Ariel-Micaiah Heswall with a rescued Cook's petrel. (Source: Brian Wijaya)
Ariel-Micaiah Heswall is doing her PhD at the University of Auckland PhD researching how seabirds perceive the threats of lights and plastics. Her interest in birds in general but specifically in seabirds started during her undergraduate at the University of Auckland studying marine science. A Honours degree in Biological Sciences followed, studying seabird sensory ecology: studying how the sizes of seabird sensory features correlate with bycatch numbers. Her most recent work received quite a bit of media attention last year when a high number of seabirds found sitting dazed and confused under street lights in Auckland city. Why does that happen and what can/should we do to prevent this?