Season 1, Episode 5 - Reproduction in Australian Wildlife

Updated: Nov 30, 2023

All the important links, repro news and guest bios from this month's episode

Guests

Dr Jane Fenelon

Dr Jane Fenelon is a Research Fellow investigating the reproduction and development of marsupials and monotremes at the University of Melbourne. She was awarded her PhD from the University of Melbourne in 2011 and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Montreal from 2012-2015 and the University of Ottawa from 2015-2017.

Her research has two main focuses. The first is the reproduction and development of the echidna. The echidna is one of the few egg-laying mammals worldwide and this is the first in-depth study of its kind. Her second focus is on embryonic diapause, the ability of some mammals to temporarily pause their pregnancy. Her research investigates how maternal-embryo communication coordinates this process and the implications of this for pregnancy in all mammals, including humans.

Early Career Researcher Spotlight

Dr Marissa Parrott

Dr Marissa Parrott is a reproductive biologist with Zoos Victoria, Marissa completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Melbourne and University of Pretoria, South Africa, and later her PhD from University of Melbourne. Marissa's post-doctoral research examined assisted reproduction and novel techniques to maximise breeding success in captive breeding colonies of marsupials across Australia.

She has more than fifteen years’ experience in field work, five years in molecular genetics laboratories, and fifteen years in research and zoo captive breeding programs. Marissa has experience with a variety of wildlife and conservation programs in Australia, Asia, Africa and the Americas. She has a particular interest in the wildlife of South East Asia, having worked with conservation programs in Borneo and Cambodia, where she assisted with capacity building and wildlife research with Zoos Victoria’s international partners.