Name Lindy Lumsden | ||
Little forest bat eating a mealworm
Lindy Lumsden (born 1955) is a principal research scientist with the Department of Environment and Primary Industries (Victoria), at the Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, in Melbourne, Australia.
Contents
- Little forest bat eating a mealworm
- Early life and education
- Career
- Awards
- Scientific expeditions
- Professional societies
- Co supervision of Honours Masters and PhD students
- Conference presentations
- References
Early life and education
Born in Foster, Victoria, in 1955, Lindy completed a Bachelor of Science, with a major in Zoology, at the University of Melbourne in 1975. She received her PhD from Deakin University in 2004, with her thesis on 'The ecology and conservation of insectivorous bats in rural landscapes'.
Career
Lindy began her career in 1979, working as a technical officer surveying the vertebrate fauna of the Western Port catchment, with the Museum of Victoria. She has worked at the Arthur Rylah Institute (ARI) since 1982. Her first roles were with the Wildlife Survey Team, conducting mammal surveys throughout Victoria to inform land-use planning decisions by the Land Conservation Council, including the Melbourne-2 area. From 1991-1994 Lindy undertook a major project on the conservation of insectivorous bats in remnant vegetation in rural environments in northern Victoria. From 1995 – 2000 she was part of an extensive collaborative project in the Box-Ironbark region of Victoria investigating extinction processes affecting vertebrate fauna. At this time Lindy also undertook consultancies on bats within Victoria and throughout Australia, including on Christmas Island. As part of this, Lindy prepared the Christmas Island Pipistrelle Recovery Plan.
From 2004 – 2008, Lindy was program leader of the Threatened Fauna Species Program at ARI, managing several staff and targeted research projects, working on many collaborative projects. Since November 2008, Lindy has been the principal research scientist and Section Leader of the Wildlife Ecology Section at ARI, managing a team of scientists and technical staff, and responsible for many projects. Lindy led the key government priority project 'A New Strategic Approach to Biodiversity Management', developing an effective landscape approach to the management of threatened species that provides opportunities for sustainable timber production while managing biodiversity at a landscape scale. This work resulted in innovative developments in survey methods for cryptic forest fauna.
Lindy's research projects have included investigating the conservation requirements of bats in agricultural landscapes in Victoria. Overall, Lindy has published 34 journal articles, 39 book sections; 27 popular articles and notes; and more than 28 unpublished reports.
Lindy is passionate about changing people's attitudes to bats, which are a poorly understood group of native fauna. She delivers large numbers of presentations to community groups and university students, and runs courses and field days on the conservation of bats (over the last 20 years she has averaged 25 presentations per year). She has undertaken many radio interviews on ABC radio throughout Australia and internationally (Radio Australia) and her work has been reported in Melbourne and rural newspapers. Her research on bats in farmland areas was featured on the ABC TV program Catalyst.
Awards
Scientific expeditions
Lindy has contributed to 16 scientific expeditions overseas or in remote areas of Australia, to investigate the ecology and conservation of the bat fauna in these region. This has included helping to train bat ecologists in other countries in new research techniques and approaches (e.g. in Taiwan and Swaziland).