Catherine’s research aims to solve conservation and wildlife management challenges using animal behaviour. She focusses on the ecological significance of olfaction to manipulate olfactory-driven processes, such as foraging, in mammals. Her research has already demonstrated ecologically powerful effects; developing a novel technique to reduce predator impacts without the need to kill predators, reducing black rat predation on birds’ nests by 62% using olfactory pre-exposure alone (Price & Banks 2012 PNAS). Her research has been applied internationally and resulted in new non-lethal techniques to increase shorebird nesting success. She has also worked extensively on threatened species in Australia, such as endangered Bush Stone-curlews (a ground-nesting bird) and urban populations of Long-nosed Bandicoots (a critical weight range marsupial). Catherine collaborates with local and international research and conservation organisations, including in Australia, the UK, New Zealand and Indonesia, and is now applying an understanding of herbivore foraging behaviour to reduce browsing damage in Australia and human-wildlife conflict in Indonesia.
