Peter Menkhorst is an Australian ecologist and an authority on Australian mammals and birds. He is experienced in wildlife management, including management of over-abundant Koalas, and in threatened species recovery; he has developed recovery plans and led recovery teams for a number of species including the

Orange-bellied Parrot The orange-bellied parrot (''Neophema chrysogaster'') is a small parrot endemic to southern Australia, and one of only three species of parrot that migrate. It was described by John Latham in 1790. A small parrot around long, it exhibits sex ...

;

Helmeted Honeyeater The helmeted honeyeater (''Lichenostomus melanops cassidix'') is a passerine bird in the honeyeater family. It is a distinctive and critically endangered subspecies of the yellow-tufted honeyeater, that exists in the wild only as a tiny relict p ...

Regent Honeyeater The regent honeyeater (''Anthochaera phrygia'') is a critically endangered bird endemic to southeastern Australia. It is commonly considered a flagship species within its range, with the efforts going into its conservation having positive effe ...

Mountain Pygmy Possum The mountain pygmy possum (''Burramys parvus''); also simply known as the burramys, is a small, mouse-sized (weighs ) nocturnal marsupial of Australia found in dense alpine rock screes and boulder fields, mainly southern Victoria and around Moun ...

and

Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby The brush-tailed rock-wallaby or small-eared rock-wallaby (''Petrogale penicillata'') is a kind of wallaby, one of several rock-wallabies in the genus ''Petrogale''. It inhabits rock piles and cliff lines along the Great Dividing Range from ab ...

. Menkhorst is also a natural history author and recently co-authored The Australian Bird Guide. Neophema_chrysogaster_female_-_Melaleuca

Career

Menkhorst graduated in 1973 with a Bachelor of Science from

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university has a ...

majoring in Botany and Zoology. He has over 40 years experience in fauna survey and ecological research conducted for the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning and its predecessors. In 2018 he was a program leader in the Community Ecology Section at the

Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research The Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research (ARI) is the biodiversity research organisation for the government of Victoria, Australia. It provides advice on ecologically sustainable land and water management issues and with regard to th ...

, leading the Waterbird and Wetland Program. The Waterbird and Wetland program is collecting and analysing long time-series of data from natural and artificial wetlands across Victoria including

Western Port Western Port, (Boonwurrung: ''Warn Marin'') commonly but unofficially known as Western Port Bay, is a large tidal bay in southern Victoria, Australia, opening into Bass Strait. It is the second largest bay in the state. Geographically, it is do ...

, Port Phillip,

Western Treatment Plant The Western Treatment Plant (formerly the Metropolitan Sewage Farm or, more commonly, the Werribee Sewage Farm) is a sewage treatment plant in Cocoroc, Victoria, Australia, west of Melbourne's central business district, on the coast of Port Ph ...

and Murray Valley to understand the impact of weather patterns and management of land and water on bird populations. The aim is to understand these systems and in doing so help improve conservation outcomes. The team also assists in the management of Duck Hunting in Victoria Brush-tailed-rock-wallaby-4

Publications

Menkhorst has authored or co-authored field guides to both the birds and the mammals of Australia and has written many scientific papers and unpublished reports - see Google Scholar or Research Gate. Books by Peter Menkhorst Include: * Mammals of Victoria : Ecology, Distribution and Conservation * Field Guide to Mammals of Australia * The Australian Bird Guide Menkhorst has also reviewed numerous books for Australian Book Review. Titles reviewed include: Sentinel Chicken by Nobel Laureate Peter Doherty, Where Songs Began by

Tim Low Tim Low (born 1956) is an Australian biologist and author of articles and books on nature and conservation ethic, conservation. His seventh book, ''Where Song Began: Australia's Birds and How They Changed the World'', became the first nature book e ...

and Platypus by

Ann Moyal Ann Veronica Helen Moyal AM FRSN FAHA (née Hurley, formerly Cousins and Mozley; 23 February 1926 – 21 July 2019) was an Australian historian known for her work in the history of science. She held academic positions at the Australian Natio ...

Awards

* 1998

Australian Natural History Medallion The Australian Natural History Medallion is awarded each year by the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria (FNCV) to the person judged to have made the most meritorious contribution to the understanding of Australian Natural History. The idea origina ...

*2017 Whitley Medal - Royal Zoological Society of NSW *2019 Australian Honours List Public Service Medal

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Menkhorst, Peter Living people Australian ecologists Australian ornithologists Year of birth missing (living people)