Rate My Professor Matthew Hayward

Professor Matthew Hayward is Professor of Conservation Science in the School of Environmental and Life Sciences at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He holds a PhD from the University of New South Wales, where his research focused on the conservation ecology of the quokka (Setonix brachyurus) in Western Australian jarrah forests, revealing the impacts of foxes and fire on population dynamics, which informed the Department of Environment and Conservation's Quokka Recovery Plan. Prior to his current role since 2017, where he leads the Conservation Science Research Group, Hayward served as regional ecologist for the Australian Wildlife Conservancy managing over 700,000 hectares across six reserves, held senior lecturer and lecturer positions at Bangor University researching reintroductions of red squirrels and pine martens along with spatial ecology of leopards, elephants, and others, and completed postdoctoral fellowships including a Marie Curie Fellowship at the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Mammal Research Institute in Białowieża Primeval Forest. Earlier, he assessed lion carrying capacity in South Africa’s Addo Elephant National Park, linking predator densities to prey availability, and worked as an environmental consultant, conservation manager, and researcher for NGOs and government agencies in Australia, South Africa, and Poland.

An applied conservation scientist, Hayward collaborates with managers in private, non-governmental, and government sectors to address challenges like predator-prey interactions, reintroduction biology, population dynamics, spatial ecology, and conservation effectiveness across marsupials, ungulates, and large carnivores. Dubbed the world’s leading lion scientist, his work emphasizes biodiversity persistence amid threats from human overpopulation including habitat loss, invasives, climate change, pollution, and overharvesting. Current projects partner with the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water on species such as the broad-toothed rat (Mastacomys fuscus), green-and-golden bell-frog (Litoria aurea), parma wallaby (Macropus parma), greater glider (Petauroides volans), eastern pygmy possum (Cercartetus nanus), and Littlejohn’s tree frog (Litoria littlejohni), and with Parks Australia on introduced rodent management at Norfolk Island National Park. He developed the BIOMON sensor network for real-time biodiversity monitoring of birds, bats, and frogs. Hayward has authored over 200 scientific articles and books, including SAVING BIODIVERSITY: Threats, Strategies, and Big Ideas (2025), Only the largest terrestrial carnivores increase their dietary breadth with increasing prey richness (Mammal Review, 2020), and Lions (Panthera leo) prefer killing certain cattle (Bos taurus) types (Animals, 2020). He serves on Australian threatened species recovery teams and IUCN Species Survival Commission groups for marsupials, monotremes, and translocations.