Rate My Professor Mel Young

Mel Young is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Zoology at the University of Otago. She holds a PhD in Zoology from the University of Otago, with her doctoral research centered on marine-based stochasticity and its impact upon yellow-eyed penguins on mainland New Zealand. Her academic interests encompass conservation biology, ecology, wildlife conservation, and biodiversity monitoring, with a primary emphasis on the endangered yellow-eyed penguin, known as hoiho or Megadyptes antipodes. Young's career at the University of Otago includes contributions to key ecological studies, such as the first satellite tracking of yellow-eyed penguin juveniles to investigate survival rates, revealing journeys like the 470-kilometer dispersal of chick Takaraha. She has also examined environmental use critical to hoiho protection, including nest camera studies on foraging trip durations and fledgling dispersal patterns.

Young's research has yielded significant publications addressing threats to yellow-eyed penguins. Key works include 'Risks, resources, and refugia: Spatial overlap between yellow-eyed penguin foraging distribution and prey, commercial fisheries, and marine protected areas' (2023), documenting a 26.4 percent overlap between penguin foraging habitats and commercial gillnet fisheries from 2017 to 2019; 'Population genomics of yellow-eyed penguins uncovers subspecies divergence and candidate genes linked to respiratory distress syndrome' (2025); 'High-coverage genomes to elucidate the evolution of penguins' (2019); 'Quantifying climate change impacts emphasises the importance of managing regional threats in the endangered Yellow-eyed penguin' (2017); 'Species in the faeces: DNA metabarcoding as a method to determine the diet of the endangered yellow-eyed penguin' (2020); and 'Phylogenomic Characterization of a Novel Corynebacterium Species Associated with Fatal Diphtheritic Stomatitis in Endangered Yellow-Eyed Penguins' (2021). Additional studies cover avian influenza surveillance, Eimeria prevalence, craniofacial deformities, and investigator disturbance effects on breeding success. Her findings have influenced hoiho conservation strategies, highlighting fisheries bycatch, disease, diet shifts, and climate effects, while supporting partnerships with Ngāi Tahu for guardianship and subspecies recognition.