Rate My Professor Mel Young

Young's research has yielded significant publications addressing threats to yellow-eyed penguins. Key works include 'Risks, resources, and refugia: Spatial overlap between yellow-eyed penguin foraging distribution and prey, commercial fisheries, and marine protected areas' (2023), documenting a 26.4 percent overlap between penguin foraging habitats and commercial gillnet fisheries from 2017 to 2019; 'Population genomics of yellow-eyed penguins uncovers subspecies divergence and candidate genes linked to respiratory distress syndrome' (2025); 'High-coverage genomes to elucidate the evolution of penguins' (2019); 'Quantifying climate change impacts emphasises the importance of managing regional threats in the endangered Yellow-eyed penguin' (2017); 'Species in the faeces: DNA metabarcoding as a method to determine the diet of the endangered yellow-eyed penguin' (2020); and 'Phylogenomic Characterization of a Novel Corynebacterium Species Associated with Fatal Diphtheritic Stomatitis in Endangered Yellow-Eyed Penguins' (2021). Additional studies cover avian influenza surveillance, Eimeria prevalence, craniofacial deformities, and investigator disturbance effects on breeding success. Her findings have influenced hoiho conservation strategies, highlighting fisheries bycatch, disease, diet shifts, and climate effects, while supporting partnerships with Ngāi Tahu for guardianship and subspecies recognition.