Rate My Professor Carolyn King

Carolyn Mary King is an Emeritus Professor of Zoology specializing in the ecology and management of invasive mammals, particularly small rodents and mustelids such as stoats, weasels, and rats. She earned her DPhil in Zoology from the University of Oxford in 1971 with a thesis on the ecology of the weasel (Mustela nivalis), supervised by H. N. Southern, and later obtained a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Waikato. Her academic career began as a researcher at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) Ecology Division in New Zealand from 1971 to 1977. She joined the University of Waikato in 1995 as Professor of Biological Sciences in the Faculty of Science and Engineering, where she taught and coordinated courses in animal ecology, animal behaviour, advanced zoology, and the philosophy of science until her retirement in 2018, now holding the title of Professor Emeritus.

King's research has profoundly impacted conservation biology in New Zealand, elucidating stoat population irruptions triggered by beech (Nothofagus sp.) seedfalls, the invasion history of introduced predators, and strategies for managing these pests in pursuit of Predator Free 2050 goals. She has authored or co-authored over 200 publications, amassing more than 5,500 citations, including seminal books such as Immigrant Killers: Introduced Predators and the Conservation of Birds in New Zealand (1984), The Natural History of Weasels and Stoats: Ecology, Behavior, and Management (2007, co-authored with Roger A. Powell), The Handbook of New Zealand Mammals (third edition, 2021, co-edited with David Forsyth and published by CSIRO Publishing and Otago University Press), and Invasive Predators in New Zealand: Disaster on Four Small Paws (2019). Her work also extends to biotheology, exploring compatibilities between biology, Christianity, and environmental ethics, as in her book King: An Unnecessary War (2023). King received the New Zealand Ecology Society Te Tohu Taiao Award for Ecological Excellence in 1999, was elected Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi (FRSNZ) in 2018, won the Whitley Book Award for the best zoology handbook in 2021, and was awarded the Thomson Medal in 2025. She served as Senior Editor of the New Zealand Journal of Zoology and has influenced public discourse on invasive species management.