Andrew Digby

Digby has a Natural Sciences B.A. (Hons.) from Cambridge and a PhD in astronomy from the University of Edinburgh with a thesis assessing the formation of the galaxy through low-mass stars. He has jointly published numerous papers relating to the detection of dark matter,[1][2] the luminosity of stars,[3] and exoplanet imaging and spectroscopy.[4] In 2003 he was appointed as the NASA Michelson Postdoctoral Fellow[5] at the Department of Astrophysics, American Museum of Natural History, New York where his research contributed to the design and construction of a coronagraph to directly image planets around other stars.[6]

Digby moved to New Zealand in 2006. He spent several years with the New Zealand meteorological service as a research scientist in the Forecasting Research group, then he began a PhD in Conservation Biology at Victoria University of Wellington in 2009. His thesis is titled Whistling in the Dark: An Acoustic Study of Little Spotted Kiwi. He combines all his skills in his present work using acoustic monitoring to track the behaviour of birds in the wild.

He works for New Zealand Department of Conservation in recovery programs for the Kākāpō[7] and Takahē,[8] two endangered birds endemic to New Zealand, and believes he has the perfect job:

“It’s every conservation biologist’s dream: the application of a wide variety of scientific fields and methods to make a real difference to the survival of an endangered species.”[9]

Digby is keen to spread the conservation message: he returned to his alma mater, Cambridge University, to talk about his current projects in July 2016,[10] he has published extensively in the scientific and popular press including New Scientist,[11] and local newspapers and radio.[12] He was invited to speak at the New Zealand Skeptics Conference in Queenstown in December 2016.[13]

The Kiwi, a flightless bird with a long beak was the subject of Digby's PhD. His discovery that the birds harmonise their calls to defend their territory is claimed to be the first example of vocal coordination in birds.[14] During his study, Digby used sound recorders and video cameras to track incubation. Unexpectedly, one breeding pair that produced two chicks were found to be the Little Spotted Kiwi, the smallest kiwi and very vulnerable.[15]

Kakapo Pura on Codfish Island..

Kakapo Recovery is a project of the New Zealand Department of Conservation utilising the skills of scientists, rangers and volunteers to protect and boost the numbers of the endangered Kakapo, a flightless parrot. From only 18 individuals in the 1970s, the projects breeding and research program has boosted numbers to a population 209 adults living on a predator-free islands (2020).[10] Since February 2016, surviving kākāpō are kept on three predator-free islands, Whenua Hou/Codfish, Anchor and Hauturu-o-Toi/Little Barrier islands, where they are closely monitored.[16] In 2016 a record 47 chicks hatched and 33 were fledged.[17] Digby promoted the idea to crowd fund a project to sequence the genome of every living adult kakapo as well as the genomes of 55 long-dead museum specimens from around the world.[18] This will be the first time genomes will be sequenced for an entire species population and will allow the breeding program to be refined and improved.[19]

Takahe in Zealandia in Wellington.

The Takahē is a stout, flightless bird which was thought extinct but found again in 1948 in the remote Murchison Mountains, Fiordland. Conservation efforts have continued but the birds still remain critically endangered with currently 300 adults known.[20] Digby is the scientist on the Takahē Recovery project giving advice on topics such as population dynamics, genetics, predator-prey interactions, avian diseases, and trials of new transmitters.[21]