Thomas Mattern

PeerJ Author

Summary

Marine ecologist with research emphasis on behaviour of seabirds. 15 years of experience in planning, leading and executing field work and research projects in New Zealand and Chile. Research focus on foraging & spatial ecology, demography and population dynamics, personality traits of seabirds. Further research interest development of novel analysis methods and software tools to handle large data sets (‘big data’) via cloud-based computing solutions and crowdsourcing.

Animal Behavior Bioinformatics Computational Biology Conservation Biology Databases Ecology Ecosystem Science Environmental Sciences Marine Biology Programming Languages Scientific Computing & Simulation Zoology

Past or current institution affiliations

University of Otago

Work details

Research Fellow

University of Otago

am a movement ecologist and for the past 20 years have been applying various bio-logging and wildlife telemetry technologies to study the at-sea behaviour of seabirds. My work also encompasses demography and population dynamics as well as physiological consequences of human disturbance on wildlife. I focus primarily on New Zealand penguins and have worked with all our endemic species but have also contributed to other seabird research in South America, Australia, Antarctica, and the Russian Arctic. Together with my wife Ursula Ellenberg I lead the Tawaki Project (www.tawaki-project.org), a long-term study of Fiordland penguins/tawaki and other crested penguins. I am also the chair of the charitable Tawaki Trust which aims at improving our understanding and conservation of New Zealand's crested penguin species.

Chair of the board

The Tawaki Trust

December 2021

Global Penguin Society

January 2015

Identities

@TawakiProject

Websites

Tawaki Project

July 10, 2025

A Jack of All Trades—Tawaki/Fiordland penguins are able to utilise diverse marine habitats during winter migration

Thomas Mattern, Klemens Pütz, Pablo Garcia Borboroglu, Ursula Ellenberg, David M. Houston, Bernhard Lüthi, Philip J. Seddon

https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.19695 PubMed 40656952

July 7, 2025

Inter-colony and inter-annual behavioural plasticity in the foraging strategies of a fjord-dwelling penguin—good news in the face of environmental change?

Myrene Otis, Thomas Mattern, Ursula Ellenberg, Robin Long, Pablo Garcia Borboroglu, Philip J. Seddon, Yolanda van Heezik

https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.19650 PubMed 40642328

January 28, 2025

Correction factors for prey size estimation from PenguCams

Owen Dabkowski, Ursula Ellenberg, Thomas Mattern, Klemens Pütz, Pablo Garcia Borboroglu

https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.18598 PubMed 39897498

September 19, 2018

High definition video loggers provide new insights into behaviour, physiology, and the oceanic habitat of a marine predator, the yellow-eyed penguin

Thomas Mattern, Michael D. McPherson, Ursula Ellenberg, Yolanda van Heezik, Philipp J. Seddon

https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5459 PubMed 30258706

May 16, 2017

Quantifying climate change impacts emphasises the importance of managing regional threats in the endangered Yellow-eyed penguin

Thomas Mattern, Stefan Meyer, Ursula Ellenberg, David M. Houston, John T. Darby, Melanie Young, Yolanda van Heezik, Philip J. Seddon

https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3272 PubMed 28533952

March 10, 2018 - Version: 1

Like clockwork - nest attendance patterns and foraging behaviour of Snares penguins Eudyptes robustus as a function of daylength and oceanography

Thomas Mattern, Ursula Ellenberg, David M Houston, Lloyd S Davis

https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.26653v1

February 16, 2018 - Version: 1

Marathon penguins – reasons and consequences of long-range dispersal in Fiordland penguins / Tawaki during the pre-moult period

Thomas Mattern, Klemens Pütz, Pablo Garcia-Borboroglu, Ursula Ellenberg, David M Houston, Robin Long, Benno Lüthi, Philip J Seddon

https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.26527v1

March 6, 2017 - Version: 2

High definition video loggers provide new insights into behaviour, physiology, and the oceanic habitat of marine top predators

Thomas Mattern, Michael D McPherson, Ursula Ellenberg, Yolanda van Heezik, Philipp J Seddon

https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.2765v2