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Staff Profile

Dr Richard Bevan

Senior Lecturer in Zoology

Background

Roles and Responsibilities within School

  • Stage 1 Coordinator for Zoology
  • Member of the Board of Studies for Undergraduate Taught Programmes and the School Teaching and Learning Committee
  • Member of the Expeditions Committee

External roles

  • Member of Farne Islands Advisory Committee
  • Mammal Section Coordinator for Natural History Society of Northumbria

Memberships

  • Society for Experimental Biology
  • British Ecological Society

Google Scholar page: http://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=DPNpD0sAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Teaching

Undergraduate Teaching

Module leader

  • NES1304 UK Wildlife

Contributor

  • NES1504 Academic and Professional Skills for the Biosciences
  • NES2311/NES2507 Marine Vertebrates
  • NES2314 Vertebrate Biology
  • BIO2040 Field-based Ecology
  • NES3306 Physiological Zoology
  • NES3313 Africa Field Course
  • NES3505 Undergraduate Research Projects


Postgraduate Teaching

Contributor

  • NES8002 MSc Projects
Research

Research Interests

Animal Ecophysiology: how animals work in the wild.

Knowing how animals interact with their environment both physiologically and behaviourally is vital if we are to understand and interpret their biology. Physiological limitations will affect an animal’s behavioural repertoire while an animal’s behaviour can influence the development of an animal’s physiological limits. By integrating physiological and behavioural studies, we can gain a better understanding of the overall ecology of the animals. Underpinning my work is the use of remote monitoring technology such as heart rate monitoring, electronic data archival devices and satellite telemetry. Specific areas of study include: the physiology, ecology and behaviour of aquatic birds and mammals; energy expenditure of free-ranging animals; foraging behaviour of seabirds; use of stable isotopes to study animal ecology; spatial movements of animals; animal conservation.

Current Projects

Factors affecting the foraging behaviour and reproductive success of seabirds.

To understand these factors better, I am deploying technology to determine the movements and behaviour of seabirds while they are at sea.

Conservation grazing of large herbivores.

The use of cattle, sheep and goats (particularly native breeds) as tools to improve the biodiversity of an area is now fairly common practice but is not always based on scientific evidence. I remotely monitor the herbivores within these schemes and link the movements and behaviour of the animals to their impact on the biodiversity.   

Postgraduate Supervision

I currently supervise:

  • Janine Maddison, co-supervised with Dr Sara Marsham. PhD title "Assessing pedagogic benefits of the virtual world to enhance fieldwork" 
  • Sam Bishop, co-supervised with Prof Per Berggren. MPhil title "Drivers of the spatial distribution, nursing and haul out behaviours of lactating grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) at the Farne Islands, UK"
  • Grace Turner, co-supervised with Dr Marion Pfeiffer. MPhil title "Forest recovery and grazing pressure"

Past students include:


I also supervise UG and PG projects on a variety of topics such as: "The impact of Grey Seals on Atlantic Puffins", "Factors affecting Grey Seal distributions during pupping", "Spatial movements of Cheviot goats"

Publications