Following her interests developed during her Honours year, for her PhD Melanie is investigating
the genetics and population biology of the three species of fur seal on Macquarie Island. These species hybridize on
the island, which is of great significance in two ways: (1) as a study for how species do or not not avoid breeding with
each other, (2) as a study of how human impacts (sealing to extinction) impacts evolutionary trajectories of species.
This project is part of the very successful large program run by Simon
Goldsworthy, Dept of Zoology, La Trobe with the support of the Australian Antarctic Division
