Seabrook Island Birders (SIB) hosted an event on Friday November 10, 2023 featuring Dr. Kristina Ramstad, Associate Professor Vertebrate Biology at the University of South Carolina Aiken speaking about how the geologic history of New Zealand has given rise to a myriad of unusual species that are found nowhere else on Earth.
In her talk, Dr Ramstad shared much about the historical and current ecology of New Zealand and the flightless endemic kiwi. She presented her research into inbreeding and sex-biased dispersal in the two rarest kiwi species. If you missed the program, or just want to view again, you can stream it on SIB’s YouTube Channel:
Speaker Biography:
Dr Ramstad is a conservation geneticist. Her work draws on genomic techniques and field based ecological studies to improve our understanding and management of at-risk species.
After studying sockeye salmon in Alaska for both her MSc (University of Washington) and PhD (University of Montana) research, Dr Ramstad moved to New Zealand and spent eight years studying conservation genetics of kiwi. She took up her current role at USCA in 2015 and will tell you that her current research obsession is with the wood storks of the steamy and mysterious swamps of the US South.