Within my contributions to the field of nutritional ecology, I have been developing novel techniques to translate and expand well-established laboratory-based nutritional concepts using nutritional geometry to a challenging field-based approach using free-ranging organisms. The foundations of this work are reflected in frameworks for research in nutritional ecology in marine and terrestrial environments.

In order to better understand foraging decisions in free-ranging animals, I pioneered work linking cutting-edge miniaturize cameras and GPS developed by an engineering team under my lead. With collaborators and students, we deployed cameras in free-ranging (e.g. kangaroos, seabirds and dolphins) and semi-captive species (e.g. dogs and cows).

This project includes work that established a benchmark to unravel the amount of nutrients consumed per foraging attempt by a wild marine predator. We have also become the first worldwide team to successfully develop and deploy a sensor integrated miniaturize camera in free-ranging dolphins that has attracted extensive media coverage, including a YouTube video with more than 18K views https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuMGWinKUkw.

Selected publications

Börger L, Bijleveld A, Fayet AL, Machovsky-Capuska GE, Patrick SC, Street GM, Vander Wal E (2020). Editorial: Biologging Special Feature. Journal of Animal Ecology, 89:6-15. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13163. (IF 4.5)

Herbert CA, Dassis M, Pye M, Jones P, Leong PHW, Thomas G, Cope H, Jarman A, Hobbs R, Murray PE, Machovsky-Capuska GE (2020). Development of light-weight video-tracking technology for use in wildlife research: A case study on kangaroos. Australian Zoologist. https://doi.org/10.7882/AZ.2020.001. (IF 0.5)

Pearson H, Jones PW, Taelor PB, Stockin AK, Machovsky-Capuska GE (2019). A biologging perspective to the drivers that shape gregariousness in dolphins. Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology, 73:155. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-019-2763-z. (IF 2.5)

Pearson H, Jones P, Srinivasan M, Lundquist D, Pearson C, Stockin AK, Machovsky-Capuska GE (2017). Animal-borne video cameras as a tool for unraveling hidden behaviours in wild small cetaceans. Marine Biology. 164:42. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-017-3079-z . (IF 2.5)

Bombara C, Dürr S, Machovsky-Capuska GE, Jones P, Ward MP (2017). A preliminary study to estimate contact rates between free-roaming domestic dogs using novel miniature cameras. PLoS One, 12:7. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0181859 . (IF 3.0)

Machovsky-Capuska GE, Priddel D, Leong PHW, Jones P, Carlile N, Shannon L, Portelli D, McEwan A, Chaves A, Raubenheimer D (2016). Coupling bio-logging with nutritional geometry to reveal novel insights into the foraging behaviour of a plunge-diving marine predator. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 50:418-432. https://doi.org/10.1080/00288330.2016.1152981 . (IF 1.1)