Rate My Professor Fay Morland

Dr. Fay Morland is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Health Sciences Division, University of Otago. She holds an affiliate position in the Department of Anatomy. Prior to her current appointment, Morland completed her PhD at the University of Sheffield, Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, serving as a PhD student from October 2018 to October 2022. Currently, she is a member of the Garratt Laboratory within the Centre for Neuroendocrinology at the University of Otago, where research examines the links between reproduction, life-history traits, health, and ageing, including physiological effects of gonadal-derived hormones, consequences of mating, sex-specific reproduction, brain signals influencing fertility, and metabolic impacts of sex hormones.

Morland's academic interests center on reproduction, fertility, life history, ageing, ecology, and evolution, with a particular emphasis on reproductive failure in birds. Her investigations include distinguishing infertility from early embryo mortality in unfertilised eggs, such as in tara iti (Sternula nereis davisae); demographic drivers of reproductive failure in threatened birds based on a decade of data; early-life telomere length as a predictor of life-history strategy and reproductive senescence in wild songbirds; genetic sampling methods for unhatched bird eggs to include the invisible fraction in population studies; effects of distinct macronutrient ratios on offspring survival, growth, and maternal glucose tolerance across mouse reproduction; and frameworks for identifying known and unknown biases in animal behaviour research. Key publications are: 'Why do eggs fail? Causes of hatching failure in threatened populations and consequences for conservation' (2021, cited by 69); 'Early‐life telomere length predicts life‐history strategy and reproductive senescence in a threatened wild songbird' (2023, cited by 11); 'Demographic drivers of reproductive failure in a threatened bird: Insights from a decade of data' (2024, cited by 6); 'Including the invisible fraction in whole population studies: A guide to the genetic sampling of unhatched bird eggs' (2023, cited by 5); 'Distinguishing infertility from early embryo mortality in “unfertilised” tara iti (Sternula nereis davisae) eggs' (2026); 'Distinct macronutrient ratios optimize offspring survival, growth, and maternal glucose tolerance across mouse reproduction' (2026); and 'Known and Unknown Biases: A Framework for Contextualising and Identifying Bias in Animal Behaviour Research' (2025).