School of Botany and Zoology

Diana Fisher Postdoctoral Fellow Email: fraenata@hotmail.com or d.fisher@uq.edu.au Telephone: 61-2-6125 4946 Facsimile: 61-2-6125 5573

Background
I started working on the ecology of carnivorous marsupials first as an honours student at the University of Sydney. Before moving to the University of Queensland to do a PhD on ecology and behaviour of bridled nailtail wallabies, I spent three years doing several applied projects for the Australian museum (on bats) and various Environment Departments (on marsupials). After my PhD, I stayed in Brisbane to do a one-year project on comparative ecology, life history and conservation of marsupials. After that, I went to Scotland for a year to investigate dispersal of water voles at the University of Aberdeen. I then moved to the USA (Wisconsin then California) for a year, before finally ending up in Canberra, where I am looking at carnivorous marsupials again.

Main current research topics
Causes of multiple mating in female agile antechinuses, evolution of life histories in carnivorous marsupials.

Research interests
The topics I have worked on include-

• Behavioural ecology, particularly social organisation, mating systems and maternal care in mammals.
• Evolution of marsupial life histories.
• Ecological convergence between marsupials and eutherian mammals.
• Ecological field experiments and census methods in conservation biology.
• Comparative analysis of ecology and behaviour of marsupials, using phylogenetically independent contrasts.
• Population ecology of mammals, particularly demography and dispersal.
• Conservation biology and causes of declines in Australian mammals.

Most recently I have been focussing on the evolution of mating systems, social organisation, and life histories of marsupials. I am interested in testing existing hypotheses and generating new questions using two different approaches: 1) experimental behavioural ecology in the field and in the lab (currently manipulating the mating system of female antechinuses in captivity and investigating fitness consequences in the wild, at Kioloa on the NSW South Coast), and 2) phylogenetic comparative methods.

Publications (2004-06)
Fisher, D.O., M.C. Double, S.P. Blomberg, M.D. Jennions and A. Cockburn. (2006) Post-mating sexual selection increases lifetime fitness of polyandrous females in the wild. Nature 444: 89-92
(2nd November).

Fisher, D., Double, M., Moore, B., (2006) "Number of mates and timing of mating affect offspring growth in the small marsupial Antechinus agilis ", Animal Behaviour, Vol 71, pp 289-297.

Fisher, D., Cockburn, A., (2006) "The large-male advantage in brown antechinuses: female choice, male dominance, and delayed male death", Behavioral Ecology, Vol 17, pp 164-171.

Johnson, C.N., J.L. Isaac, and D.O. Fisher. (2006) Rarity of a top predator triggers continent-wide collapse of mammal prey: dingoes and marsupials in Australia. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2006.3711.Fisher, D., (2005) "Population density and presence of the mother are related to natal dispersal in male and female Antechinus stuartii ", Australian Journal of Zoology, Vol 53, pp 103-110.

Fisher, D., Cockburn, A., (2005) "The large-male advantage in brown antechinuses: female choice, male dominance, and delayed male death", Behavioral Ecology, Vol 17, pp 164-171.

Fisher, D., Owens, I., (2004) "The comparative method in conservation biology", Trends in Ecology and Evolution, Vol 19, Issue 7, pp 391-398.