Canterbury. doi:10.26021/8271. hdl:10092/5822.
  3. "Colin Miskelly". researchgate.net. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
  4. Quirke, Michelle (26 February 2002). "It's just that time of the year for scruffy, grumpy penguins". Dominion. p. 3. ProQuest 315393884.
  5. "Congratulations to all of our 2024 NZAS Award winners". New Zealand Association of Scientists. 2024. Retrieved 28 November 2024.
  6. "Greater prominence given to Māori bird names". RNZ. 31 May 2022. Retrieved 28 November 2024.
  7. Worthy, Trevor H.; Miskelly, Colin M.; Ching, Bob (R.) A. (2002). "Taxonomy of North and South Island snipe (Aves: Scolopacidae: Coenocorypha) , with analysis of a remarkable collection of snipe bones from Greymouth, New Zealand". New Zealand Journal of Zoology. 29 (3): 231–244. doi:10.1080/03014223.2002.9518307.
  8. Miskelly, C. M.; Baker, A. J. (2010). "Description of a new subspecies of Coenocorypha snipe from subantarctic Campbell Island, New Zealand" (PDF). Notornis. 56 (3): 113–123.
  9. Fischer, Johannes H.; Debski, Igor; Miskelly, Colin M.; Bost, Charles A.; Fromant, Aymeric; Tennyson, Alan J. D.; Tessler, Jake; Cole, Rosalind; Hiscock, Johanna H.; Taylor, Graeme A.; Wittmer, Heiko U. (2018). "Analyses of phenotypic differentiations among South Georgian Diving Petrel (Pelecanoides georgicus) populations reveal an undescribed and highly endangered species from New Zealand". PLOS ONE. 13 (6): e0197766. Bibcode:2018PLoSO..1397766F. doi:10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0197766. PMID 29949581.
  10. "Ornithologist Colin Miskelly walking the length of Aotearoa". RNZ. 30 October 2023.
  11. "Chatham Islands". The New Zealand Herald. 10 March 2009. ProQuest 430302574.
  12. "Chatham Islands: Heritage and conservation". University of Canterbury. 20 November 2023. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
  13. "Birds of the Auckland Islands - Colin Miskelly: Lost Gold". RNZ. 13 May 2020. Retrieved 28 November 2024.
  14. "Lost Gold: Ornithology of the subantarctic Auckland Islands". TePapaStore. Retrieved 28 November 2024.
  15. "Whitley Awards 2021". Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales. Retrieved 28 November 2024.
  16. "Colin Miskelly – a fine Fellow". Te Papa’s Blog. 1 December 2024. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
  17. "Colin Miskelly Elected as a Fellow of the Ornithological Society of New Zealand" (PDF). Birds New Zealand (43): 13. September 2024.
  18. "New Zealand Association Of Scientists Awards Celebrate The Achievements Of Scientists And Our Science System". Scoop. 25 November 2024. Retrieved 27 November 2024.

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